25 ways to boost your finances and beat the cost of living crisis this month

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The cost of living squeeze is going to get tighter this month as millions of households face soaring bills on top of a 1.25 percentage point National Insurance Contributions hike to help pay for health and social care across the UK.State Pension and other benefits delivered by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) will be uprated by 3.1% on April 11- but inflation could hit a 40-year high of 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).Eight benefits delivered by the Scottish Government will also increase this month, by 6%, to try and help more households mitigate the barrage of increased outgoings on everything from food, streaming TV services, broadband and mobile phone costs and of course, energy bills.Many money-saving lists are doing the rounds at the moment, some with really good tried and tested tips and tricks to help people reduce their outgoings.The one below hopefully has something for everyone, whether you’re living on your own or with a family, whatever age you are, and whatever your financial circumstances.

If you have a really good piece of money-saving advice that doesn’t appear on this list, please share it in the comments below or on our Money Saving Scotland Facebook group, so that we can create the ultimate, realistic list of things to do during these really challenging times.

Martin Lewis recently shared four things everyone needs to check before the current financial year ends on April 5, or they could be missing out on allowances or refunds.A tax code is used by an employer or pension provider in order to work out how much Income Tax to take from an individual's pay or pension.Tax code 1257L will be the most common tax code for the tax year 2021/22