We’re all going on a summer holiday, no more worries for a week or two… Ah, Sir Cliff’s song still rings true for many at this time of the year, but funding a summer break can still cause a seriously furrowed brow.

If you’re aiming to get away for a week or two in the sun (or even the rain) here are a few Wonga tips for cutting back on costs and making sure you enjoy yourself without being left in debt until Christmas.

1. Be as flexible as our unique cash advance service! In other words, if your budget is limited, start with an open mind about where you might consider going, for how long and when. Lots of websites and traditional travel agents will provide inspiration and you can still find plenty of last minute deals if you’re not set on a particular destination or type of accommodation.

2. Book smart. If you’re prepared to commit yourself early and have the cash available, consider booking up to a year in advance when there are plenty of cheap seats and hotel rooms still available. That’s right - get next year’s holiday booked now! This may seem extreme but most agents, whether on or offline will be more than happy to find you a deal to start filling their books for next season now.

3. Be a night owl. If you’re prepared to catch flights, ferry crossings or trains at unsociable hours you’ll find better prices and it’s a small sacrifice to make.

4. If you’re set on going abroad, find out which countries you’ll get more Wonga for your pound first. Destinations such as South Africa are currently very cheap because the pound is strong.

5. Check your Nectar Points or Airmiles if you’re in such a reward scheme. You may be able to pay part or all of your travel expenses that way.

6. Not everyone is as transparent as Wonga when it comes to pricing. So make sure you shop around and read the small print when shopping for flights. Many budget airlines are introducing more add-on fees for everything from checking in to using the toilet. Make sure you understand all the costs you’ll be charged before booking.

Whatever you’re doing this summer, have a great break. And, should you need any last-minute cash, remember a short term loan from Wonga can provide you with funds that you can repay on a date that suits up to a month later.

Inspired by a recent article by the Times, here are a few tips for the so-called Credit Crunch Generation -students who are graduating into a world where jobs are increasingly hard to come by and banks aren’t always willing to help. As the Times points out:

As the UK jobless total soared past the 2.26m mark this month, David Blanchflower, the economist, said unemployment among young people had become a “national crisis”. The number of under-25s claiming jobseeker’s allowance has increased by more than 200,000 to 456,000 in the past 12 months, and almost 20% of those aged 16 to 25 are unemployed.

Grim reading indeed. So here are some suggestions for young people keen to keep their finances in good order while looking for that big break…

1. Check the terms of your current bank account, especially where overdrafts are concerned. You might not benefit from student deals for much longer, but see what you can hang onto and switch to a graduate, rather than regular account. Beware of huge overdraft fees should you go over your limit too - your bank is unlikely to be as understanding now you’ve no longer got student status. That means you could be charged as much as £20 per day for slipping over your limit with a regular account!

2. Consider moving back home. OK, so you’ve just been enjoying a taste of freedom, and the last thing you want to do is sponge off your folks, but you can come to an agreement about helping with bills and if you can find any kind of bridging employment you’ll actually be able to save for a deposit much faster than if you’re paying full rent. It could be a compromise worth making and setting a defined time period gives you  a clear goal. You won’t have to worry about repaying your student loan until you’re earning national average wage. 

3. Get into good habits right away and start a budget. It’s easy with a free service like ours and will make you feel more in control of your cash, even if you’re on a limited income for the time being. 

4. Always do your research when considering credit of any kind. A flexible Wonga loan can help with urgent expenses and means you’re not saddled with long term debt for example, but it wouldn’t be a good way of financing a car purchase. Likewise, a traditional bank loan may seem appealing but will require a long term commitment. There’s more information about borrowing and debt on our website.

An investigation by Which? this week has exposed how much of your hard-earned cash you could be throwing away, depending on where you get your holiday wonga. Airports offer some of the worst exchange rates, having last minute or unprepared travelers at their mercy!

Holiday makers seeking to get the biggest bang for their buck (sorry, sterling) should always spend a little time shopping around. Here’s the low-down from Which?

… the best deals for $500 were obtained from city centre bureaux de change and online currency providers. The most expensive providers were, unsurprisingly, the airport bureaux de change - if you don’t think about currency til you’re about to fly off into the sun, you are a captive market.

We also found that, while the Post Office online offers a good exchange rate for US dollars (it gave us the sixth-cheapest rates on average over six dates), the rate you’d get if you just strolled into a branch would be far less attractive. If using the Post Office is convenient, it is best to buy online, if possible, and opt for branch pick-up as there is no delivery fee (unlike home delivery).

The difference between the best and worse providers for $500 was more than £40.

When you’re buying currency, the best option is to pay with cash, although this is obviously not possible if you’re buying it online and have to pay upfront.

