A couple of days later, Sarah sat down to start planning.  She started by writing down her bills, and her income.  She figured out her rent, utilities, car payment, credit cards, and other bills like putting money away for her insurance. She made final review and looked at her findings.  She was sad to find at the end of her review that her current spending left her little for groceries and gas to get to work.  She really had work to do.

Sarah needed a plan, and her first thought was to return some of the things that she recently purchased that she didn’t need.  The sooner that she paid down her credit cards, the better she would be.  She made arrangements to return a number of items that could still be returned, and although it didn’t make a big dent in what she owed, it was a start.

She started to go through her closet, and pulled clothing and shoes that she didn’t wear, or didn’t like, and started a pile.  She knew there were consignment stores around that bought clothing.  Maybe she could sell them to pay down her credit card. Ashe found a store near her home and brought a bag of clothing.  Again, it wouldn’t make a big dent, but it was still something that she could do and it helped her feel that she was making a little progress.

Sarah went on to take steps to manage her budget.  It was hard because she had little fun money, but she knew it was for her future.  She also had a raise coming and she wanted to use it wisely.  It wasn’t much, only about $40 per month, but she started putting some in a savings account.  She used most of it to pay down her credit cards, but even $20 a month would add up over time.

Once she had her spending more under control, she needed to work on her depression. She thought about the last year and had to admit that her stress level was high. She was working full-time, but she wasn’t happy in her current position. She was also feeling isolated and alone, which wasn’t helping either.  With little money for fun, she was feeling more isolated which wasn’t helping her mental health.

She thought again about her depression. Her feelings of loneliness had been with her for many years, but recently she had been feeling more alone. She thought about the last time she spent time with friends and realized that she really hadn’t been out on the town since her good friend moved away.  She hadn’t realized how much had changed since her friend left, and how much she withdrew from the world.

When her friend was still local, they went out often to listen to music.  They would go shopping and have meals together.  She realized when her friend moved, she lost her interest in going out. She thought about people at work who often invited her to do things on the weekend, and how she usually said no.  As she considered recent months, she realized her isolation was self-imposed.

Sarah had worked hard on her plan to better manage her finances and her future.  She worked on a budget, and now better understood what she lost when her friend moved away. She thought about her friend, now living in another state, and decided to call her. Talking to her friend was helpful and her friend encouraged her to go back to some of the things they used to do around town.

Sarah remembered that when she and her friend started doing things, neither of them had much money.  They were both starting out and didn’t have much money to use on silly stuff.  They did a lot of things that didn’t cost any money.  A park close to them used to have music on the weekends.  All they had to do was bring their own chairs for a place to sit. She thought about how they would pack snacks and water, and bug spray, and sit and just listen and watch people dance.  They laughed and had a wonderful time.  She also thought about how much she missed it.  It was time to find fun, cheap.