3 Practical Ways To Organise Your Finances This Winter

With the cost of living crisis raging on in the UK and the pound falling against the dollar, it's little wonder Brits are worried about how they will pay the bills as the temperatures drop. For many people, this means cutting back on the little luxuries they have to ensure they can survive the winter and avoid financial ruin - 81% of Brits reported being worried about their financial situation in a recent survey.

But with everything seemingly rising except wages, how can people realistically assess their finances and ensure they can make all the necessary repayments?

Check Contracts

Firstly, check the end dates of all of your contracts. This can be for service providers such as Sky or Virgin and your mobile phone contracts. If you are close to the end of your contract, you have 2 options.

Contact your provider to haggle on the price or cancel your services and look for pay-as-you-go options such as PAYG sim cards and monthly subscription streaming services such as Now TV or Netflix if you don't watch live TV, but be careful to check the T&C of the TV licence before cancelling to ensure you won't be landed with a fine.

If you have a phone line for broadband, you need to know do you need a phone line to get broadband before cancelling, and the answer is not always!

Stop Interest

Another option is to talk to your creditors and explain you are facing financial hardship and ask if there are any interest relief options on your repayments or an option to reduce what you are paying.

It is always best to be upfront and honest about your financial situation before you fall into difficulties, as there will be more options to help you than once you have missed a few payments.

Determine Your Priorities

If it comes down to needing to cut back on your spending before you start googling "how to save money" and being presented with weird and wonderful meal ideas to feed a family of 5 for £20 a week, you need first to assess your personal situation.

Not everyone is weathering this storm in the same boat, and you need to find out what you need in your boat to keep sailing through.

What are the absolute essentials for your life?

From here, you can look at those things you can possibly go without until you are in a better financial situation. But remember, you need something in your life to enjoy, so if you need to go to the gym for your mental health and cancelling your subscription will be detrimental to you, then look at other things you can compromise on before cancelling it.

The reality is, there is no one right way to cut your bills and improve your financial situation. You must be honest about what you need in your life and what you class as essential to make the hard decisions until you improve your finances.

Control your spending, check your outgoings and be realistic about what savings you can make before overhauling your finances and lifestyle.

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