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It doesn’t matter why you’re frugal. You may be savvy with your hard earned cash, or it might be an essential way of life to make sure the food is on the table each day. There are plenty of times when life gets in the way of careful financial management, though. You miss a bill payment, or you’re no longer needed at work. Maybe having a family leads to more than a few distractions! When you suddenly find you can’t make ends meet anymore, you may start to panic.
Getting back on track takes just a couple of days to do. It involves scrutinizing your spend, and dealing with the unpleasantness of your creditors. But it can be done. And it can also feel like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders at the same time. There are plenty of amazing tips out there on how to achieve this. Here are just a few of my favorites:
Check Your Spending
We all love to shop. It can even be quite therapeutic. But there will always be one or two impulse buys that can cause financial problems. Take the time to check all your receipts. Place those non-essential purchases in one pile. Pop all the essential things like grocery shopping in another. Tot up the non-essential spend. That’s how much you could be saving each month! Now check the essential items against your coupons. Next time you’re shopping, try to purchase as much as you can at a discount. Frugal thinking can help you avoid excess spending in the future.
Budget
Now you know how much you have to spend, you can prepare a budget. Your utility bill may have an annual spend figure. Divide that by twelve to see how much you need to put away each month for this. Rents, taxes, cars, fuel and loans can all be done in this way. Now you can save ahead for the big bills instead of panicking when they drop through your door. Give yourself a little savings pot, and a litt
le spending money for those fun days out. You might also have a little set aside each month for new clothes, or toys for the kids. Check your income matches or exceeds your total budget. If not, consider tweaking a few items.
Clean Up Your Debts
Head online and find out what your credit score is. If it’s low, chances are there is something on it that is hindering your ability to get good finance. If there are charge-offs, you may not be able to get any credit at all. This could be a problem for your next phone contract or car loan. There is advice online about how to remove charge offs from your credit report. This can be done quickly and easily once you know how. Contact your lenders if you struggle to meet payments each month. It’s better to pay something rather than nothing.
Getting back on track is something we all need to do from time to time. It can be unpleasant to have to address our financial issues. But being back on track means you are back in control.
