If you are concerned don't bury your head in the sand; act now and you could prevent the worst. Read these tips and help yourself out of a sticky situation.

• If you're out of work, make sure you're receiving all the benefits you and your family are entitled too – that's what you pay your taxes for after all! Similarly if you're entitled to tax credits, make sure you're claiming those too. For information on benefits, have a look at the fact sheets on the Direct Gov website and to find out more about tax credits visit the dedicated Inland Revenue site.

• If you're working, see if there are ways you can increase your income. Perhaps you could work some extra hours, or if your time allows it, get another part time job to do some evenings or weekends.

• Aside from working more hours, there are other ways to boost your income. You could rent out a spare room if you've got one; and the income would be tax-free! See my post here for more on this.

• After you've managed to get a bit of extra cash coming in, you can work on reducing your outgoings with some savvy cost-cutting at home. Find out how here.

• Then you need to take a careful look at your spending in a typical week. Keep a record of everything you buy and then make a concerted effort to cut back on the non-essential items. By keeping a spending diary and make a budget, I managed to save my housemate as much as £50 in a week. See how here.

Hopefully taking all these small steps should help to make it easier for you to meet your mortgage repayments each month. If you're still feeling the pressure, it's OK. There are plenty of charities out there who can offer you free help and advice; talk to Shelter or the Consumer Credit Counselling Service.