Money Minded: February is the hardest month

In January, many of us are more focused than usual on matters of personal finance. Perhaps we overspent at Christmas or New Year, or lost control during the January sales. Or perhaps we spent time in reflection over the holidays, making resolutions to handle our money better during the coming year.

However, the end of February is the toughest time in the personal finance year, not the start of January.

For those in debt, this is often when the crisis point is reached. Payday at the end of January isn’t enough to sort out the growing demands of the repayments, and perhaps some instalments are missed. Then it happens again at the end of February – and that’s when most people in this situation realise that they’re in serious trouble.

Two missed payments can be all it takes for your creditors to start closing in, and for serious damage to be done to your credit history.

Even if you aren’t in debt crisis, things can still be very tough indeed. You can still find yourself scrabbling around to make ends meet, and wondering what to do next. Or it might simply dawn on you that there’s a long and challenging journey ahead, whether that’s paying off what you owe, or generally getting your finances under control.

Since the media attention is concentrated on January, if you’re struggling at the end of February then you might start thinking that you’re all alone with your problems. Remember that this isn’t the case.

There are thousands of other people having money challenges and difficulties right now. Remember too that help is available.

If you’re feeling dragged down by debts, start by visiting the StepChange Debt Remedy Tool, an online and anonymous service that can guide you to begin sorting things out in the most effective way.

February is often the toughest month, but March might be better.

Save the date

Meanwhile, you might want to save the date. We’ll be running a Tenner Week on this site from Monday the 2nd of March, so please join in if you think you could benefit from some extreme budgeting.