This post is brought to you in association with Vanquis

The problem with being self-employed is that no one really believes you when you tell them how much money you earn. Until you have it in black and white, on a little slip of paper from your accountant, you could pluck any figure out of thin air. That’s not ideal when it comes to borrowing money. Credit card companies and banks tend to like to know they’re lending to a “safe bet” type person, with a salaried job that gives them sick pay and holiday pay and all the other things you get with being an employee.

The thing is, lots of people (including many mums I know) aren’t in that position. Like many mothers, I went self-employed after having a baby. I wanted the flexibility of working around my daughter, the ability to earn more money than my old job and the challenge of trying something new.

At the time, borrowing money was not at the front of my mind. But now, as we hurtle towards applying for a mortgage, I’m more than a little aware that my self-employed status may not be looked on with such excitement by a lender.

That’s where Vanquis comes in. Vanquis provides credit cards to people who may have had issues with getting credit in the past. Perhaps – like me – you’re self-employed, or maybe you’ve had problems with an old credit agreement. These are the types of reasons why mainstream card companies will often refuse to loan to people, but Vanquis looks beyond the paper and gives the likes of me a chance.

They also offer a handy Vanquis Budget Planner, which helps you really look into your incomings and outgoings each month. It means you have a clear idea of what you can afford to borrow and where you can make savings.

This is the kind of budget planner that would have come in really handy for me 18 months ago. When we first started saving hard, we weren’t too sure of where we could make those cuts without it really affecting our lifestyle. It’s taken a good few months of strenuous saving to help us realise it IS possible to budget without having to live on gruel every day or walk 40 miles to work to save on petrol. Little changes can have a big impact, when all added together.

What small changes have you made to help budget for bigger things?

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