And here's why ....
After a series of disastrous financial decisions, a house move during the housing dip in 2009, reduced hours at work and stupidly putting day-to-day expenses on the credit cards (and not paying off in full each month) I found myself drawn into the ever-downward spiral of debt. Thankfully, I had my 'lightbulb moment' and contacted the marvellous Payplan who helped me to set up a workable budget. After working out my living costs, they then contacted all my creditors to arrange a repayment schedule. Some of the creditors accepted and froze the interest, some were less understanding of my situation. However, I am still making my monthly payments to Payplan who, in turn, are paying my creditors.
It was incredibly scary cutting up the credit cards - my safety net had been taken away! Until I realised that it wasn't a safety net at all - rather a cage from which there was no escape until I was debt free. That debt free date is currently 2034!!! Eeek. Of course, I am hoping to clear my debts much sooner than that which is why I need to cut right back this month. I had an unexpected vet's bill in August which emptied my savings account so that has to be built up again if I am to produce any sort of Christmas at all for my family.
So I will be:
- menu planning
- shopping from - and ONLY FROM - my list
- walking wherever I can
- putting on a jumper rather than the heating
- using up stores from the larder and freezer
- making all meals from scratch rather than buy ready meals. To be fair, I am a cookery teacher so I have very, very rarely bought ready meals!
- thinking ahead to the 'C' word and planning some homemade gifts.
I find that many people nowadays who are having to cut back are feeling cross and angry that their money isn't stretching as far as it used to. I see it as a liberating challenge. No longer having the luxury (ha, ha) of buying what I wanted, when I wanted it, I have now learnt to distinguish between a 'need' and a 'want' - you would be surprised how much stuff you think you need but actually only want. Adverts, of course, have a lot to answer for. They make us believe that we all need their products to remain healthy, have a comfortable house, a car to make the neighbours envious etc. etc. etc. All poppycock!
The more you can cut out consumerism from your life, the happier you will be - I promise you. Trouble is, you need to have some sort of lightbulb moment to make you realise that. If you simply try to stop spending, you will fail. You have to know WHY you are stopping spending and have a goal to work towards. For me, that goal is being debt free.
Have you had your lightbulb moment? What are your goals?
I love this challenge. Best of luck. My goal is to live more frugally and to find ways to reduce our grocery shopping. We seem to be buy less for our money these days and can only guess the prices must be increasing.
ReplyDeletex
So far, Stoptober! is going well. You are right though - prices are certainly going up and we are getting less for our money. Beware the old supermarket trick of making pack sizes smaller for the same money too.
DeleteI have kept a 'price book' for the past 18 months so can prove that prices are increasing.Best of luck with your frugal goal!