Christmas is coming - now's the time for a finances "health check"

Christmas can be expensive and if you’re worried about making your money work, why not give your finances a health check and create a spending plan. It’s straightforward and you can get your whole family involved.

Step 1

First, take a look at how much you spend on:

• Household bills (for example your rent, gas, electricity, council tax and internet)
• Living costs (groceries and household supplies)
• Financial products (insurance)
• Family (gifts and school supplies/uniform)
• Travel (public transport, car costs)
• Leisure (trips away, subscriptions, sport and restaurants)

You can use our personal budgeting sheet (PDF, 94KB) and our budgeting tool.

Step 2

Next, work out how much money you have coming in from work, benefits and anywhere else. Now compare the two. If you’ve got more money going out than coming in, you may benefit from expert advice.

Call our Income Services team on 0800 3 282 282. The team can help you to maximise your income and minimise your spending by identifying and helping you to claim missing benefit entitlements and find the best ways to save money.

We can also assist in setting up regular payments via direct debit, so you don’t need to worry about making manual payments.

Get in touch

Contact our Income Services team if you’re struggling to keep up with your rent payments or have changes in circumstances that may affect your ability to pay.

Don’t forget

Our Helping Hand pages offer financial help and support. There’s advice on paying energy bills, managing debt, applying for Universal Credit as well as employment and training support. 

We’ve also partnered with the National Support Network and their ‘one stop shop’ support hub - an online directory containing information on thousands of national services including helplines, self-help resources and support groups for any personal challenge or life event.