Hitting the wall

I've done a couple of half marathons and a full marathon so I know what it feels like to hit the wall. Like you just don't know how to get through it. And this is how I feel right now. Not physically, but economically and emotionally.

Back in March 2010 I was fortunate enough to get a new job (which I love) after being made redundant 3 months earlier. Fortunately I had a small amount of savings which would be used to make up the shortfall between what my new salary was and what our household needed to pay the mortgage, the bills and buy food. Everything had to be cut right back as my new salary was 44% less than my previous one. Thank god we had got ahead on our mortgage repayments whilst we were able to. I worked out that the savings would last until March 2011 but was confident that by that time either I would have found another job on a higher salary or Roland would have found a PAYE job with a regular income. We only need an additional £6k - I certainly wasn't expecting to be earning what I was back in 2009.

I was wrong. Despite both our best efforts we've not managed to find that little extra. And we've run out of reserves. At the end of June I have a small insurance policy that matures which means we should have reserves to last a further 10 months but I need to start thinking creatively now.

I am not going to start using credit cards getting up to my eyeballs in debt, and if another well-meaning friend says 'oh well, monetary wealth isn't everything' or 'stop being so negative: something will turn up' I swear I will punch them.