After recovering from a life-threatening illness, I never thought I'd be troubled by life's more minor worries again.

But this week we received some rather large domestic bills and I've started getting anxious about the state of our finances.

It seems I'm now paying for the joie de vivre brought about by my good health.

Earlier this year, in celebration of my heart returning to normal, I went on a bit of spending spree. I bought myself two pairs of trousers, a pair of shoes and a cardigan. Not a lot, granted. But it was more than our budget allowed.

It has thrown me into the red because I hadn't taken into account the enormous cost of childcare now I am back at work, nor the extra I'm now spending on petrol and sandwiches. No matter how much I manipulate the figures, they don't look good.

The only thing to do is make some cutbacks. But where?

My greatest luxury is being a member of a rather nice health club. If we were really desperate I could give this up and still stay fit by borrowing some exercise videos and doing work-outs in the living room.

I could also swim in the sea. But I don't imagine I would keep this up for more than a day.

The reason I like going to the club (which I do at least three times a week) is because it has a very nice pool and lovely showers and it's altogether more enticing than a homespun exercise regime.

Some obvious savings could be made if I took packed lunches into work. But I know from previous experience this would be a diet disaster and wouldn't help my finances one iota.

I would end up eating two lunches - my home-made one at 10am, followed by a something from the sandwich bar a couple of hours later. I'd soon be gross and still no better off.

So what else?

Another option could be to suspend paying a monthly direct debit into a savings account.

But I know that once it was stopped, I'd never get around to reinstating it. When I'm 85 and living off weak tea and jam sandwiches in a disgraceful nursing home, I'd be kicking my arthritic ankles that I didn't keep up some sort of investment.

I am fast running out of options. We can't exactly cut back on entertainment as, apart from paying for a TV licence and hiring the odd video, we hardly do anything entertaining.

My husband had a night out last November and I have been to the cinema twice since Christmas.

I did suggest to my husband that we stop buying nice foods from Waitrose and start consuming the cheaper ranges from other supermarkets. But we both found this thought too abhorrent.

My husband echoed my feelings when he said that no matter how much we needed to cut back, we still deserved to eat well.

All we can do, I suppose, is waltz into debt and hope that the great hand of fortune, who rescued me from the jaws of death, will now save us from eating economy fish fingers.