The Financial Blog

New research from Alliance and Leicester Current Accounts revealed that 34 per cent of UK adults realise they will have less disposable income over the next 6 months.

79 per cent of people said the this was because of the ever incresing costs of food, household bills, fuel prices and consumer goods and services. No real surprise there. I’m sure we all realise this is becomming more neccissary as UK household finances are stretched to breaking point.

Interestingly, 55 per cent of Brits in the research  had started changing the way the budget and started to improve their financial situation by selling expensive non essential items like cars or jewellery. I think this is the main point here; people need to decide what exactly they need to live comfortably and adapt their lifestyles accordingly, especially if they cannot afford luxuries.

The most popular money saving tips were;

• 20 per cent of people say change utility bill providers
• 12 per cent say switch credit card providers to one with a 0% rate
• 8 per cent are changing current accounts
• 7 per cent are consolidating credit card debts into a personal loan
• 6 per cent are changing jobs to a higher salary
• 6 per cent of people are taking on a second job
• 5 per cent choose to sell expensive items such as a car, jewellery or down-sizing their house

Some good news from this research was that 42 per cent of people questioned said they are budgetting more carefully and trying to live within their means. People are also looking at cheaper supermarkets for food shopping.

Current Account Manager at Alliance & Leicester, Emma Walkley, said: “It is encouraging to see people are making positive changes to their spending and budgeting habits. This will hopefully stand them in good stead should they see their disposable income affected over the forthcoming months.”

“Taking advantage of the best financial deals on the market is always important, but more so in the current environment.  We would advise people to take a good look at their finances and see how they can be improved. Often making simple changes like switching to a current account provider offering a better interest rate can make any belt-tightening feel a little bit easier.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 11:38 am and is filed under Debt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.