As I write this, I am currently £2,667.66 in debt (and that is only my bit, my partner owes around the same amount of money), all because of various reasons, like trying to buy everything me and my other half need before my daughter arrived, needing to secure a new home really quickly as I was living in a bedsit, and just the fact that I wasn't as responsible as I should have been and I was very depressed, full of anxiety and heavily pregnant- these things are not good at what should be the happiest time of my life.
Over a matter of months, I got myself into more and more debt, and what hit me was last week, when I got paid, after going on a weekend trip away, we ended up spending WAY more than we thought we would, and were totally broke, with £5.00 in cash, and £28 between 2 credit cards left to last us till my payday, which was every friday, and we still had to buy formula, nappies, food,top up the electric meter and buy travel for myself to get to work.
This indeed, was one of the tightest months we have ever had, especially cos I had to resort to a payday loan in order to afford the rent. The first thing I thought when this happened was "sh*t, what am I gonna do?" and panicked so much! I think you could officially say that we we JUST surviving on the breadline.
So first of all we thought about what we had in the cupboards, and went to Sainsburys local to snap up a few staples to last us till Friday. We got a combination of things to make sweet chilli chicken, spaghetti bolognese, sausage and mash and pasta bake, which all came up to, say £8. That then left me to buy things for the baby and top up the meter and travel- then it came to me that the gates at the train stations that I use are usually open when I do my night shifts, so I could get away with not touching in with my oyster card, only then needing £10 (cheeky, but necessary!). Then I remembered that the local convenience shop sells formula a lot cheaper than the supermarkets, so that was £6.99 spent. It felt empowering that we still were on a roll even as broke as we were. Then there was the electric meter- I topped up £15 and was an eco warrior with the electric usage in the house, making sure everything was switched off and unplugged while not in use. Surprisingly all this left us with money left over! With lunch, I get a free meal at work, which was lucky, but my partner doesn't so he had to survive on pasta bake till I got paid (sorry hun!).
But after I got paid I thought "we are NOT getting ourselves into this position again!" and had so much drive to get myself and my Mr out of debt and on our way to financial freedom, as we both want so much in our lives. and be able to afford even the most basic things for our child without going totally broke. And I took steps towards financial freedom. I drew up a budget, I started meal planning, but most of all, I did this:
This was one of the toughest things to do because I thought, what if I need the money on my credit card for an emergency? and then decided to have an emergency fund jar for times that we need stuff and don't have the money. I think it's time I grew up and took active steps to gain some control back in my life.
Ify Katherine xo
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