Information provided by Post Office Money, who carried out a survey, has highlighted the difficulties some people are facing to last until their next payday.
Every month, 24 per cent of employed people say they need to use their savings to last till the end of the month. 23 per cent end up making use of their overdraft, whilst 13 per cent reported that they actually skip meals in the lead up to their payday, in order to make their money last.
Out of everyone who responded to the survey, 25 per cent admitted that they did not have any formal system of checking their finances in place. Failing to properly track finances is therefore causing people problems lasting until payday.
Admittedly, the most common reason given (with 32 per cent) for needing to use an overdraft was an unexpected cost, such as a boiler breaking. However, by tracking finances properly, you are more likely to be able to deal with such an unfortunate cost without the need to dip into your overdraft.
The next most common reasons were: 20 per cent saying that they used their overdraft because they hadn’t budgeted, 15 per cent faced a higher-than-expected bill, 13 per cent had lent money to friends/family, whilst 11 per cent splashed out on something which they were not actually able to afford.
