Citizens Advice North Herts & District
Community Engagement Manager, Catherine Bennett at Citizens Advice North Herts offers budgeting tips…
Firstly, find out exactly what money you have coming in and going out each month. Be realistic about what you need for essentials like food and travel. Then you can set yourself a budget that you can stick to – take a look at the budgeting tool on the Citizens Advice website (www.citizensadvice.org.uk) to help you do this.
Make sure you’re getting all the income you’re entitled to. Again, this where a visit to our website can help. Use the income checker to see if you could be getting more support, such as benefits or government grants.
If you’ve been using credit cards, your overdraft or store cards for your spending, it’s understandable if these debts are causing you worry. It’s important to prioritise paying your rent or mortgage, plus energy bills and Council Tax first though. Not paying these has the most serious consequences. We have advice about which bills you need to prioritise and the support available for paying these and other bills.
Once you have planned how to pay your priority bills, the budgeting tool can help you plan how to repay credit cards, overdraft charges and store cards.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, particularly when it comes to managing personal finances. If you need more specific support or don’t feel able to manage your situation alone, call CANH on 01462 689801 to leave us a message or visit northhertscab.org.uk for opening hours or to email us.
