\n\t\t\t\t\tHow on earth did a successful writer, once engaged to be married, and hosting lavish dinner parties, end up single and broke?\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
Like everyone else in the country, my friends and I are economising \u2013 but it\u2019s funny how the word means different things to different people. One friend tells me they have swapped date night in a fancy restaurant for home cooking and Netflix. Others are cutting back on extravagant weekends away. <\/p>\n
I on the other hand am eating microwave meals, and sometimes feel I\u2019m one cheque away from the bailiffs. At 63, a freelancer, and single, I often wake up in the middle of the night worrying about my future<\/a>. It is playing havoc with my mental health.<\/p>\n This winter I realised that I couldn\u2019t afford to turn the central heating on \u2013 so lugged my TV into the bedroom of my small London flat to be able to watch it in bed. On cold days, breakfast, work and dinner were swathed in duvet and crumbs. Apart from painful neck syndrome from sitting propped up on pillows all day, and going a bit weird from staring at the four walls, it did the job.<\/p>\n I have no savings to rely on for when things go wrong in the flat. Only last year we had to get the plumber in for a badly blocked sink, then I needed a new lock \u2013 the list is endless. I wish I had thought about this years ago. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would spend my latter years in penury.<\/p>\n My life was never supposed to be like this.<\/p>\n How on earth did a successful writer, once engaged to be married, and hosting lavish dinner parties, end up single and broke?<\/p>\n In my twenties and thirties, I lived a glamorous life. A roving reporter, constant parties and a dating diary full of eligible bachelors, I was footloose and fancy free. As my friends started to tie the knot with their significant other I didn\u2019t want my life mapped out for me. I wanted adventure, and the novelty of new experiences.<\/p>\n In hindsight, this was the time I should have started to think about settling down and making serious plans for the future<\/a>.<\/p>\n To make matters worse, when I got my first book deal in the mid-90s, I had the chance to put a deposit on a London flat. But even though I found a lovely space I could afford, I changed my mind and spent the money on holidays and designer clothes instead. That flat is now worth over \u00a3750,000.<\/p>\n