There is nothing more stressful than having money problems. I know because I have been there. Way more often than I’d like to admit. I’ve actually spent nights up crying because I didn’t know how I was going to pay my bills. Most of my trouble came from a little credit card trouble I had gotten myself into early in life. Looking back, it really wasn’t anything major. It was a couple of department store cards, like Macy’s and Strawbridge’s (Remember Strawbridge’s???) as well as Victoria Secret. But at the time I felt like I would never get out of debt and my life was over. I did ruin my credit for some time but now I’m a proud owner of a 700+ credit score. So know, if you get things in order you can repair your credit. It will take some time though.
This early lesson in life is probably what led me to living a pretty frugal lifestyle (alright, it made me cheap!) My husband and I are bargain shoppers for the most part. Sometimes we splurge on things but day to day life is pretty low key. We don’t buy coffee on our way to work. We make it at home and take it with us. We never buy our lunch…we also take that with us. Before we go grocery shopping, we sit down with the sales flyer from that week and look for what is on sale. If one of our regular items is full price that week we see if we can stretch it for another week to see if a sale comes up next week. If we can’t stretch it then we then we take the hit and get it anyway. But we are chronic stocker uppers. When we do see one of our regular items on sale, we get a few to have on hand. We also go with a list. We don’t stray from our list. This is how you spend more money than you should.
If you are in spot where you can’t really make your monthly bills than you need to cut out some spending somewhere. OR you need to bring in more money. Can you get a second job, ask for a raise, start a side hustle? There really are all kinds of things you can do to bring in a little more income you just have to put some thought into what you have to offer people that you can charge for. But the most important thing to do is to curtail your spending. Do you go out to eat often? Then you know how expensive it is. As much as we are shocked at how much our grocery bill is every week (it really does add up fast) it is still usually cheaper than one dinner out. We don’t go out to eat often. It’s just too much money. Especially because we live in a resort area and prices are outrageous. Start making your coffee at home. Do your nails yourself. I always do my finger nails myself (I do like to get my toes done professionally), but I usually just get polish. I know a lot of ladies are getting gel manicures and some type of artificial nail that needs upkeep. Can you sacrifice your nails for a few months until you get back on track? This is when some tough decisions need to be made and yes, you will have to give up some of your favorite things for a while.
Nobody wants to spend their free time working another job or giving up some of your favorite things but alleviating the stress of financial strain will be so worth it. Trust me. Joe and I could always use a little bit more of a cushion but we aren’t so bad. We are also trying to make up for some lost time in our contributing to 401K plans.
That’s another thing…are you middle aged or approaching it? You need to get your retirement plan in order if you haven’t already. I would tell the young people listening to start saving for retirement now but I was told that and never did it. But it is so important. The earlier the better.
We all talk about money being evil but it’s when we are without it that we think that. Sometimes we have to make the hard choices and do things we don’t want to do or do without things we love in order to make our financial statements match up. It’s really up to you but there is a whole lot of peace of mind knowing you can pay all your bills.
It’s “I wish it were cocktail Friday” Thursday. Check on the new pictures on my website. Hopefulist.com. Tomorrow on the Hopefulist….we party. It’s my 50th episode and I’m so excited! We are going to have a great time. Now, go make it your best day yet!
Listen to me discuss this topic today on my daily podcast available at Hopefulist.com, on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and TuneIn. Just search for "The Hopefulist"!
My website is up and running everyone! I’m so freaking excited! It’s your one stop spot for everything “The Hopefulist”. Please check it out at Hopefulist.com.
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