1. Eating out every Day
Eating out is an expensive way to live. It can be buying breakfast on the way to work or ordering a takeaway in the evening, you will find both take a high % of your disposable income. Even if we just get a takeaway coffee with pastry in the morning it can become very expensive if we make a regular habit of it. It takes a little more preparation, but eating at home will save us considerable money and it is also easier to eat what we want, rather than what restaurants are serving
2. Burying Your Head in the Sand.
I know many people who have problems with their personal finances and rather than trying to solve them they just try to ignore them. Unfortunately, trying to ignore issues of debt does not make them go away in any way. Instead what happens is that we end up with avoidable charges and interest payments. This is definitely a case where ignorance is not bliss. If necessary take the advice of others and find a way out of the debt.
3. Keeping up with the Joneses
If we are committed to keeping up appearances we can end up spending an awful lot of money on expensive brands. If you feel obliged to buy clothes from certain designer labels try changing your expectations. Maintain shows of wealth and fortune are not a reliable way to bring happiness and peace of mind; there will always be someone with more luxury goods than yourself. Change your mindset and look to buy something which offers good value.
4. Always Buying Brand New
There are many items where you can save considerable money through buying second hand. In particular this applies to cars, TVs and videos. Here you can make considerable savings with no loss of utility. This is not just making small savings, it involves making big savings.
5. Holding debt on Your Credit Card.
If you have a credit card debt and are paying interest at 17% your finances will inevitably continue to deteriorate. It is difficult to pay off the interest charges and reduce the credit card balance. Therefore, you can be paying a minimum payment for years and yet the debt will continue to grow. This is an example of how poor financial planning can make things worse. With a little planning and rearranging of your finances you can try to pay off the credit card debt saving yourself interest payments.
6. Feel Sorry For Yourself
If the idea of money just makes you depressed; if you always feel miserable because you don’t have enough money, then it will be difficult to do anything about it. When we just feel miserable at our state of personal finances we are not doing anything to improve it. With a negative mindset it becomes difficult to turn our fortunes around. We need to try and adopt a positive attitude, or at least an attitude where we think of steps we can take to alleviate the problem.
7. Being Lazy in Renewing policies
There is a competitive market for mortgages, finance and insurance. however, a significant % of customers never make any effort to find better deals and just renew with their existing provider because it is the easiest thing to do. In these cases we are throwing away potential savings of £100s. Our mortgage / insurance company will be happy because we are giving them the chance to make a high profit margin. They are benefitting from our inertia. If we spend a little time remortgaging and searching for a new insurance quote the time will definitely pay us back.
8. Assume You cannot increase Income.
Don’t feel your current job is the only source of income. If you look around you will be able to find alternative sources of income. Just a bit of extra income can make an important start for reducing debt.
9. Buy on Impulse.
Firms are very good at selling things. They try to exploit customers tendencies to buy on impulse and packaging. See these tips for reducing overspending
10. Renting Rather than Buying
Renting electric goods such as TVs and DVDs is a very expensive way to enjoy the goods. It is much better to save up or even take a loan out rather than rent by the month. The short term gain of renting will soon become more expensive
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