Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night, your mind racing with a thousand thoughts?
Thoughts that through the day, don’t come into your mind because there is always a distraction?
Thoughts that are buried deep within your subconscious just waiting for the right moment to grab your attention when there is no distraction, when you have time to ponder and reflect?
Well this is what has happened to me the last week or so. Every night I have been going to bed and every night I wake up with my mind full of a thousand thoughts. Thoughts and worries about my future and my family’s future.
This has been brought on by the realisation we are only one payday away from not being able to eat. Not being able to pay our rent or afford to travel to work. The realisation that we have unmanageable debt which cannot be ignored any longer. The realisation that even before payday comes we are running out of money to eat and live!
I lay there thinking about my children, thinking about the life they have now and how being in this position will effect them going forward. All three of them are quite resilient and are quite contented with their lives; this doesn’t mean they don’t deserve better though does it.
So there you have the cold hard truth. If we don’t implement drastic changes ASAP then I feel we will be lost to a life of struggle, regret and “what ifs”.
What if we assess our lives and look to improve it?
What if we start to take back control of our finances?
What if we start to dream of a life with no debts?
What if we start to dream of a life of abundance?
It’s possible right? I mean others do it so why not. I’m fed up of living like this and angry; angry that I haven’t done something before now. Angry that it’s taken no food being in the cupboard and little money to realise this.
So now for the start of change.
For us to achieve these thing I mention above, there needs to be some serious planning, some serious decisions and a lot of sacrifices. It’s not going just be a case of working out our income, outgoings, and making a few changes to our budget; it’s going to mean a complete change of life.
We are going to have to analyse each part of our lives and audit it, so to speak, for us to be able to pinpoint and set a path to our goals.
This is indeed no easy task but to achieve great things it never is.
It’s my 35th birthday today. As a birthday present to myself I am going to start setting some goals, start drawing up a 
master plan. Over the next few days this is my plan:
- I am going to start putting together our SOA (statement of affairs). This will give us a detailed picture of our financial situation.
- I will start to look at the food we buy and try to meal plan (I’ve already got some great money saving recipes).
- I am going to start to brainstorming different ways we can increase our income.
That should get me on track and will give me a direction of where we’ll be going next.
I know it’s a long road ahead but with one step at the time we can achieve great things!
Ricky Willis is the original Skint Dad. A money-making enthusiast, father, and husband to Naomi. He is always looking for unique ways to earn a little extra.
