By David Field

Brits will make all sorts of sacrifices during the months preceding July and August so that they can enjoy a week or two in some exotic clime, and so will I.

The New Year is when my attention turns to what I might be getting up to in the summer months and January is the perfect time to start saving. Everybody is in a bad mood after Christmas and the New Year and, more to the point, skint – so that means there will be little clamour for after work drinks or meeting up for a few bevies on the weekend. In addition, the limited daylight hours mean that people in general are far less inclined to head out and prefer to opt for indoor pursuits instead.

It may now have become clear that much of my money is frittered away in public houses and generally enjoying myself. As a man once said to me in a pub toilet: "I don't buy beer, I rent it." I am not a big clothes shopper and am not particularly needy when it comes to buying new gadgets for myself or the house, which I share with my girlfriend. In fact, my main expense apart from beer is food, and my girlfriend ensures that trips to Tesco are never cheap affairs, as we have to buy an astonishing range of fresh fruit and vegetables, which undoubtedly do me a huge amount of good, but not so for the bank balance.

So throughout January, February and March, I hide away and attempt to get by each day through spending as little money as possible. The warmer, lighter month of April is when the trouble begins as I start to be coaxed out to barbeques, impromptu drinks in the evenings, and, increasingly, weddings. While it seems that weddings are these days outrageously expensive for the happy couple and their families, there is only so much free wine to be enjoyed before I find myself buying a hefty round of drinks, with cigars for all. And added to this are the stag dos, which can be even more expensive than the wedding, even if it is only go-carting and the strip club you're off to than the weekend in Prague. And with all these celebrations taking place in spring or summer it is little wonder that by the time I get round to booking my last minute holiday in late July or early August, it has to be a week camping in Cornwall, again.