Bankruptcy Can Be a Good Option - But

Bankruptcy can be a very good option if you are in serious financial difficulty - it is certainly a better option than living with perpetual worry and uncertainty - but if you are looking to go down that route, please do take advice first from someone who can explain all the options and all the consequences fully.

The Government is presently proposing to reduce bankruptcy procedure to an on-line 'box ticking' exercise. The object is to remove the stigma attached to bankruptcy and reduce the delay many debtors experience between the presentation of the Petition and the making of the Bankruptcy Order.

On the face of it, this looks like a very good idea - but it isn't, because advice isn't part of the 'box-ticking' package.

Bankruptcy is a very serious step to take and it needs to be treated as such. Anyone considering bankruptcy needs to talk it through first at a face-to-face interview with someone who knows and understands all of the options available to people in serious financial difficulty. You will be able to get help and advice as to whether bankruptcy is the best option for you from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or from a Debt Charity.

Could Be the Year to Get Rid of the Lawn

My father was - along with a lot of other things! - a professional gardener, and he had an absolute hatred of lawns, however small. Grass was, he said, greedy and expensive unless something useful was eating it.

By 'something useful', he meant 'something edible' - and I recall that both of my parents could be quite reticent about the 'useful things' that they and their neighbours had kept in the back gardens of Wednesbury Road, Walsall during the war. Like communally owned, privately slaughtered (and probably illegal!) pigs and sheep...

Anyway! Coming back to lawns and grass, my father was quite right. Grass really is very greedy, very expensive, and very wasteful unless something useful is eating it.

No sheep? Get rid of the grass and grow something you can eat yourself. You'll need to dig it up, of course - and you'll need to do it soon. And afterwards you'll need to put back the nutrients that grass is so greedy of - but considering the price of veg today you'll find it worthwhile to make the effort and pay for the fertiliser and the seeds.

By the way - if you don't have a lawn, don't worry - my father was just as fanatical about window boxes and - when they appeared - 'Grow Bags' that can be propped against a wall, or set out on a balcony. And he was keen on growing vegetables and herbs along with the flowers in borders. He thought that vegetables could be just as ornamental as flowers - and I think he was right.

If you've never grown anything - give it a go! You can get lots of advice on-line - and lots of things will grow anywhere without too much encouragement. A few years ago, I walked past a small museum behind Spitalfields market. Something was growing out of the cracks in the pavement, and clinging to the front of the house. It had very pretty red flowers. Took me a minute to recognise it. It was runner beans. Dad would have loved that.

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com/

Free Credit File Service

Equifax compiles credit reporting data and creates a credit report reflecting your personal credit history. Under normal circumstances Equifax would provide you with an initial free report as part of a 30 day trial period, after which you would have to pay for information.

At the moment, however, Equifax has committed itself to help the debt distressed, and is working with all the key debt advice charities to provide free access to credit files.

If you are working with an established debt advice charity to get your financial situation sorted out, you can use Equifax's free credit file service. You will need to request your credit file from Equifax yourself, using a request form and a supporting letter from the debt advice charity. Your free credit report will arrive by post within 7 days of your request.

To find out whether Equifax is working with your debt advice charity visit your local Citizens Advice Bureau or check with The Citizens Advice Organisation on line.