Welcome to Debt Advice Trust Blog

There is a lot of talk about the contribution of parents and schools with regard to teaching children about money - rightly so with the current debt problem the country now faces. What about the responsibility of the banking community as they are the ones that will have to deal with all the defaults?

An excellent idea that was introduced when I was at school was a weekly visit from the Yorkshire bank. We all sat there and listened to information about what having an account there would mean for us as kids and took a letter home to show our parents. Each week a representative of the bank would come round to collect our contributions and it became like a routine.

This was my very first experience of the concept of saving money. It gave me discipline as I paid money in each week and saving as much as possible became like a small competition for us all. It was actually a lot of fun.

This is definitely something that should be re-introduced as part of children's monetary education.

Every extra penny that you earn could go towards clearing debt and making a fresh start. There are many people out there that just do not have the time or have family commitment s so I have created a list of easy options to help you earn that extra bit of cash and helping with your Debt Management

1. Mystery Shopping. You can earn anything from 5 pounds to 40 pounds for basically doing what you would do normally. Assignments are usually set for banks, high street shops, restaurants and bars. Ironically these places are probably what got you in debt in the first place and now you can get paid for going to them. Grass Roots is a great Mystery Shopping company and is always emailing me with new assignments.
2. You can even get a saucy second job, if you have the stomach and the imagination you can be a sex line employee, so with the children out of earshot, you can be doing the ironing and earning money at the same time, there is a thread on this at Money Saving Expert
3. There are plenty of other opportunities of making money at home, if you look in your local paper in the jobs section, there usually are advertisements for working at home, this usually entails stuffing envelopes, making up boxes or entering data on the computer.

1. The first step is to recognise that you are in trouble; you have completed that as you are reading this blog. You are on your way to clear debt
2. Cut up your credit cards and store cards. This can be the hardest step for the majority of people as these cards are viewed as their safety net, but always remember this is probably what has got you in debt in the first place, be brave.
3. Cut down on spending, work out what you need per day as a necessity, set yourself a daily budget and stick to it. Cut down on eating out, buying clothes etc. Avoid places that may encourage you to slip up.
4. Inform your nearest and dearest of your situation, a problem shared is a problem halved, they should encourage you to keep on track, you are less likely to go back to your old ways if you are feeling watched.
5. If you are in serious debt problems, you should get Debt Help; there are debt charities with professional advisers who can point you in the right direction to becoming debt free. There are different options available for you such as a debt consolidation loan, an IVA or maybe just support.

Have debt problems Doing everything you can? Can’t see a way out of your current situation?

Well there are a few more costs you could cut to help you clear debt and look forward to a debt free future that maybe you didn’t realise, here are a few of the main debt offenders.

1. Cigarettes – these days with a packet of smokes costing over £5 a packet, on the premise of a 20 a day habit that equates to over £150 a month – scary isn’t it? So quit, not just for your health but for your pocket.
2. Vending Machines – that odd Mars Bar or Fizzy Drink soon adds up, a friend of mine admitted that he was always broke but when he worked out that he was spending over £35 a month of vending machines he was shocked how quickly it adds up.
3. Credit Card interest – it sounds obvious but so many people don’t realise how much their interest on their cards is costing them. On average a credit card charge of £40 per month in interest amounts to over £450 pounds per year – make sure you prioritise your charges to avoid this costly incurrence.

Think about it, if you’re a smoker in debt to credit cards, who buys good from vending machines – you could be spending over £2700 per year on excessive unnecessary charges and purchases.

Think about your debt and think about how much that amount of money could help reduce it before you light that next cigarette.

It may seem impossible to do anything romantic when you are in Debt, you can’t take a date or loved one to the poshest restaurant in town, but who said spending loads of money was the only way to show love.

Why not try these money saving debt tips to make your date go smoothly and successfully and in turn will help cut those important pounds of your debt.

There are a lot of companies out there who try to scare you into purchasing policies from them when in reality you do not need them. By avoiding these schemes you can start managing debt by prioritising your spending.

You have left this world and stepped through the golden gate in the sky, your family are grieving your loss and after stumping up a on your funeral, they receive a call from your creditors asking for the thousands you have accumulated over the years.

No, debt doesn’t follow you to the grave; your poor next of kin is burdened with the debt. It is all too common for people to accumulate debt with little or no thought for the future. A great number of people believe that when you die, your debts will be written off. This is, not the case. In fact, the death of the debtor has little effect on the debt itself.

Being confronted by debt after losing a partner is particularly difficult to cope with because on top of their financial problems they are suffering from emotional trauma.

If you are in debt now start looking how to rectify the problem, before you pass it on to someone else. Maybe look at an IVA. IVA stands for Individual Voluntary Arrangement. It is one of the most popular Debt solutions being used in the UK. The benefits of an IVA when compared to Bankruptcy are many, but you should talk to a trained expert to find out which debt solution is best for you.

I am a smoking; ironically I am also in debt. I have always thought of smoking as an expensive habit, but until today, I never realised the extremity of wasted money. I t really is in comparison to reaching into my pocket, pulling out a five pound note, and setting it on fire.

I scoured the internet for a calculator to inform me of the
cost of my addiction and the results, based on one packet of twenty a day, average price of £5.20, were £1898 a year.

To start getting out of debt, I need to become smoke free. There is help out there to stop smoking, but there are also little known debt charities. Debt Helpshould come in the form of free impartial advice. Stopping smoking is one of the first steps to becoming debt free and continuing to be so.

If you have the constraint not to spend it, how about putting the money every day, that you would spend on a packet of cigarettes in a jar, and watch the money mound up.

First step: STOP! Look at your outgoings. If there’s something you are spending that you can stop, then stop it. Cut down your spending as much as you possibly can before taking any steps to consolidate debts.

As an option for people in serious financial problems, Consolidation Loans is a valid - and sometimes lifesaving – method.

Seek professional Debt Help advice, don’t just jump in because the adverts claim you will save a fortune. They spend a lot of money making the numbers fit in the best way for them; they’re not really interested in your best interests.

Be cynical! Caution is ALWAYS the best option with your money. Make the most of every opportunity. Get your finances in hand. Start knowing, where every penny is spent.

Debt can be a de-motivating factor in a person’s life that can keep one from getting a good night’s sleep. It doesn’t mean that debt should be never ending spiral. There are several methods to escape from debt. Here are some important starting points towards Reducing Debt:

1. Discover you’re Budget,
A breakdown of the monthly outgoings and income is the excellent starting point to reveal the root causes of where your money is going. The first thing it will tell you is how much actual money you are actually pulling in (or losing) every month after you take away all the expenses. If there is a net gain, you can use this net gain to pay off debt. If there is a net loss, then you’ll need to go back to your budget to figure out what expenses are drying up your income.

2. Differentiate between ‘Core’ expenses and non-essentials
Now that you have a breakdown of all your expenses, you need to scrutinise the need for each and every one of them. One way of doing this is to categorise them, into essentials, such as food, mortgage, water, utility bills, etc and non-essentials, shopping, eating out, etc. This first pass allows you to identify where you don’t need to spend money on. The next step is to slim-down your expenses. Now that you know what you need to spend to survive, find out if there are ways to cut down on those numbers (eg: cut-down on phone bill by getting a better deal?). Keep in mind that the objective of this step is to come up with the highest possible monthly net GAIN rather than a loss.