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Getting bored of it...

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Whilst I'm really excited about making steps to pay my debts off, and happy to cut back, its such a slow and at times frustrating process, and lately I'm starting to get really, really bored.
I'm fed up of not being able to go out for meals or just a few drinks in the local. I'd really love to do something like a dance class or learning a language, but at the moment I feel like I just can't justify the expense. So I'm sat at home in the evenings (alone most nights cos OH works night shifts a lot) reading my library books, watching my free DVDs and cooking my economy range spaghetti thinking (teenager style) "I'm sooo borrreeeddd...!" its almost enough to throw you off the wagon.
So I'm just wondering how the rest of you cope with it. Free or super cheap ways to have a life and not get totally fed up with the whole DFW lifestyle?
Thanks, I need ideas/ a boost here.
"People who "do things" exceed my endurance,
God for a man who solicits insurance..." - Dorothy Parker
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Comments

  • CosmoCat
    CosmoCat Posts: 681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    i'm afraid i have no ideas or boosts. but i do have to agree that i feel exactly the same way. not only do i find it boring, i sometimes find it wholly depressing!

    one thing i do is long on daily to my accounts to see if my balances are what they're supposed to be, i.e. not in overdraft, debt going down, and focus on that.

    i'm joining your bandwagon....help
    MFW Newbie - #17. (#116 in 2019)
    New Mortgage at Nov 19 - £273 499
    Current Balance - £268 225
    Want to cut down 26 year mortgage by 9 years!
    New MF date 2036 :dance:
  • Whilst I'm really excited about making steps to pay my debts off, and happy to cut back, its such a slow and at times frustrating process, and lately I'm starting to get really, really bored.
    I'm fed up of not being able to go out for meals or just a few drinks in the local. I'd really love to do something like a dance class or learning a language, but at the moment I feel like I just can't justify the expense. So I'm sat at home in the evenings (alone most nights cos OH works night shifts a lot) reading my library books, watching my free DVDs and cooking my economy range spaghetti thinking (teenager style) "I'm sooo borrreeeddd...!" its almost enough to throw you off the wagon.
    So I'm just wondering how the rest of you cope with it. Free or super cheap ways to have a life and not get totally fed up with the whole DFW lifestyle?
    Thanks, I need ideas/ a boost here.

    Just think after this process that you'll never ever have to make another phone call to a DCA, never fear opening a letter, never be scared of answered the phone again and that dreaded question "can you confirm the first line of your address and your post-code please?"

    When i am bored I just write about anything really, anything that annoys me, makes me happy or whatever. Or you can for a jog etc there are plenty of things to do.

    Good Luck
  • Awww, hugs hun!! Know what you mean!! Especially when mates are all out!! I've taken up jogging which is free!! And means I can pound out feelings of boredom and frustration on the tarmac!! Go walking. I do still go out to the local but only have a lime and soda (50p!) or put a bit away each week so that I can do something, like tonight, going for a chinese. Coming on MSE helps too!!! :p
    Official DFW Nerd no. 082! :cool:
    Debt @ 01/01/2014 £16,956 Debt now: £0.00 :j
    Aims:[STRIKE] clear debt, get married, buy a house[/STRIKE] :D ALL DONE!!
  • Quincifer
    Quincifer Posts: 228 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I know how you feel! I can't afford to go home for any longer than one week this summer so i'm stuck in a big house all on my own for 3 months!
    I can't help but think I deserve it for putting myself in this position (my debt has nothing to show for it and I despise myself for it) but then I agree as above that I can't wait until I no longer have to dread the post and checking that direct debits have gone out.
    At least i've learnt young and hopefully i'll be a more responsible adult in a few years time!
    xxx
  • 8pnoodles
    8pnoodles Posts: 295 Forumite
    I get presents of money for birthdays and xmas for going out and stuff.

    I collect pigsback vouchers (me and OH) which allows us to have a trip to TGI Fridays every now and again. I'm always sending off for freebies.

    And occasionally, I hate to admit it, I will blow my budget a bit. I do have some leeway between my minimum repayments and what I pay off, so some months I'm very strict and others I'm more relaxed. I need to do this or I'd go insane and never stick to this. And sometimes when I do spend, I feel guilty and that gets me back on the straight and very narrow again. lol

    I also have phases of getting fit/doing exercise dvds I already have or borrow/running/long walks which keeps me amused, makes me feel like I'm achieving something and is free. I ghave spent on a few things whilst in debt - I got my pet rats, I bought half a kayak clubbing together with OH so we can both go and I recently got a digital camera. Yep the outlay was a bit of a chunk but all these things are now gonna keep me amused until I'm debt free. And we're making money with the camera too, with H2B's business. Our photography business is fab fun, it's great to be able to do this together and it's actually bringing in money!

    I get inventive too, we buy Tesco's own perry which is 84p a bottle and put a strawberry in it and drink out of champagne flutes, and OH cooks a fab stir fry or something and it feels dead posh. And honestly? It tastes better than most pub/restaurant food too.

