One year later

This time last year we had just found out that my husband was being made redundant. The company announced that the workers would be made redundant in December, just before Christmas. We immediately started to cut back with all manner of shopping and any unnecessary spending. It really changed our outlook. Prior to this we had never been in this situation and until you experience it for yourself , you really have no idea as to the worry and anxiety that it causes. It was a very dark time but luckily for us , my husband got another job just two weeks before he was due to finish. The job was lower paid but we were just so thankful to be in paid employment. However it made us realise how very close we came to losing everything. The bills seemed so high with the prospect of earning very little and at that time we had the frightening realisation of  having to repay credit cards on top of everything else. Once my husband started his new job, it was then we decided that we didn't want to be in that situation again. The redundancy , was out of our control , but being in debt was. We began to make plans to get rid of the debt. We both worked as many extra hours as we would and with cutting back and other ways, we began to make serious indentations into the credit card balance. We have really done well. We have now paid about 80% of the balance off and the remaining 20% should be paid off around August time. We don't spend at all now on the cards, mine have been cut up and my husband keeps his purely should he need it for work purposes. So here we are on 1.7.2011 and the year has flown by. This week we found out that he will get a small pay rise this year. Although the amount is derisory , we are so glad that we are in employment. Its easy to focus on the disappointment of a small rise but we have stayed positive and reminded ourselves that we are in a much better situation than last year, and once the credit card has gone, the pay rise however small , is real money that will be ours and not handed straight over to a bank repaying debt. Its a really exciting feeling to be almost out of debt and we will be back where we started years go, with just a mortgage.