The first year or so that Pete and I were self-employed, we had a huge drop in income. Well, we pretty much had no income. We had some savings, but we knew we had to make big savings in the budget if we were going to make it through to more affluent times.
We did the classic thing of making a budget – looking where all the money was going and then cutting out all the unnecessary expenditure. And then we deliberately added some leeway back in – because scrimping and saving every penny is only fun for about 5 minutes.
The first thing we allowed ourselves to spend money on was decent food – because eating cheap rubbish and feeling lousy was going to make us very miserable very quickly. We also loved watching films, so some entertainment was in the budget, but only up to a point.
I signed up for See Film First, which is a way to find out where free preview screenings are taking place near you. There aren’t many of them, but a free film every now and then is great and you’ll see things you wouldn’t normally pay to go and see – which makes it a real experience!
Pete had a mobile phone on an Orange contract, so we made good use of Orange Wednesdays – 2 for the price of 1 tickets on Wednesdays. We could go during the day, too, which is always fun, especially on the odd occasion when we ended up in the cinema alone and had a ‘private’ screening!
And thirdly, we continued our LoveFilm subscription, which we’d already started as a way of avoiding spending money on DVDs we would only watch once. If you opt for one of the unlimited packages then you can really rack up the films, for very little money. You can even save by paying upfront for several months or a whole year, and refer friends to get free stuff.
With nice dinners, the occasional trip out and a new movie nearly every night, we didn’t feel hard done by, and we made it through our hard times relatively painlessly.
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