Room to Grow YouEvery superhero should have their own origin story, here’s mine!
Yes, I just referred to myself as a superhero, because who else will?
If anything it gives me the confidence to move forward and follow new ideas, face more challenges, and learn from them.
The Breakup
It all started when my four-year-old daughter and myself were found with just one salary, mine, and a whole lot of joint debt with her dad on the credit cards.
This was left for me to repay, everything.
Other than that, I had no personal assets apart from a TV, washing machine, kettle, and toaster.
Renting
After a difficult split with the ex, I couldn’t afford to rent the apartment by myself so we had to leave the area of town where she had grown up.
Luckily the part of town where my job was located had lower-cost apartments, nearby kindergartens, and plenty of children’s parks.
We found an apartment that was almost half of my income if you include utilities, quite drafty and the tiles were slowly peeling off from the bathroom walls.
On the upside, it was a 10-minute walk away from the office and less than 10 minutes to her kindergarten so we ended up staying there for 3 years, draft and bad tiling and all.
With what was left of my monthly income I had to see where all the cash was going and as fortune would have it I started a job that was more related to financial management so I kind of applied what I learned about business finances to home finances.
If only I was aware of home budgeting tips and Pinterest pins to make my life easier back then. Shout out to @tuppennysfireplace for great single-income tips.
I would have used every trick in the book.
But unfortunately, I was left to battle it out by myself since no one was in the same situation as me, at least in my immediate surroundings.
Facing the credit card enemy
So what to do with half of my salary, and I am talking about less than 500$ at the time, when I knew I had my credit card debt, monthly ongoing expenses, and groceries to buy?
I first tackled the biggest item making a hole in my pocket and those were the credit cards.
I was literally paying more on interest than the monthly bill and it never went down.
There was also the bank overdraft, meaning it came to 0 when I got my earnings and went back to the max limit once I took out the cash.
So what to do?
I wish I could tell you that I scrimped and saved and my daughter and I ate bread and water but no, that didn’t happen.
Never underestimate the power of good friendships
I thankfully had a good friend who lent me the cash to close my credit cards and overdraft.
In all it was close to 3000$, it might not seem much, but with my salary, it was a lot.
I thankfully could pay this forward a couple of years afterward, when a good friend of mine needed a downpayment for her car.
This is not to say that I didn’t spend a good year and a half paying back my friend, but at least I wasn’t paying the bank any interest whatsoever. I even shredded my credit card just in case.
I kept the debit card as I cancelled the overdraft so I knew I couldn’t spend more than I had.
So how did we do it? How did the two of us manage to crawl out of that debt?
Note, her dad was providing for half of her basic expenses like kindergarten, clothes and extracurricular activities.
Saving on utility bills
Heating was a constant figure and could not be changed.
The lights were on mostly in the evenings when we were there and we had plenty of natural light.
We turned on the washing machine twice a week, no dryer because I had a big terrace so I could air dry the clothes, or on clothes racks in the winter, near the radiators.
All our appliances were not big spenders so costs were low in that regard.
Saving on Clothes
She was either wearing hand me downs, second hand or discounted items.
Because paying higher prices for something she will outgrow in two months just wasn’t worth the extra cash.
But there were a couple of statement pieces of course in the closet 🙂
As for me, during those two years, I don’t think I bought anything new other than some tennis shoes and boots. I also purchased second hand, I kind of like finding those branded gems someone had carelessly discarded.
Food
This is where I was lucky I guess and had big savings.
Julia would eat in kindergarten breakfast and lunch so there was only dinner as an expense, and since she always had cooked meals there, we usually had sandwiches, light pasta, or anything left over from the food I prepared for myself.
As for me, my job was so close I just went home and ate there!
We still had expenses in this regard but we always had the staples in our cupboard and could grab fast food here and there if needed.
Home Furnishings/Decorations/Appliances
We bought the minimum we needed.
Just a small convection oven with hobs, kind of like this one, I believe I only had 2 kitchen cabinets so we didn’t have a lot of dinnerware.
And if we did need anything in that regard, someone from the family or friends always had some extras or we got them as presents.
Bedding and draperies we bought either second-hand or I bought material and then sewed it.
It’s pretty easy because it’s all straight lines, nothing fancy.
Perhaps the only thing we splurged on was some Christmas decorations to brighten the place up, that was always a fun time to spend together shopping and preparing.
Toys and Books
Ah yes, toys were tricky.
She knew we couldn’t afford much but she did still have wishes, which I liked to fulfill if I could.
Luckily pocket-sized Hello Kitties and smaller sets of Lego Friends started appearing in shops so she was fine with playing with these.
Naturally, she would get lots of presents for birthdays and Christmas so, in the end, that was enough.
As for books, those were a painful spot because I liked buying them previous to the divorce.
So we compromised on buying books during discount offers or book fairs and also, joined a local children’s library so it didn’t seem that bad.
Living in this manner really showed me the benefits of minimal living.
It put me on the path of attaining financial freedom.
Right now, we have a lot of uniform ideas about living minimally
Everything needs to be in a neutral color meaning you have to buy replacement items to follow suit.
There are a lot of helpful organizational hacks that are good, don’t get me wrong, but you still have to buy the organizational products.
In the end, it all just comes down to having less stuff and using what you do have in multiple ways. You can read more about reaching a more sustainable lifestyle in my post here.
This is the end of Part I of my financial journey, stay tuned for the next one.
(*Just a teaser, I’ll be breaking down my expenses at the time, including some useful budgeting printables for you to use freely, and I’ll also show the savings scheme used to reach my first three salaries worth of savings and become more financially independent 🙂
roomtogrow81
