Life is crazy right now. There are many unknowns, especially financially. Many people are not working, kids are not in school, the stock market has crashed, the news is scary and we have no idea how long this will go on.
The best thing you can do is control what you can. I have a quick list of 5 things to do now to protect yourself financially. I don’t care how much money you have, everyone’s bank account will be feeling this. There are a few things we can do to make it hurt less.
Disclaimer- I’m not saying that these 5 things will make your financial situation perfect. These are simply 5 things that will help.
Table of Contents
1) Check Your Budget
Do you know how much money you have? Do you know how much you can afford to spend? Do you know how many days you can go without earning any more money?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you need to figure them out. Take the time to make a budget or update a current one.
Start with the basics. Figure out how much your “needs” cost. This includes housing, utilities, basic food, and transportation. After these 4 things, everything else could be cut if they had to.
If you have enough money to make it a few weeks with your needs taken care of, start adding in your extras like cable, eating out, Netflix etc. Be prepared to make some changes!
If you want more budgeting help- sign up for my totally free budgeting course.
2) Stop Spending
Stop spending on “wants”, stick to only buying the needs.
Many people are saying we need to be supporting small businesses right now, but that’s only true if you can afford to support them AND your family too. (Again- Do you know if you have enough money? Go back and re-read step one if you need to!)
There will be a time for spending and supporting businesses later, but right now you need to be sure you have enough money to support your family. Stick to only paying bills and buying food and gas if possible. If you are lucky to have a little more room in the budget, you can spend a little more. I can’t stress enough that you MUST be sure your family’s needs are taken care of first.
You may have noticed I have stopped sharing shopping deals on my Facebook page and website. I am committed to only posting freebies until people are back at work again.
3) Start Earning
The laws of budgeting say you need to spend less and earn more. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many money-making opportunities at the moment.
One thing I can suggest is to sign up for Swagbucks. You won’t get rich, but you should be able to earn $25 in a week or two. Convince your spouse to sign up too and you’ll earn even more.
You can read more about how to earn with Swagbucks HERE
$25 isn’t much, but a $25 gift card to Walmart will buy you a couple of loaves of bread, peanut butter, and bags of apples, rice, carrots, and potatoes. This would be enough to feed a family for a week. (I’m not saying everyone would be happy- but you wouldn’t starve).
4) Take Care of Yourself- Get Healthy
Use this time to get healthy- mentally, physically and emotionally.
Take time to exercise daily. Take a walk, go for a run, or exercise in your own home. There are seemingly endless free resources right now of online workouts. You really have no excuse.
Take time to pray, study and have quiet time. Spend quality time with your family. Play games, learn to cook, use up those craft supplies you bought and never used. Get rid of clutter, clean your house. Do all those things you never had time to do before.
Taking care of YOU now will pay off big time later. The healthier you are the less you’ll spend on doctor visits, medicine, emotional shopping etc.
5) Accept Help
We all need help sometimes. Don’t feel ashamed.
Are local schools offering meals? Get them! I don’t care who you are, and how much money you have, finding bread and milk in stores right now is difficult. Don’t be embarrassed to get meals if they will help your family out.
If things get really tough, and you’ve already slimmed your budget down as much as possible don’t be ashamed to reach out to local churches and community groups.
Don’t be too proud to apply for unemployment. If you qualify- get it.
All these programs are there to help people. If you need help, get it.
