The sky’s the limit if you put your mind to it

Your reaction to this post is going to go one way or another; you’ll love it or hate it, either way I’m going ahead with posting.

I had a conversation with a former work colleague and friend on the phone today. It was our normal type of call, her moaning about her life, her work, just about anything she could think of.  I listened for so long until she made a snarky comment that went along the lines of ‘well it’s all right for you, you got out’.  I took a breathe, kept calm, and asked her what was stopping her getting out.

She proceeded to come up with a multitude of answers, mainly all to do with money and how she hasn’t got any. ‘Why? Why haven’t you got any money?’  ‘I don’t know really, it just goes doesn’t it.’  ‘Well no it doesn’t just go, you [and your husband] must spend it on something’ – they have no children.  By now she was getting really uppity and defensive and I didn’t want to point out the obvious [to me] areas where she was overspending; housing, socialising, cruises, the husband’s posh car, so I came up with an excuse to get off the phone.

After mulling over the conversation in my head this afternoon I decided to write this post.

Whatever age you are, married, single, divorced, a parent, not a parent, it is never too late to change your life.

In 2005 I had £45,000 of consumer debt. £45,000. Now if you didn’t know this already then you probably need to pick yourself up off of the floor right now, but if you did know, then this is not a shock.  Move forward to December 2009 and it was all paid off; not easily, it was hard work, but none the less, it was all gone.

So how did I do it?  Well I wised up about money and quit overspending. I started to say no to the kids; they fought me all the way at first, but I stuck to my guns and said no to nearly everything they wanted, not needed.  I worked hard at my job, a job I hated, and got myself promoted a couple of times.  I sold nearly everything I owned and I learned to live frugally.

Those five years were the best five years of my life up until that point.  Not because I was in debt, but because I was in control of my life for the first time.

Paying off my debt was the catalyst for me being able to quit my job and take a few months off.  Yes I had the support of a working spouse [who loves his 40 hours a week job and doesn't want to quit] but it’s the simple way that we live and the way that we manage our money that makes it work. 

There is no magic formula to living the lifestyle you want for yourself or your family,  it takes a lot of hard work, I know, I’ve done it, but you can live on less and still have holidays, you can do anything you want to, you just have to realise that.

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