We all experience times when we get into debt – or, at least, more debt than we are comfortable with. It could have been an emergency situation like needing to pay for repairs to our home or needing to buy a new car to get us to work. But often enough it can be put down to bad spending habits – it is so easy to be tempted into spending more than we can reasonably afford, especially when we have some spare capacity on a credit card. But then the reality of having to pay off that debt hits hard and what we have to show for it is probably very little in the greater scheme of things.

Budgeting effectively requires steely determination, avoiding the shops and avoiding online shopping, especially late at night when we can make irrational decisions. It means only buying what you really need not all those extras that are not essential.