Oracle Finance – Top personal finance tips.

How to Ensure you Can Always Pay your Rent

Paying rent is something that is really important for us to do if we want to be able to continue living in our home. Rents can be high and this means that it can be expensive for us to be able to afford them. There are some things that we can do which should help us to be able to ensure that we can afford to pay it though.

Make sure the rent is affordable

It is wise to start by making sure that you will be able to afford the rent. If you think that it will be too expensive then you can do a few things. You can move to a place which has lower rent or you can find someone to share with you that will be able to help pay the rent. Obviously the second will depend on whether you are happy with living someone else and whether the place is big enough. You may have chosen the place for its location and it might be the cheapest you can find even though it is hard to afford. However, this might not be the case and so you might be in a place that you can afford but you just want to make sure that you will never be in a situation where you will not be able to afford your rent. There is also always the chance that the rent may go up and you will then have to find extra money to be able to pay it.

Have some savings

It can be a good idea to have some savings behind you if you can. Having some savings will give you some security. You will know that if you do struggle with your rent, that there will be some money there that you can spend if you need to. This can be very reassuring and the more savings you have the more secure you will feel. This will mean that you will have to make a concerted effort to save some money each month so that you can build up these funds. This can be tricky, but if you are determined then it will be a lot easier.

Pay rent first

Paying your rent as a priority will mean that you can be sure that there will be enough money available to pay it. So, try to organise with your landlord that the payments come out of your account just after you get paid. This will give the biggest chance of there being enough money there to pay it. Of course, you will have other things that you will have to pay for as well such as your utility bills, any loan repayments such as short term payday loans and any contracts you have as well as needing enough left to cover transport costs, food and other things. It will be easier to prioritise your spending though, if you make sure that you pay those things which are vital; first.

Compare prices

When you are buying other things, then it can be wise to compare the prices of them. This will allow you to see whether you are paying more than necessary for them. There are many things that we buy and often we do pay more than necessary. We might be in the habit of comparing prices when in the supermarket but we might forget about comparing prices on things like utility bills, insurance and transport. So, if we look at everything that we use and compare prices, then we could find that we can switch to different providers or retailers and find some better prices. We could save small amounts of money here and there and this could end up meaning that we will make significant savings in the long term.

Keep luxury spending to a minimum

It is also wise to keep luxury spending to a minimum. It can be really nice to treat ourselves and other people to things, but this is money that it is not necessary to spend. If we are finding it tricky to pay the rent, want to put some money behind us in case we can’t pay the rent or just want to adopt sensible spending habits, then we might need to cut back in this area. It might be that we can budget and just spend a little bit of it.

Earn more

Another option to help out is to earn more money. There are lots of ways that you could potentially do this and it might be an option that you would like to explore more. You could work more hours in your job or find a second job. You could do online work or even start a business to make some more money. It is worth exploring all of the options to think about whether there are any that will suit you. You might like to have a go right away or perhaps just keep some ideas in mind to use if you really need them in the future.

How to Budget for Your Children’s Pocket Money

Most children like to have pocket money and parents like to oblige by giving it to them. It can actually be a good way to teach children about responsibility with money and how to save and manage their money. If they want to have something expensive then showing them how to not spend their money but to save it up until they have enough to buy it can be a valuable lesson. However, it can be expensive for parents to be able to afford to give their children money. It may just be that they cannot afford it at all, or that they will have to budget for it. If budgeting is the way forward, then it is worth doing it properly.

Decide how much to give them

You need to make sure that the amount that you give them is an amount that you can afford. It is no good giving them money and then going short yourself so that you cannot afford to buy them food or to put the heating on. So, you need to be sensible about how much you will give them. If you do not have a consistent income then you may have to be more flexible as you may be short of money some months compared to others. You may have inconsistent costs, perhaps quarterly or yearly bills which you need to factor in. If you have these expensive months then you may need to consider keeping money by from the previous month or not giving them anything that month at all. For the rest of the months you will need to work out how much money you will have available to give them. You may be under pressure from them to give them as much as their friends get. However, you will need to be prepared to tell them this is beyond your budget and that you can only give them what you can afford. If they make a fuss then maybe you could consider threatening that they either have what you can afford or nothing.

Pay them first

It might be easier to make sure that you have the money available that you need if you pay them it as soon as you get paid. Then you will not be tempted to spend it on other things. If you see money in your bank account you might think that it is okay to spend it and forget about the fact that you need some left to pay pocket money with. Therefore, if you pay the pocket money first then you will know that you have done it and you will not have to keep any money aside to pay for it.

Make sure they know it is flexible

It is worth making sure that the children realise that the payments could be flexible. Explain to them that if you have a financially tough month then you might be in the situation where you might not be able to give them any money. This can leave you in an awkward situation if they do chores to earn their pocket money as they may refuse to do them or they may just get annoyed with you. You might want to make it up to them when you do have the money available and if so, you could give them an IOU. Otherwise you will have to explain to them that you will just not always be able to afford it but you do appreciate them and wish that you could give them more.

It might sound like a lot to think about just so that you can give your children a few quid each week. However, if you have a lot of children then this can add up and you need to make sure that you can manage it. It will not help your children if you give them money and then are short and cannot afford to pay your loan repayments, to feed them or to put the heating on. Therefore, you need to be really careful to prioritise your spending and make sure that you are able to afford the money that you are giving to them. It is well worth talking to them carefully about your financial situation. Explain that you might not always be able to give them the money and that you are being very careful to make sure that you will not get into financial difficulties. Hopefully, they will understand especially if you show them some figures, if they are old enough. It might also be worth thinking about telling them that some children never get any pocket money so they are lucky to even get some, although that might not go down that well, particularly if they are desperate for money or teenagers as they may still say it is unfair!