It happens to everyone at least once — just when you think you are on top of your finances and your budget is flowing smoothly, disaster strikes. The size of the disaster may not be huge; it could just be a blown tire during your tightly budgeted vacation. Or it could be as big as the loss of a job, a house fire or a disabling health condition. Whatever your financial emergency, you can get through it if you have planned ahead and prioritize. (more…)

There have been many articles and books written about ways to lead a stress-free life, and a good many of those publications suggest lowering your cost of living as a good start.

For average or even high earners, lowering your cost of living is an immediate way to get more money. Also, by lowering our expenses we begin to think more about the things we are doing and spending our hard-earned money on. (more…)

Home loan approvals rose a little in March, after a slight drop in February, almost 20% up on the year. Mortgage lending has eased off as homeowners paid off debt.

Approved loans for house purchases rose to 34,905 in March from 33,360 in February and up from 29,212 in March 2009 according to The British Bankers’ Association.

The BBA said the figures indicated the effect of the reversal of a temporary increase in the property tax threshold at the start of the year. This had impacted the demand for home loans in February. (more…)

The Office for National Statistics have said that consumer inflation rose more than anticipated in March, led by a knock-on effect from gas bills that remained static last month after falling a year ago.

Consumer inflation rose to 3.4% in March from 3% in February, another contributing factor resulting in the increase was higher fuel and air fare prices. (more…)

A “complete failure” is what a committee of MP’s have labelled the management of the government’s strategy for helping people in debt.

51 different projects since 2004 have been uncoordinated with no-one in charge said the Public Accounts Committee.

The UK population’s total personal debt has almost reached £1.5 trillion. According to the committee’s report 11% of adults were struggling with debts. (more…)