I am sick of hearing how destitute our current economic situation is every time I turn on the news, so today I thought id put together some ideas on how to fight back.

• Be honest with yourself about how you can cut your spending, really focus on prioritising necessities over niceties i.e. is it worth spending nearly £4 on your favourite brand of Special K or can you survive happily enough spending just over £1 on supermarkets ‘own brand’ cornflakes?

• Re-visit you current bills, the chances are if you have been with the same supplier, on the same deal for more than a couple of years you can find a better deal available in the market.

• Open a savings account (today!) and set up a standing order for £30 a month to be paid from your current account, into your savings account. You’ll hardly notice the money going out of your account, and within a year you’ll have over £350 to congratulate yourself with! (Just think what you could have if you upped that to £50!)

• If you’re in no immediate threat of redundancy, try not to change jobs. When Companies look at what cutbacks they can make, staff can be the first to go; you could find yourself caught up in a case of last one in first one out?

• Up skill yourself! Look at improving your Information Technology skills, find courses at http://www.learndirect.co.uk/

• Be your own boss – if you are a motivated, business minded person, and you’ve just been made redundant, why not invest some of your redundancy money in yourself? Check out franchise exhibitions for potential business opportunities http://www.franchiseinfo.co.uk/

• Being made redundant is incredibly tough; don’t make it harder by hanging onto sad feelings. Deal with them, by whatever means necessary overcome them, and then move on.

• Be committed to yourself, as unbelievable as it can sometimes seem, you are in control of changing your future, do something constructive every day until you reach where you want to be, take action, talk to people, ask questions!

• When you leave a job you can sometimes lose a vital social network, in turn losing support and stimulation. Don’t let this happen, get a new hobby, make sure you keep meeting people.

• Stay disciplined and keep your routine. This will help you stay alert and reinforce feelings of self worth. Write down objectives and think about how to achieve them. Some of the highest earning entrepreneurs started their journey after being made redundant.

For more information:

• Learn Direct
• British Franchise Association