If you can, pay with a Maestro card, rather than by Visa, Amex or MasterCard, to avoid paying a cash transaction charge that will blow away any favourable exchange rate.

Wonga is all for money saving and careful budgeting, but surviving the credit crunch can be a gloomy business and we all need cheering up from time to time. That’s why we’ve been giggling over a spoof list of thrifty tips for saving a quick quid on Lovemoney.com.

Judging from some of the comments left, not everyone has understood they were having their leg pulled, but some of these suggestions certainly made us laugh…

1) Don’t pay babysitters. Instead, “get young couples who are thinking about having kids to ‘rent’ yours for the evening. They get to see what it will be like, and you can get paid instead of paying for sitters.”

2) Tell everyone you’ll be out of town for Christmas. “That way, you can shop in the January sales for presents.”

3) Scour the office for the humble penny. “A good place to find money is on people’s desks. If you look in the cup that has pens and pencils or the container that holds the paper clips and rubber bands you can be sure to find small coins covered with lint.” (Editor’s note: This is stealing. So I don’t recommend it.)

4) Stamp out food waste in the kitchen. “After eating avocado, rub the inside of the skin against your face, it makes a great face pack. You can also use it to buff your shoes.”

Alternatively:

“I buy whole milk and when nobody is looking the milk gets a good glug of water from the tap to eek it out a little further.”

Or:

“When we have toast and jam, I spread the butter on the outside edges of the toast and spread the jam in the middle to fool my other half. Looks proper but doesn’t really taste any different.”

5) Toilet tips. “Squeeze a loo roll into an oval shape. It doesn’t roll out so easily - and kids tend not to use yards at a time!”

6) Car costs. “Park forward-facing when possible; reversing takes more gas.”

Of course if you’re seriously interested in getting better control of your finances, we strongly suggest using a budget. Use Wonga’s free budget service, it’s easier than you might think.

Yep, it’s perhaps one of the worst kept secrets since it was rumoured that Barack Obama might be the next president of the US, but the UK is officially now in recession. Here’s an extract from a Guardian article published this morning.

The UK economy contracted by a worse-than-expected 1.5% between October and December from the previous quarter, beating the quarterly declines seen during the 1990s recession, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed today. This followed a 0.6% slump in the third quarter. Two or more consecutive quarters of contraction are regarded as a recession.

The fall in fourth-quarter GDP was the biggest since the second quarter of 1980, the year of the Bristol riots, the Iranian embassy siege and British Leyland’s launch of the Metro.

Alan Clarke of BNP Paribas believes that the UK is not even half-way through the downturn yet, and predicted that GDP will continue to shrink through 2009.

“It’s a case of two quarters down, four to go,” Clarke said. “All the indications are that this recession is worse than the one of the early 1990s.”

It’s set to be a tough time with plenty of worry about job security and the cost of living, so make sure your finances are in the best possible order. The easiest thing you can do is maintain a budget. Check out our free budget calculator service. It doesn’t take long to get started and can really help put you in control of your wonga.

While plenty of people will be looking forward to Christmas, this year will no doubt be a stretching one for many. And with financial strain usually comes stress.

It’s an expensive time of year and the pressure to ‘buy’ yourself a happy Christmas can be intense. Whether it’s your desire to buy the right presents, to cook up a festive feast for the in-laws or just afford the basics like Christmas cards, it can be a worrying (as well as wonderful) time.

So with the Credit Crunch all over the media like an unsightly rash, it’s no surprise there’s a mountain of money saving tips out there right now. Try searching for ‘money saving Christmas’ and you’ll get over 1.3 million results. Thankfully you can always count on Wonga to keep things simple!

We’ve trawled cyberspace for you and sorted the wise from the wacky. Here are our favourite five tips to have yourself a merry little Christmas on a budget.

