Almost Five Months On

Not surprisingly, being out of debt for a short time hasn’t changed my life in any major way – same bedsit, same job, same daily routine, still no holidays yet – but it has made a difference in smaller ways.

For example, when I was dealing with debt, if I had half an hour to wait for a train I’d mope about looking at my watch every two minutes. Nowadays if there’s a coffee shop at the station I don’t feel guilty about sitting down comfortably with a cup of tea. Equally, I no longer feel guilty about occasionally not taking a packed lunch into work, buying something from one of the many sandwich bars near to the office instead, although I hasten to add it isn’t something I intend to make a habit of.

As my debt free day approached, I was warned by a few people who had been there and done it that I was likely to feel a bit deflated once the initial relief  at being debt free had worn off, and they were right. Juggling the debts around, looking out for the best deals on loans and credit cards, playing around with my spreadsheets and writing the monthly updates were a big part of my life for a very long time, so not having them there anymore did leave something of a gap. I think I'm almost over that stage now however, and can definitely say that watching the savings creep up more than compensates!

Looking ahead, I’m still grappling with the dilemma of how much of my new-found disposable income I should be saving in order to make up for lost time, and how much of it I should be spending in order to… make up for lost time. Can I have my lost time back please? I think at the moment I am erring towards the former, which is no doubt the result of all those years of dealing with debt. Old habits do die hard but I must make an effort to tackle that and get a better balance next year. Still, there are far worse dilemmas to have.

Good luck to all,

Gostevie