Monthly Archives: July 2015

Creative Ways to Save Money from Wescot

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There are many ways in which the average household can save money, and most of us are familiar with being told to forgo our morning take-out coffee or buy store’s own rather than branded goods. As one of the leading debt collecting agencies in the UK Wescot realise that there are many far more creative ways than these to save money and avoid getting into unnecessary debt. The team at Wescot have therefore put together a series of creative ways to save money that are outside of the obvious and many of them are actually fun.

 

Grocery Shopping and Household Essentials

Everyone knows that good ways to save money include looking out for special offers and discount vouchers, buying store’s own products instead of branded goods and only buying what you actually need on each shopping trip. Here are a few suggestions for more creative ways to save money on your groceries and household essentials:

  • Buy in bulk to make savings wherever it makes sense. If you have the option to shop at a wholesaler then do so, otherwise get together with friends and neighbours and sign up to online wholesalers to increase your purchasing power by shopping together. Focus your bulk buying on household goods and food items with a long use-by date such as dried and tinned products.
  • Use comparison websites to work out the cheapest supermarket in your local area for your typical shop. Alternatively, the new Morrison’s Match and More card price matches your entire shop automatically with the same goods in all other major supermarkets including budget options such as Aldi and Lidl and gives you points worth the cash equivalent of any difference that can be cashed in as store vouchers every time you reach £5.
  • Buy herb plants rather than bagged herbs and create a window ledge herb garden that will last a long time.
  • Make a meal plan for the week or month before you do the grocery shopping to ensure you don’t waste money on non-essential items.
  • Have a weekly ‘no-spend’ day as a family. Get each family member to commit to not spending a single penny for just one day of the week. Make meals out of store cupboard food and put off any treats for another day of the week.

 

At Home

There are myriad ways in which you can save money in the home simply by planning more and reducing waste.

  • Make twice as much food as you need each meal-time and freeze the leftover half in single portion sizes to create home-cooked ‘ready-meals’. This not only saves on the price of buying pre-packaged food but also cuts down the amount of energy you use to cook.
  • Try swishing or swap shops with friends and neighbours. Organise a day or evening for everyone to get together and bring all their unwanted clothing, shoes, jewellery, books, DVDs etc. to trade. Everyone gets to clear out some junk and take home something that is more useful to them.
  • Get into homebrew. Making your own beer or wine is more cost-effective than buying it from the off-licence and it can be a lot of fun too.
  • Host a decorating party rather than paying someone to decorate for you. Get friends and family in to help to get the job done in a matter of hours and pay them with a home-cooked meal when finished.
  • Unless you really feel you need to watch shows at the time they are broadcast, ditch the TV licence. You can still watch catch-up television online for free and watch DVDs and you don’t need a licence for services such as LoveFilm or Netflix.

Luxuries

Luxuries may count as non-essential, but anyone who tries to cut all luxuries out will quickly tire of living to such a strict budget. Cut down on luxuries rather than cutting them out altogether and research ways of making savings on those that you really want.

  • Use professionals in training. Opt for the student hairdresser or beautician rather than the owner. Contact colleges and universities to see if there are students willing to work for free to fill out their portfolio for things such as wedding photography.
  • When you want to buy new items such as CDs or DVDs, purge your old ones first by selling them online through sites such as Music Magpie, Amazon or eBay to fund the purchase.
  • Use a Terramundi Pot (a money box you can only get into by breaking it) and put all your spare change in it. Once it is full, break it open and use whatever funds you have saved inside to buy yourself a special treat.
  • Have an ‘at-home’ spa day with soothing music, a relaxing bubble bath and a nice glass of wine rather than paying for expensive spa treatment centres.
  • Organise a series of ‘host-at-home’ nights with friends rather than going out to expensive restaurants and bars. Rotating hosts means that for each week a household has to pay for food and drinks they get several nights out in return absolutely free.

Restoring Your Credit Score

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The complex world of finance is ever-changing, though there are many aspects that remain the same. Credit scores continue to prove a source of both pride and embarrassment for consumers. In today’s economy, your credit score is a reflection of how well you manage your money, particularly your debt and payments. Credit card companies and banks use credit scores to determine a variety of factors, some of which include interest rates and loan qualifications. When you hold a low credit score, you may be faced with higher interest rates. Landlords may find tenants ineligible for lease if their score is too low. Don’t underestimate the difference between a high score and a low score.

If you do find yourself in a situation where you are overwhelmed by mounting debts, know that there is a way out.

Make Payments on Time

The best way to begin your plan of action is to begin making your payments on time. This is imperative for a good credit score. Payment history accounts for 35% of your total score – a significant representation. Once you are late on your payment, you may be tempted to skip it altogether in hopes of evening it out with double the payment next month. Avoid this. Pay the minimum due as soon as the money is available to you. Missed payments and those 30 days late can drop your credit score.

Check Your Report for Errors

Some of the financial world’s leading consumer reporting agencies offer customers a free copy of their credit report every year. Take advantage of this and find out where you stand. Request a copy and review it meticulously for errors. If you do find any, they must be corrected in haste. Get errors off of your record as soon as possible to see an improvement in your score.

Don’t Borrow Money You Don’t Need

Don’t be blinded by card holder perks. Today, the average American carries five to ten credit cards in their wallet, making temptation all too present. Whilst many stores will offer a discount for opening a credit account, doing so unnecessarily will only prove harmful down the line. You may think it harmless to carry card after card with you at all times, but holding too much credit can make lenders nervous. Avoid the trap.

