I am so stressed about money and feeding my family – where do I begin?
Q: I have been married for six years and have two children. My husband has a full-time job and works most evenings to bring in some extra money. The problem is, things have got really tight over the past year or so. We never have enough money and are massively in debt. I am sure it must be affecting our children too and I think we are at breaking point.
A: If meeting your debt payments is leaving you short of food, you need to tackle the issue now. Debts have a nasty habit of compounding over time, so the sooner you deal with it, the better. When your husband is in a calmer mood, explain that that looking after a household with two children doesn’t just happen by magic! I suggest you contact StepChange, a registered charity which has an online debt advice process. If you don’t have access at home, you can call them on 0800 138 1111.
QWhy do I still get so much junk mail? A couple of years back, I signed up to the Mailing Preference Service and asked for all junk mail to stop. Things improved a bit for a while, but over the past six months or so, it’s got worse again.
I particularly get masses of leaflets from companies that I neither want nor requested. Do I need to register again to get these stopped?
AThe Mailing Preference Service aims to stop addressed mailed, and you should only need to register once. However, it will only stop mail if the sender is a member of the Direct Marketing Association, and the sender checks the list as they are required to. The good news is, you can submit an opt out form to stop some of this (look at the Royal Mail website for details). A ‘no junk mail’ sign on the letterbox might be worth a try.
Write to Fiona Caine c/o Hollie Busby, 1000 Lakeside, North Harbour, Portsmouth PO6 3EN or hollie.busby@jpimedia.co.uk Fiona regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence, nor pass letters on to other readers.