Daily Spends – A Diary of Spending Habits

I’m no expert on newspaper niches (besides the obvious like The Sun) but I guess when The Independent starts writing articles for their readers about coping with personal debt it’s a sure sign that even the more professional & well healed amongst us are struggling at the hands of the credit crunch. Get a load of this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/invest-save/are-you-drowning-in-debt-dont-despair-972695.html

Directory > Debt Consolidation > Debt Advisers Direct
Debt Advisers Direct is a trading name of Freeman Jones Ltd a UK provider of debt consolidation, debt management & IVA services.

The site offers a comprehensive information base for consumers in debt with articles and advice covering various debt subjects.

The main services offered by the company are debt consolidation, debt management plans & IVAs. Consumers can request immediate debt help via a call back request>

Useful links:
Home: http://www.debtadvisersdirect.co.uk
Advice blog: http://www.debtadvisersdirect.co.uk/debt-consolidation-blog/
Debt consolidation: http://www.debtadvisersdirect.co.uk/debt-consolidation/debt-consolidation.asp
Debt management: http://www.debtadvisersdirect.co.uk/debt-management/debt-management.asp
IVAs: http://www.debtadvisersdirect.co.uk/iva-solutions/iva-solutions.asp

Directory > Debt Management > Gregory Pennington Ltd
This is the first addition to the new finance directory, and with no further a do, I’d like to include Gregory Pennington Ltd.

Established in 1993, Gregory Pennington provides debt management services to over 40,000 clients in the UK. As well as debt management, the company also provides debt help & advice services including debt consolidation, IVAs, bank accounts for people with bad credit and a range of remortgage services.

Gregory Pennington has long been regarded as one of the forerunners in the debt management industry and is a founding member of DEMSA (debt managers standards association).

Useful Links:
Home: http://www.gregorypennington.com
Debt Management: http://www.gregorypennington.com/debt-management.asp
Debt Consolidation: http://www.gregorypennington.com/debt-consolidation-loan.asp
IVAs: http://www.gregorypennington.com/individual-voluntary-arrangements.asp
Bank Accounts: http://www.gregorypennington.com/managed-bank-accounts.asp

A quick guide to 5 sites that can help you to curb/monitor/think about your spending habits:

I’ve been keeping this blog for a while now and whilst (admittedly) I don’t list every single spend I make, it certainly helps me to keep track of my spending habits and identify where I can start to make savings in my spending patters (notably: midweek treats, travel & those little ad-hoc expenses that all add up!).

Looking back at my online stats I can see that the site is now getting lots of visits from people looking for ‘daily spending’ type queries. This signifies that people are out there actively searching for ways to reduce their spending or for online support and advice around the subject.

With that in mind, I thought I’d compile a quick run-down of 5 sites that can help people in their quest:

1 – Personal Finance Forums
There are a number of extremely active personal finance forums where users commune to discuss all variety of issues including daily spending & debt reduction. debt consolidation care forum is a great example of a community supporting each other in their attempt to reduce debts – with a forum & open blogging platform, this community of over 80,000 memebers provides a vital resource for everyday people to discuss money worries.

2 – Money Saving Sites
There are so many obvious ways to save money . . . it’s just sometimes it’s not as obvious as it should be. MoneySavingExpert.com is a great site for spotting the latest deals and money saving ideas.

3 – Government Help
The Financial Services Authority offer practical financial advice on their sites MoneyMadeClear.fsa.gov.uk.

4 – Frugal Bloggers
A multitude of ‘Frugal’ bloggers base their whole blog around the art of saving money in any give opportunity – catch them all at festivaloffrugality.com.

5 – DailySpendingNetwork
Our very own DailySpendingNetwork aggregates all the latest posts from our networked bloggers. You’re always invited to come and join us!

Hopefully you’ll find those resources useful in your quest to reduce your daily spending!!!

Got an interesting article through on my RSS reader today with some startling research regarding debt and retirement. According to a survey by Help the Aged & Barclays up to 25% of retirees now enter retirement with outstanding consumer debt. (See the article here)

A scary thought really, especially with all the recent buzz surrounding reduced pensions/pension crisies. How on earth can those pensioners be expected to repay those debts when they’re on a reduced income?

If one things for sure – debt is one thing I don’t want to be facing when I’m in retirement!

I can’t get away from news relating to the gloomy economic outlook. Everywhere I turn I see doom and gloom, economic warnings, detailed scenarios of house price disasters! This article from the Times being a perfect example – Credit Crisis:  Experts assess how bad it is

The interesting thing about all this doom and gloom though is how us ‘everyday consumers’ are coping and whether any of the ‘city’ stuff will mean we take a hit in our pockets.

For me . . . it’s certainly lead to a bit more frugality and asking questions of my overall financial position. What happens if I’m made redundant? What happens if house prices do crash? Is it likely that I’d be pushed into negative equity? Could my family remain stable under any further financial pressures?

It’s time like these when I’d assume we’d rely on the likes of the FSA, OFT & MPC to help bring the city & consumer’s worries under control.

Will you be making any changes to your daily spending habits? If so, what will they be? Many of us are already watching our spending to keep us from going to the wall . . . can we cut our budgets any further? Are you considering taking advice on your debts and other financial issues . . . or have you got them all under control?

I’ve just been reading this fascinating article from debt management specialist, Gregory Pennington who pointed out that according to the Office for National Statistics, the average income rose by just 92% during the 10 years following 1995 whilst the average house price rose by a whopping 204%.

Now I’m no economic expert but that makes me feel a little jittery . . . Could this be a contributing factor to the prospective economic melt down?

Particularly interesting to see the wealth & debt ratios between two different generations. Those in the older bracket certainly seem to be a lot better off by significantly benefiting from the housing boom and keeping their debts down.

Take a look, it’s an interesting one: http://www.gregorypennington.com/debt-management-features/826/wealth-debt-age-a-decade-of-change.htm