Last Christmas was too awful to even write about. New Year we spent with my family, courtesy of dad coming to fetch us. While we were there I helped mum pack away her decorations and her loft is a place of mysteries, an Aladdin’s cave so to speak. So naturally I started to poke around in interesting looking boxes, found my great gran’s diary from WW11; it was full of tips and comments on how to manage with shortages and restrictions. As a member of the W.I ( Womens Institute). they had a host of ideas to manage the rationing and G.Grans had written them all down in her diary with some sometimes scathing comments. Very funny to read and then I had a brainwave maybe I could get some ideas and guidelines to improve my situation from her. I have given it a go and am now in a position to say I have made changes and they have helped, not all from the diary but it was a good starting point.
A W.I meeting
My first step was to try and rethink how I used my money. One of the things I noticed when I read the diary was that money was cash, not virtual. Now like most I am paid into the bank monthly and I am on almost constant overdraft by next pay day. I also rarely have cash as I use my dedit card. So I decided to bring my cash home. Now I am not daft, I actually have a very secure safe in my basement left over from one of my ex.’s schemes. I got some envelopes and marked out what each was for. My mortgage, gas and electric are paid via standing order but I put the amount on the envelopes. My phone bill, internet, shopping and extras all had their own envelope. The idea behind to this was to remind myself of what I was spending. It was so easy to just use the debit card and pretend to be budgeting. This way I only used what I allowed for myself. I also planned in a time every week to do my accounts. Now I don’t intend to make this my lifelong habit, I just want to re-educate my thinking and spending habits and this seem a good hands on way to do it. Also I have managed to reduce my overdraft and subsequently my bank charges. You have to be strict though, no popping to the ATM when you feel like it. You draw your weekly amount and that is it. Cheat and the whole exercise is a waste of time.
livingtipsinatroubledeconomy 