Getting control of your finances
Do this by creating a budget, and fully understanding your incomings and outgoings. Whether or not you consider it patronizing advice, it is well worth keeping a spending diary for a while. If you haven’t had to think about finances much for a few years, you may be amazed at where your money really goes.
Begin to cut back, or cut out, all unnecessary spending, and pare down your outgoings to a minimum for the time being, and adjust your budget to reflect this. Then add in any benefits you may be entitled to, and work out how much of any redundancy settlement or savings you might need to use each month in order to get by. This will give you an idea of how long you can go for before things get uncomfortably tight. Tips on saving money and tightening finances are here.
