Have you ever felt as if you were scraping the bottom of the barrel and wondering how you are going to pay the bills this month? If that’s where you are right now, or where you are trying to avoid going, finding ways to save money when you’re broke can be a difficult, daunting task.
Today, my blogger friend, Amy, is sharing with us 6 ways we can save money when we’re broke. And man… is that hard! I know it for a fact, and I’m glad she’s here to share these valuable tips with us. Learning about finances can never be too much!
Amy is a stay at home wife who is passionate about helping other moms and wives create clean, uncluttered homes that they are proud of and love. She also enjoys spending her time finding ways to cut costs so her and her husband can continue to thrive as a single income family, and sharing those tips with other women so they can stay home with their families, too. You can find her at Deliberately Here.
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{Oh…how I know this feeling! I lost my job unexpectedly right after giving birth to our second baby (super similar story), less than 6 months after we moved across the country. We were exactly as desperate as Amy and her husband, but the Lord rescued us in such an amazing way, that I will never forget, and I will never get tired of sharing! – Isabel}
My husband would be receiving a big pay cut with this new job of his, and the cost of living where we were moving was more than we had expected. Then to add all the costs that come along with having a baby on to that, we didn’t know what we would do.
Though we were ecstatic to be growing our family, we fell into a haze of stressing over things we couldn’t control.
Finally, we realized that our stressing wasn’t helping our situation one bit. Instead of continuing to stress over our situation, we decided to change our mindsets, we remembered to trust that God would provide for us in the future as He so graciously has always provided for us in the past, and we packed up our lives and made the big move.
While there were times of doubt and fear when we didn’t know what we would be doing next or how we would afford it, God has been faithful.
We went ahead and started putting some of our best frugal living and money saving tips to practice in our lives and never looked back. Much to our surprise, though we are living on next to nothing, we have managed to not only survive and trudge through this time in our life, but we have managed to thrive and love it.
Now, I know you didn’t come here to listen to my personal story, so let’s get on to some of our top money-saving tips and ways to save money when you’re broke.
Are you ready to get into it?
This post is part of the Saving More, Spending Less Series. You can read the other posts here:
- 5 Easy Ways to Start Saving Money for Christmas Now
- 5 Ways Your Family Can Save Money on Healthcare Expenses
- My Top 5 Secrets to Save More Money
- 3 Things The Bible Says About Money and How to Manage Your Finances Better
- 7 Reasons to Start Building Your Emergency Fund and How to Do It
- 3 Biblical Principles that Will Help You Manage Your Finances This Holiday Season
6 ways to save money when you’re broke
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Create a budget
The biggest thing in our finances that has allowed us to save money while living on so little is the fact that we created and continue to stick to a budget.
Budgeting isn’t always easy, and I know it doesn’t sound fun, but it is absolutely one of the most important steps in your financial journey.
No matter where you are in your financial journey, even if it feels like you have nothing to write on your budget and you don’t know how to start one, you can do it – and you should.
There are countless free resources on the internet that will help you create your budget. Here’s the quick and simple way to create a budget.
- Grab a piece of paper and a pen
- Write all your different budget categories down on the paper
⇒Housing – 25-35%
⇒Utilities – 5-10%
⇒Insurance – 10-20%
⇒Food – 5-20
⇒Debt – 5-15%
⇒Transportation – 10-15%
⇒Health – 3-10%
⇒Savings – 5-15%
⇒Giving – 10-15%
⇒Personal – 5-10%.
- List all of your monthly income on the paper
- Write down all of your monthly expenses on the paper in the appropriate categories
If there are any expenses on your budget where you are spending more every month than your budget allows for, you will either have to lower or completely get rid of that expense or take some money from a different category to put into the category where you need more money.
Creating a budget will allow you to see exactly how much money you can spend on certain things every month, rather than having to guess and never really knowing if you’re spending more than you should be.
