Crosshills, UK -- (SBWire) -- 01/18/2010 -- January 18th 2010, dubbed ‘Blue Monday’ is known as the most depressing day of the year – that fateful day when Christmas overspending threatens to catch up with you. The final full week of January is when the culmination of Christmas debts, broken new year resolutons, the return to work after the festive break and the extreme bad weather, combine to create a day of misery for many of us.

Debt Advisory Line, which has been awarded the title of Debt Management Plan Provider of the Year experiences a 40% increase in calls to its debt advice centre in January with many customers being motivated to call because of the misery of impending bills in the New Year. Mike Ransom of Debt Advisory Line explains how the amount of desperate people contacting the company soars at this time of year. He said: “The day, coined according to a formula devised by happiness and motivation expert, Cliff Arnall definitely has firm foundations with many financial aspects behind its identification.”

“December is one of the biggest spending months leading to a tough January for most of us. This combined with the increase of home utility bills due to the extreme weather conditions equals bad news for people struggling to keep up with regular direct debits and overdue credit card or loan repayments.”

Debt Advisory Line is offering some simple money saving advice to help people take stock of the situation before its too late and crucial payments are missed.

- Create a monthly budget that gives you a realistic amount which must include necessities like food, essential utility bills and general living costs.

- It is important you maintain all payments, but there are certain priority debts that have bigger implications if you don’t pay them for example mortgage/rent, secured loans, utilities, child maintenance etc. if you don’t make these repayments, you could face losing your home or having your gas, electricity or water supply cut off.

- If you are struggling to pay your priority debts because you are paying non priority debts (unsecured loans, credit / store cards, catalogues, mobile phones, overdrafts) you need to change your focus so priority debts get paid.

- Retain receipts and at the end of the month, totalling what you’ve spent. Then mark off essential buys and impact purchases. This will highlight weaknesses and it may be possible to returning some goods.

- With freezing weather heating and water bills are likely to increase. Try taking quick hot showers rather than hot, deep baths and wear an extra layer to bed rather than sleeping with the heating on. Another invaluable tip is to set your heater on a strict timer.

- Spread the cost of bills rather than them all arriving at once and if possible pay all your bills by direct debit.

- Money can be saved by planning your menu – try making bulk meals at the beginning of the week and using ingredients for several dishes to add variation. These can also be frozen to help time pressures throughout the week and avoid the temptation to rely on expensive ready meals and extortionate takeaways.

- If, even after changing your focus and trying to budget more effectively, you are still struggling to make your monthly payments then a different solution is needed. Debt solutions are available in the form of Debt Management Plans, Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), Protected Trust Deeds (PTDs) in Scotland and in extreme circumstances Bankruptcy.

See http://www.debtadvisoryline.co.uk