Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista

cathartic cry I’ve had in a long time. Sitting there at the kitchen table with my mum’s arm around my shoulders, I let it all out. How horribly he’d treated me, the way he’d been sneaking around behind my back, how mean everyone was to me at the wedding, how humiliated I had felt. I told her about how strange Ali had been, how unfriendly she was – I was really starting to worry that our friendship was in serious trouble, and I wasn’t sure why. I hadn’t intended to tell her all the gory details but once I started I just couldn’t stop myself. By the time I got to the end of the whole sorry saga I was all cried out.
    ‘Well,’ my mother said, getting to her feet to put the kettle on yet again. ‘I must say, I’m very glad he didn’t come to your father’s birthday party. You were quite right not to invite him. We wouldn’t have liked him at all. And if you’ve any sense, Cass, you won’t see him again. Sounds to me like you’re very much better off without him. You’re obviously much too good for him.’
    ‘I am too good for him,’ I agreed. ‘That Tania cow can take all his crap from now on. She can put up with him ogling other woman right in front of her, she can deal with his mood swings and his ego and the Thursday-night trips to Spearmint Rhino.’
    ‘To where, love?’
    ‘It’s just … a bar they all go to.’
    I felt better already.
    ‘So, we know you’re better off without him,’ Mum said. ‘That’s one less thing to be upset about. Far more important is this business with Ali. Boyfriends come and go, it’s the girlfriends that count. I know she’s upset you, but you need to talk to her about it – the sooner the better.’
    She was right about that, too. Although I had tried to talk to Ali the night before, perhaps she would be more willing to confide in me if I wasn’t so busy moaning about my own problems all the time. I was just going to have to be persistent.
    ‘The other thing, Cass, is that you need to start focusing on what you want to do with your life,’ Mum said. ‘I won’t ever regret being a full-time mum to you and Celia, but I can tell you that I wish I’d started teaching much earlier on in life. Doing something you actually care about, something that absorbs you, that you can commit to, that’s invaluable. I know you enjoyed the last job – but that was mostly about the perks, wasn’t it?’ She knows me so well. ‘Now you’ve got an opportunity to figure out what you really want. And if that means going back to college or something like that, then we would be prepared to help financially – and in any other way we can. So long as you are absolutely sure that it’s what you want to do …’
    ‘What about the conservatory and the camper van?’ I asked.
    She just smiled at me. ‘We’d work something out.’
    So all I had to do was figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

11
     
    Cassie Cavanagh wonders what she’s done to deserve this
    Weeks to go until the money runs out: One
    Weeks to go until my rent is due: Two
    They were right. My parents were right. My sister, much as I hate to admit it, was right. I had to change my ways. When I got home, I logged onto my email account to see if I’d had any job offers (I had not) and then onto my bank account to get an update on the state of my finances. Not good. Really, not good. I was drifting into the red, next month’s rent was due in two weeks’ time and I had to make the payment on my credit card, too.
    Cutbacks of the severest possible nature were going to have to be made. For as long as I was unemployed, for as long as this blasted recession lasted, I was going to have to stop living like a rich person. I sat down at the kitchen counter with a cup of (instant!) coffee and made a list of the luxuries I was going to have to cut out of my life.
1. Sky Plus – the thought of living without it filled me with horror (I would have to watch adverts again), but I figured it would be a double saving: first on the cost of the service and second because I’d be forced to stay in and watch my TV shows when they’re on instead of going out all the time.
2. The gym – the park would have to do.
3. Massages, manicures and pedicures – home treatments only from now on.
4. Taking my shirts to the dry cleaner’s – I would have to learn to iron.
5. Starbucks, Pret, etc. – must make own coffee, sandwiches, smoothies, etc.
6. Shoreditch House membership – the risk of bumping into