Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Beat the blues in the depths of January
Jasmine Birtles
13th Jan 2023
The January blues seem to be in swing. The last few weeks in January are the poorest and most miserable according to several PR companies (so it must be true!).
They have a point – our credit card bills with all the Christmas over-spending have come through; many people were paid before Christmas so it seems a long way to pay day at the end of this week and January is a long month anyway.
Couple that with the cold, the dark and the dire predictions for our economy this year generally, and it’s not looking like a fun week (or even year)!
However, there are ways to get around it, as we’re always showing in our Save Money section.
- Don’t panic – it’s only January
- Get as much as you can for free
- Switch your bills to save
- Make cash from your old junk
- Go easy on yourself
- Share with friends, family and neighbours
Don’t panic – it’s only january
Whatever you do, don’t let it get you down and don’t let it stop you sleeping.
If you’re finding yourself stressing out about the money, then face the tiger..but get someone to do it with you. Either bring a friend over to sit with you while you look at your financial situation or contact one of the free debt advice charities (you can find a list of them here.)
- Get all your bills and statements out, get the figures together and make sure you really know the financial situation. It’s often nowhere near as bad as you imagine it to be.
- Then set yourself a budget because that way you will feel more in control (because you will be more in control).
- Even if it’s looking like a tough budget, it will mean you’ll have a good starting point.
- If you’re in problem debt (or even a small amount of debt that still looks too difficult to cope with) get FREE professional help from one of the debt advice charities.
- Sign up to our FREE debt help emails here and you will get supportive and informative emails sent straight to your inbox for a few weeks to help you get over the daily grind of getting out of debt. Sign up now 🙂
Get as much as you can for free
This is something we REALLY believe in at MoneyMagpie.com.
There’s a LOAD of stuff out there that you can get for free – both actual things you can use, eat, wear or play with, and free experiences.
how to get lots of freebies
Firstly, and most importantly, sign up now to our free, weekly freebies newsletter. It comes out every Monday and is stuffed full of freebies of all sorts including:
- Free food
- Free toys
- Free cosmetics
- Free magazines
- Free events
…and lots more.
Not only that but when you sign up you get a FREE eBook on how to live for free!!!
Sign up to our freebies newsletter here.
Secondly, check out our big section on Competitions, Deals and Freebies here. You will find loads of freebies there plus free competitions where you can win stuff too.
Thirdly, check out our article full of loads of ideas for getting things for free from getting free holidays through house-swapping and using air-miles to getting free entertainment.
See…told you there was LOADS you could have!
Switch to save
Yes I know…we’re always telling you to switch your bills in order to save money, but it is true and, actually, January is a pretty good time to do it!
You should be able to save yourself hundreds over the year just by spending a few minutes here and there switching your bills.
Make switching your bills easy
There are a few ways you could do this
- You could give yourself the task of switching one bill a day for a week. Maybe each evening you pick a different boring bill – car insurance, phone, gas and electricity – and see how much you can save yourself each month/year
- Or you could set aside a whole evening or a whole afternoon, pour yourself a mug (glass?) of something fortifying and blitz them all in one go.
- Another way to give yourself the oomph to do it is to get a friend round with their computer and, together, you switch all your bills, seeing how much you can each save.
In fact, my favourite is the last one. It’s always easier to do these things with a friend round. Why not do that and let us know in the comments below just how much you’ve saved??
Cash in on your junk
Help the finances by making money from your rubbish and unwanted presents.
- For a start you can make money by selling your old mobile. It’s really easy and we’ve got the best phone recyclers here.
- Also, spend another evening in and sort out your drawers, cupboards and piles of unwanted Christmas presents and sell them for quick cash. We’ve got hints and tips on how to get the most money for your unwanted presents here.
- You can find out lots of ways to sell other stuff online and offline in our ‘sell your stuff’ section here.
- And of course we have our how Clear Your Clutter Campaign with LOADS of ideas on how to de-clutter your home and make thousands selling your clothes, gadgets, homeware and more.
Go easy on yourself
January is a tough month and February isn’t much better so give yourself (and others around you) a break.
- Get more sleep in (that’s money-saving too!),
- take things a bit slower if you can,
- spend a few more evenings in by the fire cuddled up in front of the TV or reading a good book.
- Get tips on how to make the most of the (often tough) winter months in our article here about how to beat the winter blues.
- The more rest you get the happier you will feel and the less you will get irritated by friends and family. It’s not an easy time for anyone so we all have to give each other some slack right now.
Basically look after yourself, give yourself some slack, sleep more (go to bed earlier than you usually do in the summer) and don’t worry if you get behind with a few things. What the heck!
share with friends, family and neighbours
When the going gets tough, the tough love more.
A problem shared is a problem halved, they say, and certainly sharing what you have with friends, family and neighbours is a good way to make the most of what we all have and make the low times a bit higher.
Come up with ways to share food, time, possessions with others.
- Hold a swap shop with friends so that you all get ‘new’ clothes, accessories and stuff
- Go through your kitchen store cupboard. Are there that you know you’re not going to use? Offer them to friends and neighbours if they want to have them. They might offer things back to you.
- Instead of going out for expensive nights on the town, get friends round to your place. Have a ‘pot luck’ party where everyone brings a dish and either watch a film together (maybe an old black and white you can download) or play board games.
If you have other great ways to help yourself through the January blues, let us all know about them in the comments below 🙂
Stay well!
More ideas to beat the January blues
The Best Indoor Free Exercise Videos.
Watch Films for Free
The best way to beat credit card blues in the New Year is not to use the blasted things in the first place but to only spend what you have over Christmas – then no worries in the New Year!
A useful article for January.
Dear Jasmine,
I always follow your Daily Express – Recession Buster tips.
Your Tip on 26.01.2010 was for £15 off for opening a new on-line account for £25.00 or more with Littlewoods., Which I did that evening, I chose an item costing £27.00 & proceeded to the checkout only to find that it would not accept the code ZG127 for my discount. I rang & asked why & they said that it did not apply to Littlewoods – only Marshall wards.
I just thought you should know.
Kind regards Eileen
That’s rotten Eileen! We will look into it and let you know what happens.
Thanks for getting in touch!