1. Set yourself a realistic limit on everything from presents to food and stick to it. Most overspending occurs when you’re not thinking, stressed and get lured into an impulse purchase. So make sure you write down your limits and make it a challenge to beat them.
2. It’s easy to borrow in haste and repent at leisure, so make sure you consider any credit very carefully before committing. Loans and credit cards can seem appealing at times of financial stress, but they don’t mean an end to your cash worries, they merely delay them until the new year. A Wonga loan is a short term loan designed for short term cash flow problems. That means you won’t be left making repayments come next summer, but you should still consider whether you could really do without the cash before applying.
3. Don’t succumb to unspoken pressure to have the perfect Christmas. For example, if you’ve been giving and receiving presents of a certain value with your family for years, don’t assume it has to be so this year. Discuss more sensible budgets or even the idea of a ‘Secret Santa’ gift approach, where you all spend £5 on one person and have a bit of fun. You might find everyone’s relieved at the idea of spending less this year. And it wasn’t so long ago that the season of goodwill didn’t entail spending a small fortune on pressies!
4. Entertainment needn’t cost and arm and a leg either. Classic TV and walking the excess grub off are both part of Christmas tradition, so don’t feel you have to be in a pub, restaurant or cinema to enjoy yourself. Get back to basics and enjoy just being with friends or family. Knowing you’re saving cash should help you relax too.
5. Finally, let’s cheat! Here are a few thrifty suggestions rolled into one… Send eCards for one year, tart up cheap brown wrapping paper with a roll of ribbon, buy new decorations after Christmas for 75% savings, spend any reward points you’ve earned this year and check out low-cost gift guides like this one from the Guardian. Oh, and shop around for the best price on EVERYTHING - retailers are struggling too.

Some great money tips from The Times to beat the (very nearly official) recession here. Sections include how to boost your income and ten ways to manage your debt. Worth a read.

The Times has published a fascinating and useful list of money saving tips from the Women’s Institute. Fifty thrifty tips no less! Some of them sound rather quaint - how many people store their food in a pantry these days?! But you can’t argue with the logic and most people would benefit from a quick refresher on sensible money management.

Here’s the top 10 as a taster. Enjoy and don’t forget to ‘think tupperware’!

1. Forward-plan your shopping. Five or ten minutes of planning what you need can save money as well as time.
2. Check the pantry. Finding out what you have from last week before you go shopping will save you money. Also look through recipe books to see if you can do something with leftovers rather than throwing them out.
3. Make a list and shop once a week. When you go shopping take a menu for the week as well as a list so you buy only what you need.
4. Never go shopping when you are hungry. Shopping once a week instead of two or three times also saves on petrol.
5. Don’t BOGOF. Don’t go for buy-one-get-one-free offers unless you know you will use the extra.
6. Look at cost per unit, or number of portions rather than overall price in the supermarket.
7. Ignore sell by dates. Don’t throw something away just because it has gone past its use by date as some things, like yoghurts, are often ok to eat until a couple of days later.
8. Think tupperware. Store things correctly, in airtight containers, so that they last for longer and do not go soft.
9. Buy cheap. Don’t shun supermarket value ranges. Basic items such as pasta are just as good as branded versions.
10. Know your portion sizes so you do not cook too much. Bulk out meals with frozen peas and sweetcorn.

An article on thisismoney.co.uk paints another gloomy picture of Britain’s economy today, with poor growth in the services sector and a dissapointing bank holiday weekend for retailers…

“There was also grim news on the High Street in the wake of a miserable bank holiday weekend for retailers in London and around the country.

“Exclusive research for the Evening Standard by SPSL showed Saturday was particularly bad in the capital, with shopper numbers down 3.8% on the equivalent day last year.

“Retailers fared slightly better on Sunday when footfall was down 0.8%, but the improvement could not hide the pain on what was seen as a vital weekend for struggling stores.”

Consumers are certainly starting to feel the pinch in a very real way. The rising cost of gas, leccy, petrol and grub, plus uncertainty over housing and tightening of lending criteria by banks are all contributing. It’s a sensible time to minimise your long-term credit commitments as far as possible - credit cards, overdrafts and bank loans.

It’s worth making a list of what you owe, who you owe it to and what the repayments are. You should also make sure you find out the early repayment terms of any such commitments and work out if you can reduce some of the balances or even pay off a loan ahead of time without being penalised.

Although it’s easier said than done, it’s worth cutting down on any luxuries in the short-term if it means you might be able to reduce your outstanding debt during turbulent times. Use Wonga’s budget tool to assist you.

A recent BBC article highlighted new figures from CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention agency, which show that more people are lying in applications for loans and credit cards in the hope of covering up a poor credit history…

“Lies on application forms have risen by 13% from 19,239 in the first three months of 2007 to 21,780 in the first quarter of 2008.”

“The most frequent lie, according to CIFAS, was failing to disclose a previous address where the applicant had a poor credit history.”

It’s never a good idea to withhold information, or use misleading information in any application for credit. Not only is it fraud, but providers of financial services share information and any such record would seriously damage your ability to gain credit in the future.

If you are concerned about your credit history then the best thing to do is order a report from one of the major credit agencies, such as Call Credit, and seek advice about how you can improve it. Prevention is always better than cure, but you’ll find plenty of webistes offering tips on steps you can take.

Here are just a few examples: Thisismoney, uSwitch, TimesOnline and MoneySavingExpert.