When I was made redundant, at the end of 2012, the biggest worry I had was how, as a family, we were going to survive financially over the Christmas period.
To go from being a dual income family, to only having my husbands wage, in one fell swoop was nothing short of terrifying to say the very least! And, knowing that Christmas was around the corner made the worry somehow worse.
As was the case for us and millions of other families, we lived right up to (and sometimes beyond) our means. Now we were one whole income above our means, and needed to find a way to deal with that, and cope with our normal day-to-day expenditure, plus the added burden of Christmas, until I could find myself another job.
One of the first things we did was re-evaluate our finances. I drafted up a spreadsheet so we could assess exactly where every penny was going, and we looked at ways in which we could reduce our outgoings, while at the same time ‘save’ some money.
At the forefront of my mind was reducing our current debts where we could, combined with the need for a source of cash we could dip into, should the need arise. I knew the quickest way we could reduce some of our immediate outgoings was to secure a lower interest rate on our credit cards, and consolidate the debt onto one card.
I searched online to compare credit cards so we could get the best possible deal available to us. We considered a credit card with rewards that would earn as we spent, but since saving was our main objective, we happily plumped for the 24 month 0% APR balance transfer deal, which would also offer us 3 months 0%APR on purchases too.
Knowing that I’d lowered our outgoings, even if just for the short-term, gave me a huge sense of relief. Even though I was expecting a redundancy pay out, it wasn’t going to come until almost a month after I’d been made redundant, and with Christmas falling during that period, it was a relief to feel the burden somewhat lifted. Without the facility the credit card offered us, it would’ve been the bleakest Christmases ever, for us at least.
The good news was, that with the new year, came my redundancy pay out, and I was in the fortunate position of being able to pay off a large portion of the debt I’d accrued on the card. Something which certainly helped me sleep better at night.
Happily, for me, the tale ended happily, and within 8 weeks of my redundancy I had the security of a new job, and once again a dual income. Although I’ll always be glad that I had that little safety net there to catch us…
Ellie is a working mum. In her spare time she spends far too much time waffling on the internet. She's a Twitter addicted Facebook fanatic, and an all round social media butterfly. You can also find her on Google + as Insomniac Mummy. She once walked across England and is planning on walking 100K in one day in May 2014 for Cancer Research. All she really wants is a good night's sleep...
