Crisis Frugality: 3 Things to Do to Make It to the Next Paycheck

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

14 Sep 2007 10:16 AM

With frugal living allows families to save money and live a better life, but what do you do if you are in a situation where you are wondering how you are going to make it until your next paycheck? Sometimes life throws unexpected curves at you such as a job layoff, a medical expense, or even an unexpected home repair. If you find yourself in a crisis, it is important cut as many expenses as you can as soon as you can, so you'll have enough for the basics of food, clothing and shelter. This is especially true when you don't know when that crisis might end.

The first thing you need to do is inform people. You might feel a little embarrassed, but this is an important step. Family and friends may be able to help. But even if you don't want to tell anyone you know personally about your crisis, it is still important to let any of your creditors know that you are having financial difficulty. Lenders are surprisingly understanding, if they are given notice and see that you are responsible. Explain your situation and work out a deal to pay part of your expenses until you get back on your feet.

Cut any and all unnecessary expenses. What is unnecessary? Pretty much anything other that food, clothing and shelter or those things that allow you to have the food, clothing and shelter. You can argue that a car is necessary for work, but is the Internet? You can always visit the library if you need to get online. Some immediate expenses that can be cut: cable television, cell phones, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, maid service, gym memberships, baby wipes (use clean rags or washcloths) and paper products.

Cook from your pantry. It goes without saying that when in crisis mode, you never eat out. But that doesn't mean that you can have a free for all in buying expensive name brand food at the grocery store. Take a look at what you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer and see if you can come up with meals without buying anything but staples. Sure it may be boring to have pasta three nights in a row, but you can doctor it up in different ways, and hey, we are in a crisis mode here.

And who knows, when the crisis is over, you may realize that you can pay some bills ahead, there were some expenses that you don't need back, and that you actually enjoy getting creative with pantry cooking.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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midnightrun (35) 03 Mar 2008 06:10 PM

I love this site,I am frugal and I think now more then ever it is Important to be that way,as a Mother of 4 and still 3 to get through school I am always looking for ways to save.I will continue to come to this site and learn more each time I visit. Thank you,mom of 4

Mary Ann Romans (26886) 04 Mar 2008 04:49 AM

Thank you midnightrun! I look forward to getting to know you!

george2 (35) 10 Jul 2008 08:16 PM

Good post. When you KNOW you are going to be short, CALL every one of your creditors or service providers that you know you won't be able to pay on time. So long as you aren't chronically late on your bills already, most every company is willing to cut you some slack and waive late fees, etc. But you have to call in advance or right when your bills are due. If you wait until everything is a month late, you're going to get a lot less help from them.

This is especially crucial for stuff like your mortgage, car payments, and credit cards where you a) don't want to get dinged with late fees, b) don't need any sudden interest rate hikes because of late payments, c) can't afford to lose that item (house, car, etc).

Eating out the pantry is of course a good idea, but why wait until it's a crisis? One of the best ideas we've read is to BAN all purchases, including food, for a week at a time (two weeks even if you can make it), maybe once every month or two. By doing this, you're forced to eat from your in-house stockpile. This will help reduce food from being thrown out because it expired before you could eat it. Also this helps you get a better feel for what you really want or need to eat.

So if those cans of baked beans almost reached their expiration and you had to eat several meals with baked beans, you might be less inclined to get that 6-pack of beans at the warehouse club next time. They may have been cheaper per-can, but if you had to throw away half of them, that wasn't such a great deal after all, right?

You're free to tweak this idea of course. You might still elect to allow very select perishables to be bought (say milk or fresh fruits/veggies). Of course, if you have specifics needs like an infant/baby to feed, don't start giving them Dorito's or anything like that!