Managing Your Money

Why Manage My Money?

Managing your money can help you plan financially for unexpected events and expenses.While the idea of this may seem difficult, it's really not.

How Can I Manage My Money?

You have to work out a plan to pay your most important bills first. These include. your rent, council tax, food etc.
Then allocate the rest of your income to other bills and debts.
If you have money left over, think about putting it into a savings account to be used for Christmas and birthdays, and those unexpected costs.

The best way to manage your money is to prepare an Income and Expenditure Account for yourself. The following should give you an idea of how you can do this.

Money Management Form


INCOME	EXPENDITURE
Salary	Rent
Universal Credit	Council Tax
Working Tax Credit	Gas
Child Tax Credit	Electricity
Child Benefit	Child Care
Housing Benefit (if not claiming Universal Credit.)	Food
Child Maintenance	Insurance
Child Support	Clothing
Other Income	Travel
Other Income	Telephone
	Loans
	Credit Cards
	Television (Sky, etc)
Income TOTAL £	Expenditure TOTAL £

Remaining Text

You may wish to download and complete an Income_and_Expenditure_Form.pdf [pdf] 204KB to help you.

What WIll This Tell Me?

If your income total is higher than your spending, you will then have money to use for leisure and savings.
If your spending is higher than your income, you should seek help from a debt counselling service.
If you do not have enough money coming in, you will quickly find you get behind with rent payments and other bills.

The Income and Expenditure Form above is not in priority order.

If you feel unable to decide for yourself which of these items are the most important for you, Citizens Advice can give you further advice.

Rent Arrears

If you are in arrears with your rent, your Income Officer will check your income and expenditure before making any agreement to repay the debt. This ensures that the rent arrears are paid off over a suitable period of time, and you keep your home.