What To Do If Debt Is Making You ILL

As it is fast approaching the holiday season, you may already have been letting your friends and family know you are having a ‘quiet one’ this year. Or you may have said you are going away for the holiday period so you’ll catch up with them in the New Year. Perhaps you were honest - you just can’t afford to buy gifts or cater for a big gathering this year because you are struggling to pay the rest of your bills.

If you find yourself making excuses to avoid occasions or gatherings that may require you to open your wallet, it could be time to address your monthly budget. Any type of avoidance when it comes to spending or managing your money could be a clear sign you are in debt. What’s worse, avoiding it is our way of trying to prevent how we feel about it from becoming worse.

The trouble is, without tackling it head on, we are in the dark, groping around hoping to find the way out of a sealed room. And we know it. It may even be making you ill, but as with the money, you are ignoring the warning signs of your health deteriorating too. If you don’t know how much money you have spent this week, find out now. Total up your receipts and transactions. Now do the same for the whole of last month. Do you know what your monthly budget is? Chances are you don’t know because, facing what we fear is incredibly hard to do.

Try this quick exercise to see if you could use some help with your outgoings:

• Add up how much you spent last month. List each expense individually.
• Now total up how much you spent a month before and the month before that, so you can see your outgoings across a full quarter.
• Add the three months together and divide by three to get an average cost per month.
• Now take a look at your payslip for your NET pay. If this is less than your outgoings, it is time to get some help to create a budget that falls within your means.

Cutting back at this time of year can be depressing, but if cutting back can get you out of debt, then it could be the best gift to give yourself this holiday. If cutting back to the basics of your needs still exceeds your NET income, you should seek professional advice immediately, to manage some of your debts on your behalf. Now it is time to address your health!

Being in debt, and having a mountain of bills to deal with each month will make anybody ill. Stress and depression are common among people who cannot live within their means due to debts. Always seek the advice of your doctor if your financial situation is making you ill. If you cannot work because your debt has made you too ill, you may find yourself in even more difficulty.