General

An odd reversal of stats has been revealed today after an official survey reports that we now spend more of our income on housing and less on food, whilst 50 years ago, we spent much more of our budget on food.

Obviously with house prices booming over the past decade would have had an effect on this, but has our food bill dropped because food is cheaper? Or are we less prepared to spend our hard earned money on lots of food, and more on material things such as clothes, electrical goods and gadgets and going out?

After my recent post about the high cost of weddings, I have read this article that offers a few tips on how you can afford the wedding you want.

‘Devising a plan and sticking to a wedding budget is the key to an affordable dream wedding.’

It may seem obvious, but it is surprising how quickly the costs can add up without you realising, especially if you don’t record everything you are spending money on.

The New Year seems to be a good time to sit down and think about your finances. It always seems much clearer at the beginning of a fresh year, before life generally carries you away.

FinanceLocator.co.uk

Everybody needs a loan at some point during their life. The most common ones are mortgages, loans for debt consolidation, but surprisingly home improvement loans are becoming ever more popular.

News today shows that the market shares for beleaguered bank, Northern Rock, have dropped to their lowest value yet. A fall of 24% yesterday meant that each share was only worth 9.25p.

The reason? The news that the UK government may be close to deciding on the future of the bank.

Having just read an article on weddings as research for a friends upcoming big day, I was shocked to learn that the average cost of a wedding nowadays is £17,000.

In actual fact the simple act of getting married is actually very cheap, less than £300 depending on which venue you are getting married in. It seems it’s all the additional stuff that adds up to the thousands.

Further research tells me that wedding loans seem to be the way that most people go about financing their perfect wedding day.

A court case against several high street banks and building societies for unfair bank charges starts today. The Office of Fair Trading challenges not the charging procedure, but the over inflated amounts passed onto account holders in what the bank calls ‘administration costs’.

In an article from Finance Locator:

The heads that be at the Bank of England have decided to keep the current base interest rate as it as, so it remains unchanged at 5.5% for the next month at least.

Despite poor Christmas sales being reported by retailers, the Bank of England are keeping the base rate at 5.5% for now.

An article at FinanceLocator.co.uk says:

The start of the year is always a brilliant time to review your finances and set new goals - a bit of a spring clean as it were. Follow our guide which shows you where to begin the road to financial freedom.

If you are currently in debt - of which 18% of the nation owe more than £10,000 - it will make a great New Years resolution to try and clear any debt you owe on credit cards, store cards, loans and overdrafts.

A recent article said:

Statistics show that 18% of adults living in the UK have debts over £10,000 and that doesn’t include mortgages.

Because of this the Church of England is launching a debt awareness campaign.