Loans 2 Go: Seven steps to banish the summer blues

Summer is passing by far too quickly! One minute we’re all talking about the heatwave and the World Cup and suddenly we’re almost at the back to school stage already. Just where does the time go?!

Whatever you’ve been doing this summer, as the September comes around it is easy to feel a bit down. If you’ve been on a fabulous holiday you wish you were still there, enjoying a relaxing way of life instead of being back to the daily grind. If you’ve not been away you may wish you had, especially if you’d planned to do various jobs round the house and garden instead but just haven’t managed it. And if you’ve had the kids on your hands during the school holidays there are probably lots of things you now wish you’d done that you haven’t.

So as we approach the end of summer here are a few tips to help banish those blues:

• Throw a celebration

Any excuse will do: it doesn’t have to be a birthday or anniversary, just an end of summer party will do fine. If you still have the remains of a sun tan then this is also a good chance to show it off! But the main thing is to get friends and family together just to enjoy yourselves outside while the weather is still good. It’s easy to sit at home and feel a bit miserable – and chances are everyone is feeling the same way. So get together to cheer each other up instead!

• Declutter

Whether you have been away or at home this summer, a cluttered home can really get you down. So if you have been away make sure you unpack and find good homes for anything you bought on holiday. Having some reminders of your holiday will help to brighten your mood. If you’ve been at home then try and get the house back into some kind of order – it will make it much easier to find things for when the kids go back to school. If you have a lot of stuff to get rid of then why not fit in a car boot sale to try and make a bit of extra cash?

• Sort out your finances

No matter how much you enjoy any occasion – summer holidays, Christmas, birthdays etc  – there is always the painful process of counting the cost afterwards. As autumn approaches it’s a good time to do a review of where your finances are at. If you have overspent this summer then now is the time to pull yourself back from the brink and get things sorted before Christmas comes and hits you! If you’re not sure where to start then take a look at our article Top Ten Tips to Balance your Budget.

• Is it time to change jobs?

Before you slip back into the same old work routine you had before summer, think about changing things. Many people come back from holiday wanting to change jobs and perhaps now really is the time for you to do this. If you are unhappy in your job then sit down and think carefully about what you would really like to do then research the best way to go about this. Whilst you don’t want to be impulsive and change jobs just on a whim, it is also very easy to get into a rut and feel stuck in one job when there may be other much better opportunities out there for you. Our recent article A New Job for Autumn gives lots of advice about how to go about changing jobs if it’s the right time for you to do so.

• Improve your work-life balance

Even if you have no plans to change your job, there may still be things that you can do to improve your work-life balance. There is a lot of truth in the saying “work smarter not harder”. If you are one of these people that tends to put in extra time without being paid for it, or takes on everyone else’s work without any thanks or recognition, then now is the time to change all that. You don’t need to be rude or uncooperative, but just learn to start saying no from time to time. If possible try to leave work a little bit earlier so that you get a bit more me-time at the end of the day.

• Make some me-time

We’ve just mentioned me-time and it is important. When you have a full-time job, a home and a family it is easy to lose yourself in the midst of it all. If you have been on holiday this summer you’ll be familiar with the experience of just beginning to feel human again towards the end of it – then having to come back to reality. If you determine to make some me-time this can really help. Whether it’s to do some exercise, take up a creative hobby, watch your favourite box set or just soak in the bath; you need that time to recharge your batteries. So make sure that you carve out some time for yourself; ideally every day but at least a couple of times a week.

• Plan some things to look forward to

The end of summer can feel very flat because all we see in front of us is a long dark autumn leading into winter. Then of course there’s Christmas, but many people find that a stressful time for all kinds of reasons. So it’s a good idea to plan a few nice things for autumn so that there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. You may want to plan some weekend trips to see friends or family, organise a half term day out with the kids or a visit to a Christmas market, or plan a home improvement project such as redecorating. Whatever you like doing, make time for it this autumn so that you have things to look forward to.

We hope that the above steps help you to banish the summer blues for good. If you need some short term additional money to help you either to get your finances in order or to progress your autumn plans then Loans2Go may be able to help. We offer a range of online loans that are easy to apply for, and if your application is approved the money could be yours within 60 minutes. Click here for more details about how we can help.