    If you are that bored, can you volunteer somewhere to get you out and doing stuff? Or do some bar work if you are sociable? or go on holiday teaching english to students abroad, so your accomodation is paid for? Get inventive on the internet.
    Pay off CC debt by Xmas 2017 #095 £0 of £11,416 :eek:
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I dont know where you are but London and other cities are fab for freebies

    Me & OH have looked at having "no spend weekends" well, not entirely no spend, but very cheap indeed, not paying to get in anywhere type stuff. It was a bit depressing, then we found on the weekends we were spending nothing 2 free festivals with some amazing music on!! So we are off to the Croydon World music festival which I cant wait for ( De la soul! Ojos de brujo!!!) and the Rise festival with Roy Ayers, the buzzcocks :dance:
    Taking picnic and beers from the local offy instead of buying on site, getting a blanket down and having a lovely day of it :D

    Have a look into your local council for courses as well, my local council costs £17 for courses for 10 weeks, if you can justify spending that ( and self improvement is always worth small spends I think), then go for it!

    The other thing you could look at is volunteering. Its free, giving something back and sometimes you even get your bus fare or other expenses. Ive done a few different volunteering things over time, worked distributing food to the homeless, something more serious and child protectiony, and some work for another org with helping children from deprived backgrounds go on holiday.
    They are all fairly serious and were for a "career move" more than out of boredom, but there are literally hundreds of opportunities, and Im certain theres something for you. If you have particular skills or enjoy drama, music dance anything like that you could volunteer with kids charities, or if you like IT theres schemes loking for people to support ex-homeless people learn to use office/ internet etc. Really I cannot recommend volunteering enough, its something that Im going to go back into when Im feeling a bit better and I cant wait!!!!!
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
  • PeachPickle
    PeachPickle Posts: 9,924 Forumite
    Do you have any friends that speak foreign languages? My friend and I get together in an attempt to learn french. We bought a couple of books and things together, and I'm the instructor on the basis that I did A level french 8 years ago :rolleyes: But seriously, we have a great laugh, costs very little and we do actually learn a bit!

    I agree with melabarrie too, watching the money go down is a great motivator. We probably all have our difficult times, and I'm sure we can all help each other through them :)
    DFW Nerd #104 I :heartpuls my Kitten :)and my hat :heartpuls
    OD Girls on Tour 08 - Barcelona - HUGE SUCCESS!
    OD Girls on Tour 09 - Dublin - November!!
    If you believe you can achieve innit!
    Sexy beer?
  • Broken_hearted
    Broken_hearted Posts: 9,553 Forumite
    I get really bored and down with it all. At the end of the day I have no choice I have to get debt free if I want to go back to uni and retrain.
    Barclaycard 3800

    Nothing to do but hibernate till spring






  • ms_london
    ms_london Posts: 2,852 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    It is boring. I was thoroughly depressed when I was in debt, perhaps moreso at the start when I had NO money, two jobs, and I didnt go out all or do anything. My life was get up work, work at 2nd job, sleep and then do all the same again. The only thing that kept me going was being out of debt, and gradually things got better, I had a bit more spare money & my debt free was around the corner (well, not really, but in sight - was counting it down from bl**dy 18 months to go!! :rolleyes: ).

    It will be the only time in your life you have to do it (unless you get into debt again!!), and it will be so worth it when your debt free date comes.

    Try and take advantage of all the free/money saving things you can do - you'll probably find that most people are on a budget, but not everyone talks about it, so read the local papers and find places you can eat out with an offer on, or use the happy hour.

    When we're used to spending way above our means, its not realistic to be thinking you can go out 3 times a week (although people do and I dont know how).

    I hope you feel happier soon. xx
  • CAFCGirl
    CAFCGirl Posts: 9,123 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    If its a new language you're after learning, does your library (whcih you already mentionned) not have any tapes/cd's etc. My local one does and they have quite a few varieties! If you can call them that!

    I get bored a lot of the time too and when I posted previously a lot of people commented that it's just about finding your niche in the DFW world. Some people can live for months not going out and only ever spending money on the debts etc, growing their own meals and the such, whereas others, every so often need a little time out from it all. I fall into the later category.

    I spend most of my evenings by myself, as BF doesnt live with me, and is pretty far away, and flatmate doesnt really have money troubles (yet!) and so she's often out. My solaces have been this website and updating my own super self indulgent diary thread (blatant plug there, sorry!), reading, watching dvd's that I bought with every intention to watch and never have, organising paperwork etc, creating budgets spreadsheets, as well as the not so dfw parts, like having an evening of cake making (mmmmmmmmmmmm) and a night of pampering with the many lotions and potions that seem to be never ending!

    As previous poster mentionned, walks and exercise are always good, a jog costs nothing, gets you out the house, you soon catch eyes with others doing the same, so its a nice routine in that sense. Exercise dvds are good too, you could rent those from a library couldn't you?

    Are you into anything artistic, say like drawing or painting, maybe even some creative writing, whenever the muse is open you :)

    Maybe an evening of charity bags organising, making way for your new life?

    Sorry I'm a bit philosophical on those kind of things at the moment!
    Maybe you're like me and used to spend money on things you kinda thought you wanted, certainly didnt need and have never used! Mine at the moment is a juicer, so thats a plan for one evening, is to juice my entire household! Or maybe just some fruit! So maybe you've got an applicance lying around that could do with coming out the box?
    Mine also includes a face steamer and a foot spa......... I ask you!

    I'm rambling a bit here but I hope some suggestions in there have been vaguely helpful?

    I think recognising that you're getting toward a boredom point is a great thing. Because you know its coming and you'll be able to recognise the signs in the future, so you can counteract them and make sure you dont fall off the wagon! We've all done it and we've all had moments of thinking "well to hell with it, me and Master Card are off out", but just remember how far you've come, not how far you've got left to go!
    Wealth is not measured by currency
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