But, creating a budget is only half the battle. Once you’ve created yours you will then have to ensure you follow it. Don’t allow yourself to spend more money than your budget allows for.
Are you still not convinced that you need a budget? Here are 5 solid reasons why you need a monthly budget.
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Avoid late fees
Do you pay late fees? If you have ever paid late fees, you know how frustrating it can be knowing that you are spending money on something you don’t want to, and on something that was completely avoidable.
When you are paying your monthly bills, if you have to put a few off to pay at a later date, be sure to check when each and every bill is due so you can pay them strategically, paying the bills with the closest due dates first, then paying the rest of the bills as more money comes in through the month.
This way you will avoid paying late fees altogether.
If you find you’re still paying late fees, look back over the budget you just created in step one and find certain bills and expenses that you can get rid of so you can afford to pay all your monthly bills.
Remember – you don’t want to be paying for stuff that you don’t need. If you have subscriptions to a magazine or a website that you really don’t use or just don’t need, consider canceling those to free up some extra money every month.
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Use the library
If you’re a reader, I think it’s safe to say you’ve spent your fair share on books throughout your life.
While reading is so, so good for you and something I believe many more people should get into… if you’re low on cash, you don’t want to be dishing out money every month on books.
To make reading affordable and something you can continue to do, take advantage of your local library where they offer free books, magazines, and movies for you to use and bring back when you’re done.
This way you can enjoy watching and reading new movies, books, and magazines all without having to spend a dime.
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Check your bills
Many people get their bills in the mail or online and only glance at the amount due before paying it.
It’s a good idea to take a few minutes to look over your bills. Pull out a calculator and start adding up the costs of all the purchases you made to make sure the total equals the same amount as they are charging you.
It is rare that you will find a mistake on your bill where you are being overcharged, but in my opinion, it is better to be safe than sorry and well worth my time.
Looking over your bill at all the dates and purchases made is also a good way to make sure that no one has gotten a hold of your card or card number and is using it for their purchases.
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Shop the clearance section
Whether you’re shopping for clothes or food, your first stop should always be the clearance section.
When I go grocery shopping I love to go to our store’s clearance section before putting anything else in my buggy.
I almost always am able to get one or two of the items on my list out of the clearance section for half price.
If you don’t know where the clearance section or aisle is in your local store, take a few minutes the next time you’re there to search the store or ask an employee to show you where it is.
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Meal plan
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. And again. And again.
Meal planning is such a fast and effective way to save money, it blows me away at how many people either don’t know how to do it or just simply choose not to do it.
While meal planning may take you a little bit of time to get used to, if you use it properly and stick with it, it can save you bundles of money every month.
Are you happy with how much money you and your family spend on food each month? Do you think the amount that you spend could be lowered? Are you ready to challenge yourself to lower it?
Here’s our free Meal planning kit to help you out with that:
I love meal planning. Everything about it makes me excited – finding new and old recipes to try, knowing I won’t have any stress at dinnertime anymore, and knowing that I am doing what I can to lower our grocery bill (and that it IS working).
Meal planning allows you to plan a week to month’s worth of meals all in one go – and allows you to only go to the grocery store once a week to once every two weeks.
It also helps you cut back on the amount that you and your family eat out since you will always know what is for dinner instead of not knowing and deciding that going out for dinner is easier than having to spend time thinking of something to make and then having to make it.
Start saving money now, even if you’re broke…
With so many different options available to help you save money, it can become overwhelming when you don’t know where to start.
Keeping the list that you start with short and sweet (until you have become comfortable with completing these money saving tasks on a regular basis) is important to help you keep moving forward.
After you’ve started a meal plan, created a budget, started shopping the clearance section, regularly check your bills, started using your local library if you’re a reader, and worked hard to ensure you avoid any and all late fees possible, you can then find even more money saving tips online that you can start implementing.
Be sure not to overwhelm yourself with all the information that is available when it comes to finances – take it slow and steady.
Then, you will start to see your hard work paying off. What a rewarding feeling that is!
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