BALANCING the books is a skill from which everyone could benefit, Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has said at the launch of its campaign to encourage people to learn how to budget.
Darren Green has recently completed CAP’s free money-management course, and would recommend it to anyone. With the charity’s recent YouGov survey showing that 40 per cent of people do not know how to budget, there could be plenty of takers (News, 10 November 2023).
His family’s situation is far from unusual when, owing to a drop in the household income which coincided with the cost-of-living crisis, they were left almost imperceptibly drifting into debt.
“I was an ostrich with my head in the sand,” he says. When he walked into the money-management course at Welcome Church, in Woking, he didn’t expect to stay beyond the first session.
Instead, he completed the course, and the practical advice and support helped him to confront the gathering storm and to take action. A lifestyle overhaul was not required, he said, just better management and planning to get the family finances back on an even keel.
CAP continues to offer advice and support to those in debt around the UK, working with local councils and other service providers to help those whose borrowing has left them in a desperate situation.
The money-management course has run for several years alongside the debt counselling, helping people to forestall the ruinous cycle before it really begins.
At the start of this year, CAP launched a campaign, “Budget not Blues” (News, 5 January), encouraging people to take control of their finances and embrace budgeting, and it has scaled up the provision of its free money-coaching courses.
Welcome Church runs two courses — one on a Saturday, and another on a Monday, which is part of a drop-in café at which people can also use other CAP services.
On Monday, as people started to gather for lunch, one of the church’s pastors, Dub Everitt, explained why they were so glad to work with CAP. “To start with, we were just giving out a free lunch and hoping it would change people’s lives.” With CAP on board, “we are equipping people to change their lives.”
Tony Little, who worships at the church, is one of the money coaches on Mondays. He also emphasises how important budgeting is for everyone. “It doesn’t matter what your income is — you can be making a comfortable living — if if you get used used to spending to the limit, it is very easy to find yourself overspending.”