Several reasons can join hands together to make a hole in your wallet and let you experience a serious lack of cash. It is always hard to prepare a family budget with the little bit of cash you have on hand. You might be questioning, “How did I get into this mess?” and perhaps you are very well aware of the answer. Yes, it’s absolute absence of any budgeting skill. But we know that we can’t go back and alter the past. All we can do is look forward and try to manage our money in a better way. Below are 6 smart tips to survive when you’re lacking cash or simply broke:
1) Stop sitting idle: You can do this until and unless your creditors start calling! If you ignore those calls, that would the worst possible thing that you could have done. However, the best thing you could do is taking hold of the situation, no matter how much chaotic it is. Reach out to your creditor and request a payment extension or an alternative payment plan for some time until your recover from your crisis.
2) Prioritize the money you’ve: If you see that you’re just falling short of your monthly financial obligations, don’t panic as you have some definite hope. Sit down and prioritize your bills to pay for your mortgage, electricity, grocery and insurance payments, as these are the basic necessities you need in order to survive.
3) Hold your savings for the time being: There is no doubt that if you lack cash or near to break, you won’t think of savings. Nonetheless, if you have been contributing $50 each week toward a savings account, stop paying the amount on that account; rather use that amount toward overdraft bank fees, credit card interest rates, and other fees so that you can avoid late fees and other charges.
4) Don’t try to survive on credit: Often, when people run short of cash, they make use of their credit cards to the fullest. This is a big mistake. It’s easy to sustain with those plastic cards, but the long term effects that they’d bring in your financial life, are really harmful. It’d simply take you toward filing bankruptcy, which means a black stain in your financial life. So the thumb rule is, only spend the amount in credit that you have in cash reserves.
5) Seek additional income: If you see that your budget crisis is not going to end in the near future, you should immediately start to take action and try boosting your income. If you have been laid off recently or if your boss pays an amount that is hardly enough for your needs, you may find another job. You can also consider working overtime so that you can take home some additional bucks.
6) Prepare a new budget: Now when you have somehow tackled your financial crisis, it’s time to prepare a more solid and viable budget in order to prevent this from happening again in future. Even if the previous crisis was due to unpredicted circumstances such as medical emergency or job loss, you should remain prepared by all means possible to combat such crisis in future. It always takes some times to get out of such circumstances. But if you are determined to leave the crisis far behind and work with planning and dedication, you can once again see your finances back on track.