Cashfloat shares practical budgeting and debt-management tips to help households reduce borrowing, cut costs and improve their financial health over the year ahead
-- Many of us start each new year with a series of resolutions. If you’re dealing with ongoing debt or have found yourself relying more and more on short-term borrowing, your priority may well be to look at ways to improve your financial position.
It can be impossible to repay large amounts quickly, but small, regular payments can make a significant difference and reduce the interest you’re paying. For many, the ideal is to start with budgeting and planning rather than leaving anything to chance.
Cashfloat, the direct lender and part of the Western Circle Group, has shared straightforward, actionable advice to help ensure that by this time next year, your financial health will be in much-improved shape.
How to Build a Household Budget to Get Your Finances Under Control
Step one is budgeting. If you’re unsure what's coming in and going out each month, it becomes incredibly difficult to chip away at debt or have any certainty about how you’ll cover known expenses in the months ahead.
Whether you prefer a handwritten budget or a digital spreadsheet, you’ll be able to review when you have disposable income and can either put this into savings for future outgoings or repay a little extra to bring your overall borrowing down.
The most important aspect is to record, in as much detail as you can, everything that will go in and out of your bank account. That should include rent or mortgage payments, groceries, utilities, direct debits, repayments and travel expenses, using estimates or averages from previous bank statements if you’re unsure.
Although living costs do, of course, change, this should give you a better understanding of what you’re spending and earning, and in some cases, allow you to look at where you can reduce outgoings by comparing different providers or cutting back on non-essentials.
It’s common for small outgoings to add up. If you’ve looked through a month or two of spending and seen how a daily takeaway coffee impacts your budget, or how much you’re spending on eating out, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about any changes that might be beneficial.
Using Weekly or Monthly Budgets to Avoid Taking on Unnecessary Debt
Borrowing can appear to be an easy option if you’re running short during a particular week or month, but the goal of budgeting is to avoid borrowing anything at all if you can. For instance, if you have a small surplus one week and know you’ll have a shortfall the next, you’ll be able to put that money to one side.
If you already have borrowing in the form of loans, an overdraft or credit cards, you can now start to look at what the minimum repayments are per month, how much you’re paying in interest, and whether you have the capacity to make a dent in this amount.
There are many 0% finance options for credit card transfers that could be viable, or you might consider consolidating high-interest, expensive debt into a single longer-term loan to ensure you have absolute confidence that the repayments are manageable.
Whatever decisions you make, you should ensure you are clear about what the interest rate being charged is and how much you’ll need to budget for each month. Spreading debt over a longer period will typically reduce your repayments, but also means the total you’ll repay is greater, so this is another factor to consider.
Some lenders offer repayment holidays, which may be an option if you’re trying to get back on track. Although taking a break from repayments can mean you’ll continue paying the debt back for longer, it’s important to explore all the support available.
Setting Debt Reduction or Money Management Goals for 2026
Once your budget is complete and you’ve reviewed your existing debt, you’ll have already done much of the hard work and gained insight into how well you’re managing your money, where there is room for improvement, and how much debt is actually costing you.
Financial goal setting can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to involve huge steps and shouldn’t include unrealistic targets.
There are three key goals you might consider: reducing spending, increasing income, and lowering debt. Some households might be able to address all three at once, but it’s more likely you’ll need to select one target you can work towards.
Keeping count is a positive way to see the progress you are making, and to ensure you stick to your commitment to improving your financial circumstances. If you’re depositing an extra £20 a week towards debt that you’d previously spent on non-essentials, being able to see the total debt reducing is a great way to remain focused.
Households can also consider changes or swaps to reduce spending by a small margin, remembering that every little helps.
Incorporating Safe and Responsible Borrowing Into Budgets
Although we’ve mentioned that avoiding all debt is the ideal, this might not be achievable, and if you can see a gap in your budget or need to cover an urgent expense, it’s strongly advisable that you take the time to research different options and compare costs and terms.
If you have advance notice of a shortfall, you’ll be able to verify that any potential lender is fully regulated, and check which products offer the best rates. You’ll also have the time to contrast repayment periods and add costs into your budget to ensure you won’t end up financially worse off.
Loan comparison tools, eligibility checkers and affordability calculators are widely available at no cost and are excellent ways to empower yourself with knowledge so that, if you do need to borrow, you do so intentionally.
About the company: Cashfloat is one of the UK’s leading direct lenders. We provide online loans for people with all credit scores. Cashfloat is fully authorised and regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority.
Contact Info:
Name: Ofer Valencio Akerman
Email: Send Email
Organization: Cashfloat
Website: https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/
Release ID: 89180269
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