Maybe you were looking forward to the end of Christmas, but we have some bad news. The Christmas hangover is not only a consequence of excess alcohol, because the excesses have been of everything. We’ve spent up all night, we’ve spent time with food, we’ve spent time with the family, and we’ve spent time with gifts. Yes, Christmas only lasts two weeks, but the consequences are felt for a good season. If not, the January slope would not be so steep.
What awaits us in January?
In a proper start to the year, a list of good resolutions cannot be missing, a talk with your children about their behavior in the coming months, a new weight-loss diet on the fridge door and a rescue from the bottom of the shelf of your English books But in reality, the new year does not begin until the electric company, the gas company and the transport companies in your city announce the obligatory increase in prices.
Knowing that this is the case, the only thing we can do is prepare our pockets, already battered, after the Christmas excesses and the cuts derived from this endless crisis. If every year you had to tighten your belt to overcome the slope of January, this year, you will also have to hold your breath. But don’t worry, because we will make it.
The first thing you have to do is sit down and review all the expenses. It would be nice to make a selection of mandatory payments, those that you can in no way avoid, and separate them from dispensable expenses. Remember that to objectively distinguish what is necessary from what is expendable, you may need to make the selection more than once.
Eliminate expenses
Mandatory payments are the mortgage or rent, electricity, gas and food. It wouldn’t be bad if you reviewed the options to pay less on your phone bill and yes, we accept ADSL as a necessary expense, but since you have Internet, you probably won’t need pay TV. Nor do you need that subscription to the nature magazine, no matter how much you contribute to some ecological cause.
It is about reducing expenses as much as possible and obviously you will have to give up certain comforts. Although the prices of public transport go up every year, it will always be cheaper than using your own car. And if you don’t want to stay at home because you have the right to enjoy your leisure time, we support it, but choose those shows with a discount, or the day of the spectator at the cinema, or the day of free admission to the museums.
A good way to overcome the January slope without suffering from anxiety is to check the progress we make in saving. And many times we do not take into account that simple gestures such as not leaving electrical appliances connected, closing the windows properly when we turn on the heating or doing the weekly shopping in the supermarket responsibly can make a difference to make ends meet without too much stress.
