10 ways to boost your finances over Easter and keep ahead of the cost of living crisis

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The squeeze on households tightened in March as rapidly rising food and fuel prices sent inflation to another 30-year high, even before energy bills spiked at the start of April.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rose 7% in the year to March, up from 6.2% in February.

It was once more the highest point since March 1992, when inflation hit 7.1%. The rise was higher than the 6.7% analysts had expected and was driven by fuel, restaurant and food prices, dealing an added blow to households - petrol at 160.2p per litre on average in March and diesel at 170.5p, were both at record high prices.

However, March’s inflation does not take into account the average 54% hike in energy bills that was applied to around 22 million households at the start of this month.This will not appear in CPI figures until next month, when April’s data is expected to show another jump, further highlighting the increasing squeeze on ordinary people.While the financial and economic prospects for the rest of the year look bleak, the Easter break is the perfect time to take a deep dive into your outgoings, subscriptions and spending habits to get some changes put in place that could help you pay the expected increases.And if you do it rigidly, focused entirely on staying in the black, your finances could be better off by the end of the year.WEALTH at work, a leading financial wellbeing and retirement specialist, has shared a list of things that people can do to help them take control of their finances fast.Work out exactly what your income is, and what liabilities you have - for example, mortgage, debt, childcare, insurance and utility bills.