Back to top

How to live on a low budget

Image: 
credit-card-bill-with-coins

Life is unexpected and anything can happen like loss of a job, layoffs, natural disasters, or facing huge medical bills. That’s why it is important to learn some basic survival skills. No matter what, it is important to be able to afford to pay for rent, food and commuting. Everybody needs to live somewhere and have a place for rest. Without food your brain and body won’t function properly which might prevent you from getting any type of job. And lastly, in order to work, you need to get there somehow. That’s why those three major things in your life is so important. In addition, there are some other precautions you may do not survive on a low budget like:

Reduce monthly expenses wisely

How hard life might get, but no one should forget about safety. If you cannot afford to rent an apartment in a good neighborhood, try to find a room for the period of hardship. Maybe sharing one kitchen with other tenants might not be convenient, but it is still better than face some other dangers in cheaper but bad city areas like robbery including identity theft, verbal or physical abuse, and even rape.

Buy only ‘emergency’ things

Spend money wisely only on absolutely necessary things for survival. Plan ahead how much you can spend on the beginning of each month compare to your earnings. Do not go over the budget.

Distinguish small from big

Some people think that few dollars spend a day is nothing while one hundred seems like too much. Many individuals cannot afford to pay for their phone bills and use just prepaid services which might not be any cheaper overall than a contract plan. It is unwise to think that spending a few dollars a day on high calorie snacks won’t make a difference on your budget. If a person sums up every few dollars a day as monthly expense, he might get few hundred dollars in savings which could be spend on something more important.

Share some expenses

You can ask your roommate to share with you the cost of an internet, cable TV, or gas expense on grocery shopping. Usually people go buy food just once a week on weekends anyway. So you could switch turns who would drive to a store each week.

Learn to cook home

Food is one of the biggest absolutely necessary expenses for any family, but even that unavoidable expenditure can be significantly reduced. You could make and bring your lunches from home. Replace restaurant visits with home dinner times.

Do not think that more expensive food will bring your body more nutrition

Body cells need balanced and varied food to function properly every day. However, there are lots of vitamins and minerals sources that you can get from not necessary expensive groceries. You could choose certain products over the others. For example, if you like seafood, it is okay to buy that, but just try not to pick expensive kinds of fish. Usually farmed salmon or trout are cheaper than those caught in wild.

Be careful with sales

It is not always wise for you to buy more of certain food that is on sale. For example, if yogurts have reduced price, it is not necessary mean that you benefit from purchasing more. Some of yogurt containers might stay in your refrigerator past due date or you will have to force yourself to eat more of them. Overeating of any product is not good neither for your stomach or wallet.
On the other hand, it might be thoughtful to buy more grains or pasta if they are on sale because they won’t spoil fast.