Call Your Creditors

Certain life events like a job loss or illness in the family may make your monthly payments seem impossible. In this case, contact your creditors right away. Whilst there does exist credit counselling services to aid in negotiating lower interest or payment rates, consumers can avoid the third party and do it themselves. Call your card company and insist on speaking to a manager with the authority to hear your case. Explain that you are having financial troubles. Often, the manager will help you set up a lower payment plan, freeze the interest or perhaps even forgive some debt altogether. Debt recovery agencies like Wescot, based in the UK, can prove imperative in getting your financial affairs back in order. Follow them on Twitter for more about the company’s services. Professional help can be a wonderful resource when you are in over your head in debt.

Pay Off Your Balances

Once you’ve done all you can to negotiate suitable payment plans for your accounts, you must begin the arduous process of paying off your debts in their entirety. Pay off what you owe, sending in as much as you can to the card with the highest interest rate. Proceed by making the minimum payments on your other accounts. Boasting a zero balance on your credit card bills makes you much more creditworthy to lenders.

Start Carrying Cash

Whilst it is indeed tempting to avoid the ATM line at all costs, doing so can prove harmful to your bank account in the long run. Constantly failing to carry cash on your person opens the door for abuse of your credit card. Swiping your card at the check-out is much simpler than watching your hard-earned cash fly out of your hand. A wonderful way to cut down on debt is to avoid using credit altogether until you find a solution that works well for you. If it’s a self-control issue you are facing, consider storing your credit cards in a place where they are not easily reachable. Drastic? Yes, but sometimes necessary in our world of accumulating debt. Whilst you may be tempted to close out your accounts once they are paid, avoid this. Closing an account with which you hold a good payment history can do more harm than good. Simply cut up the card instead.

Create A Budget

Creating a budget for yourself is the single best thing you can do to keep yourself out of debt for good. The first step is to determine your total income, and next you determine your expenses. Once you’ve estimated your living expenses, you can then begin to chip away at the things that in hindsight aren’t so important. From cutting down on monthly trips to the salon to choosing a less expensive cell phone plan, there are myriad ways to trim your costs when attempting to clean up your financial act. A poor credit rating opens the door to a host of financial troubles, including high interest rates and the inability to secure low-cost loans. Adhere to your budget at all costs to ensure your future financial success.

How you can Save Money with Wescot

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Given the current economic climate, everybody is trying to save money wherever they can. This does not mean that we have to stay in every night, too afraid to turn the light on, but it is surprising to see just how much money you can save by budgeting right, prioritising your bills and seeking out bargains. Wescot has put together this guide to help you save money and manage your financial position whatever that maybe. Get started by making a truthful evaluation of how much disposable income you have each month and go on from there.

Many people today are wrestling with debt. Read stories by Wescot to unveil how this debt recovery company attempts to help rather than punish customers and recover debt in a responsible way. Instead of pushing families who are already struggling due to pressure from the UK economy, this debt management firm tries to aid them wherever it can in an appropriate way that suits the individuals personal circumstances.

Budget Smart

It is impossible to see where you can save money without first putting together a sound budget, marking all sources of income against all outgoings. First, determine your total income by combining all sources of monthly income, including wages, benefits and any pension income. Next, make a conservative judgement as to how much money actually goes out on food bills, utilities, rent and other necessary costs.

You should also take care to include in your budget any expenses that don’t occur monthly. For instance, you know that every year, December is going to be expensive, so add Christmas to your budget. Other irregular expenses might include veterinary bills or vehicle maintenance costs. Expenses like these can be included on a monthly budget by determining their total annual cost and dividing it by 12.

Prioritise Bill Payment

After you create your budget and determine whether you have a budget surplus (money left over at the end of the month) or a budget deficit (less money than what you need), you may need to consider which bills should be paid over others. Some monthly expenses are more important to pay on time, such as a mortgage or your rent, since failure to pay these bills may result in losing your home. Other high-priority bills include council taxes, child maintenance, gas or electricity and the telephone.

Paying high-priority bills on time can save you a lot of frustration and money as you avoid fines, garnished wages and other costly consequences.

Help with Food Shopping

Once you have set up a budget and taken into consideration all of your monthly expenditures, it is time to sit down and work out how to cut back on the essentials. Take food shopping as an example, it is certainly a necessity, but cutting back is surprisingly straightforward.

Planning beforehand what you are going to eat for the week is one of the best ways to reduce your food bill, and creating a menu can be fun too while ensuring that you don’t always eat the same meals week in, week out. Knowing precisely what ingredients you are going to need before you go into the supermarket will stop you from frivolously picking up whatever you fancy as you walk down the aisles. You can also keep an eye out for special offers and plan meals around these deals.

Shop Second Hand

Shopping smart does not limit you to the supermarket either. Perhaps one of just a few benefits of the credit crunch has been the rise in second hand outlets, from clothing to electronic goods. Just because inflation has been increasing over the past seven years hasn’t stopped refrigerators breaking or clothes unravelling. There are plenty of avenues to go down if you don’t mind picking up a ‘pre-loved’ bargain, saving money and the environment as you go.

Charity shops, vintage markets and online websites are perfect for getting your hands on essential items, most of which are of good quality and for a fraction of the price you would pay brand new.

Stay on Budget with Cash

Spending cold, hard cash is much more difficult than swiping a piece of plastic through a card reader. As part of the budgeting process, you should assign yourself your week’s disposable income in cash in order to prevent overspending. Imagine walking into a shop on the Tuesday and spending your assigned cash on a new pair of shoes. For the rest of the week, you will have to stare into an empty wallet, which would for most people, be a bigger deterrent than just seeing a digitalised number decrease the next time you check the bank.

Biting the Bullet

Budgeting is not easy to begin with; it requires having to face a few hard truths about where your money goes, but by the time the next payday rolls around, you will thank yourself. Swallowing a little pride is a small price to pay when it comes to saving money, and the above examples should demonstrate just how simple it is to make cut backs without stopping you from enjoying yourself.