If you lose your job, money may be desperately tight while you look for work.
To adversely-affect your credit score by missing mortgage, rent or other payments will only add insult to injury, and might make obtaining credit harder in the future.
So let's try and protect it.
So let's try and protect it.
I hope this post (and I'm drawing on personal experience here) may help ease a few financial worries; some of these you may not have thought of as ways to reduce expenditure, or even cut out altogether, to make it a bit easier in helping you to meet the essential outgoings.
First step is to make a budget sheet
The first step to getting your finances under control is to start a Budget Sheet. There are plenty of free templates online, I recommend this one from the Citizens Advice Bureau website. Sometimes called an income and expenditure sheet, when you've completed it you may be shocked at just how much you're spending on food, power and entertainment, and at all the things you can cut back on. Check your list of direct debits to make sure you don't have any old ones you're still shelling out for.
Car Finance Voluntary Termination
If you're part way through a PCP arrangement you may want to consider contacting the finance company for a settlement figure, and if you're over half way to paying off the amount you're legally-entitled to return the vehicle (subject to the usual wear and tear and mileage allowance) and owe nothing more. It will not affect your credit score, although other car finance lenders may be reluctant to do business with you again.
Cancel TV package
If you're outside of contract and are just rolling month on month, you may want to give them a call and cancel. You won't have to miss your favourite Sky TV shows as you can watch them on NOW TV at a fraction of the price. When I found myself out of work, I made a call to Sky to cancel my rolling contract and they offered me half price broadband and 60% off original bundle TV package, so it's worth a call.
Mobile phone swap
If you're in the middle of a contract and if your other half, family member or friend is out of contract and rolling over each month then cancel that contract and get a pay as you go sim, then either give them your phone or sim and you take the pay as you go.
Take a pension holiday
Pension companies generally allow you to pause or decrease the monthly payments as and when required, so it's worth finding out if this avenue is open to you.
Cancel any other unnecessary outgoings
Check your budget sheet again. Are you paying for things you can easily do without in a pinch, such as central heating and boiler cover, life insurance. Check your online banking, are there old direct debits still going out, even though you've cancelled the service. Example, a couple of years back I was paying for two lots of home insurance. So annoyed at myself.
Eat well for less
Okay, so a juicy steak might be out of the question but there's no need to go hungry; but you may be able to save £100s a month simply by doing food swaps, from branded products to supermarket-own. If the idea of eating Tesco beans doesn't appeal, or your wife hates the thought of Boots own-brand conditioner, why not buy for each other and do blind tasting, much like Eat Well For Less on TV. Also see my Cheap Eats section for recipes made from store cupboard staples and items from your deep freeze.
If you need emergency funds
Raid all of your loyalty cards and reward points. Maybe you have Tesco Clubcard or Nectar Points that you can use to buy food, or Boots Advantage points that you can use to get toiletries or cosmetics. Also check for other unused gift cards and wither use them or sell them for cash with Zeek.
If you're worried about debt
Once you've filled out the budget sheet, I guarantee that you'll sleep much better. If you have yet to sort your debts out, don't worry. There's people to help and it's never to late. See the links below, and like everything that you find online, do your own research before acting:
Where To Get Free Debt Advice:
- citizensadvice.org.uk
- stepchange.org
- debtadvicefoundation.org
I hope some of these items can help, and I hope you get fixed up with a new job soon. Care to share your story or have advice, please leave a comment below.
www.daddydeals.co.uk is a journalistic money saving blog and like all advice you find online, you should do your own research before acting. To help fund our time, many posts will contain affiliate links.
