Do you find it difficult to make your financial ends meet during the lean times?
I get paid once a month, so my lean times come the next day after payday if I am not careful.
1) Writing helps me get through the hard times of the month when my bank account is near broke.
For me, the best way for me to save money for the hard times is to have multiple streams of income coming in at mid-month.
I write for AC, and I am a member of Mylot. AC and Mylot both pay mid-month.
I also work Cash Crate and that money comes just after mid-month by check.
Each month I put my Cash Crate money into my savings account. Sometimes it is over $30, and sometimes less, but the point is, I would be sitting here at home anyway, so I might as well do something that is going to pay me.
I am also a member of Ciao, and though it is not paying anywhere near as much as it used to, I still do publish articles there.
I own the rights to my Ciao articles and I can publish them at AC and Bukisa, so my Ciao articles will pay me three times on page views.
My Ciao money helped out at mid-month until they stopped paying so much, but I still keep plugging away because the money does add up. I save it up with my other online money to use during the lean times to make ends meet.
2) Another way I make ends meet is to have a special savings account that pays you to use your debit card.
The bank pays me interest to use their Way 2 Save account. Every purchase I make with my debit card my bank takes $1 out of my checking account and deposits it into a savings account specifically designed for this function.
This savings plan has been a lifesaver to me twice already.
Two times I have had to put money into my checking account to cover an unexpected bill. I was able to go online and transfer the money from my Way 2 Save account into my checking account.
The transaction is instant. As soon as I do the transaction it is in my checking account. It’s so convenient for times of need.
3) Using coupons regularly is another way to stretch the dollar.
Some stores will double or triple your coupons and that makes them really worthwhile to use.
I have gotten turned on to using coupons lately. I cut them out of magazines, newspapers, and I get them online.
I save them up in a drawer, so if I need something I look to see if I have a coupon for it before I go to the store to buy what I need.
The other day I was out of yogurt. I had 2 coupons, and one was for the children’s yogurt made by Yoplait, and the other was for regular Yoplait. Normally I just buy Yoplait, but since I had the Yoplait for kids I got them both because I like yogurt.
I don’t have coupons for everything, but I know it makes a difference to save 50 cents here and 50 cents there. It adds up after a while. I end up with a little more money in my checking account.
4) If you work or go to school consider making your lunch at home rather than buying it.
Even if your meal only costs $3 a day, that could run into $60 a month or more for some people.
I don’t work an outside job, but a friend of mine does, and she makes her lunch for the next day at work when she cooks supper.
She has divided containers, that she puts her food into and warms it up at work. She has a coffee maker at work, so she doesn’t even have to buy a drink.
The point here is that you can save a significant amount of money if you bring your lunch to work or school.
5) Buying gasoline for your vehicle is a major purchase for a lot of people.
Even though the prices of gas has come down, the prices are beginning to climb again.
We get our gas at Ingles, which is our local grocery store that offers 10 cents off each gallon of gasoline if you purchase $100 worth of groceries, so if the price of gas is $1.79 we pay $1.69 per gallon.
Since gasoline is still pretty high many people are choosing not to run around when it isn’t necessary. What we do is do all the errands at one time instead of coming and going here and there burning up valuable gasoline.
6) Another way you can pinch pennies is if you deal with cash you can save all your change in a jar at the end of the day.
At the end of each month, you can take this change to a store that cashes in your change into bills.
My daughter does this and at the end of the month, she puts this money into their savings for the trip that they take every year for their anniversary.
7) Save on your TV and Internet bill.
When we had cable television we were paying more than we pay now for Direct TV. We have the cheapest plan that they offer.
We were paying twice as much for cable as we are for satellite TV. We have our Internet through our phone company because it is much cheaper than trying to get it through our satellite.
In summary, you can find some ways to make money stretch if you are up to it.
I sometimes add vegetables to casserole dishes to make a meal stretch when times are lean.
I have gone so far as to blend veggies in with spaghetti sauce to use in spaghetti or lasagna.