How To Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck
Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Having a hard time saving the money you make every week? Not only is it difficult to keep up with your monthly bills, but finding ways to save money each month is simply out of the picture.
That vicious cycle can be so hard to break. Payday arrives, you pay all your bills, purchase groceries and other necessities, and then you are broke again until your next paycheck. This cycle then repeats itself again and again and again. It can be overwhelming and depressing to live like this, but as difficult as it may seem, you can break the paycheck to paycheck cycle.
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Some of the tips that I will list below may seem like ideas you have tried, but keep an open-mind and re-evaluate your spending habits. You may think that it will never work for you, but until you try you will never know.
One of the first things that you should always start with is a budget. It is extremely important to track your money. You want to have an in-depth look at all of your income and expenses each month. You will not be able to find ways to save money each month if you cannot see where you are spending your money.
{Related: Free Finance Software to track your spending}
To start figuring out your own budget you need to list all of your expenses for the month. Start with necessities like bills, groceries and gas. Then add your non-essential expenses like entertainment, gym memberships and dining out. Total that up and subtract it from your monthly income. Look at what you spend and see what areas you can cut down on to save some money. You may not think you need to, but once you create your budget you should see areas where you are spending unnecessary money.
If you see that you are spending too much on groceries then learn ways to cut down on food costs. If you want to try to lower your monthly bills then make small changes to lower your electric bill or save money on heating.
You can even call your insurance companies and even cable provider to see if they are able to lower your monthly bill. This year, we were able to save $1,200 by combining our homeowners insurance and our car insurance. You can read more about lowering your car insurance.
Use our FREE Printable Monthly Budget Template
Do you buy coffee every morning or lunch every day? Do you frequently go to Happy Hour after work with your coworkers? These small amounts can add up without you even noticing it. Start by just cutting back a bit on certain things. If you buy lunch every day, start to bring it from home 2 days a week instead. Then you take the money you would have spent for lunch those 2 days and you put it into your savings. Even if you only spend $5 a day for lunch, just cutting out 2 days will save over $400 a year.
You can still enjoy fun family time and good entertainment without spending tons of money. Do you go to the movies every weekend? Subscribe to a service like Netflix, save lots of money and have movie night at home instead. Do you have a favorite meal that you go out to eat every Saturday night for? Recreate it at home. You can serve your family that same meal for just a fraction of the price and as a bonus you can eat it in front of the TV in your pajamas if you like!
The whole point is to get creative and think of small ways that will make a BIG change to your budget.
If you are sitting there now and think to yourself well I do use a budget and I already cut back on everything, now what? Another way to help prevent you from living paycheck to paycheck is to slowly build an emergency fund or savings account. You may be thinking it is impossible when you have nothing left at the end of the month, but instead of waiting to see what you have left over you need to start paying yourself first.
This means that when you receive a paycheck you can have a small amount automatically withdrawn from your account into a separate savings account. Even if it is something as small as $10 per paycheck. You will have saved more than $250 over the course of a year. The whole point is to save the money before you ever have access to it. This way you will not be waiting to see what you have left over because you already placed it into a savings account the second you got paid.
One of the reasons why most people live paycheck to paycheck is because an unexpected expense arises and they have no idea how to pay it. This is where a credit card comes into play. If you do not have an emergency fund setup then you will have no choice but to get into debt and pay for this unexpected expense with a credit card.
Paying yourself first can help you to break your paycheck to paycheck cycle because you are starting to put away a small amount of money in case you need it. You never know when you will get a flat tire or your child will break their glasses {which happened to me recently}.
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