9 Ways to Survive Being Broke.

Becoming Rich is Hard. Staying Broke is Hard. Choose Your Hard.

Eric Worre

It’s really hard to get through your everyday life with little or no money at all. Literally, everything revolves around money nowadays and if you don’t have it, or enough of it, surviving can prove tough.

Being broke is almost everyone’s nightmare and at some point in life almost everyone gets broke at some point. Some stay broke for a very short time, good for them. On the other hand, some people stay broke longer or are always broke.

But how do you make life a little easier when you are broke? If you are tired of being broke and want to head towards financial freedom, there are few changes you need to make here and there. They will seem small but they are very significant to helping you get through being broke.

These changes might feel and seem hard but are way better made than staying broke.

Start with your Thoughts – Be positive.

When you are broke, it is difficult to look beyond the situation. This here is what will get you stuck in being broke. You have to look beyond the problem and keep positive to attract money solutions.

The more you complain and the more you see it difficult, the harder it gets actually.  Being stressed and negative will not change the fact that you are broke at the moment. This will just make you start seeing things worse than they actually are.

When you set your mind to survive being broke and stop complaining about how hard life is, that is how you start moving towards financial freedom. You even start getting ideas and solutions to your money struggles.

So, why not start thinking positively and be open minded and just get through.

Look for ways to reduce Fixed Expenses.

In budgeting and expenses we have fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses have regular bills that are not easily changed. But, you can find ways to reduce expenses that are fixed such as rent. And when you are broke, fixed expenses can really way you down.

You can consider moving in with family or a friend to cut out expenses such as rent, food and electricity bills.

You can consider moving into a house with lower rent payments or a house plan that accommodates communal living or house mates. This living arrangement is cheaper and most people who cannot afford an apartment by themselves or just want to spare some coins go for such.

Just sit down and evaluate all your fixed expenses and see how you can reduce their monthly costs.

Try the no-spend challenges.

What about not spending on anything else apart from your necessities such as food and transport for a specific time? You can do this 3 weeks, 2 weeks in a month or even for a whole month. You will save a lot by not spending on the extras for those 3 weeks or for the month.

Use a tracker to keep up with the challenge and see how money disciplined you are.

See the challenge as a fun game but one that saves you money.

Sell items you don’t really use or need to get extra cash.

You probably have extra items lying around your house that you could sell to get yourself some extra money to help you get through and meet your needs.

On the other hand, they don’t even have to be extra items, you can decide to downsize things such as clothes and shoes. Sell them as second hand to second hand stores or even sell them online or in a flea market.

If you have appliances and other items that you can do without, just sell them. You might be having piles of old newspapers stuck in a corner somewhere or even books you no longer use and you can exchange them for a couple dollars.

Find an additional source of income.

If there is something extra you can do to get extra money, why not do it. This is not the time to be too choosy on what to do. So long as it is not illegal or does not interfere with your 9-5 job, if you have one, just do it.

You cannot live on one source of income when you are struggling financially. Actually, when you are broke, anything that can put bread on your table, you create time for it and do it. You do what you can do to get out of the state you are in.

Get a side hustle, get a part time job. It doesn’t have to be high paying, it just needs to provide you with something extra. You can be doing 3 ‘jobs’ at the simultaneously.

Just learn how to properly balance and manage these multiple streams and you will their significance.

Use the skills and talents you have and earn something from them, you never know what can come from them.

Live frugally every day.

When you are broke, you have to be very intentional with every dollar you have. When spending, save each and every dollar you can and be very intentional with your spending habits. With time, you will have saved a couple dollars to take care of other needs.

Know the expenses that are a priority and spend on them first, the other expenses look for a way to cut their costs or eliminate them completely. You can become a cheapskate or go for sales and get something half the price etc.

Just find ways to save a dollar or 2 or more. Don’t go expensive if you can get an alternative of an item at a cheaper price.

Know your spending weaknesses.

So where do you spend a good sum of money and just can’t seem to help it, is it clothes, food? You need to know your weak and temptation points when it comes to how you spend.  

Track your expenses and see where your sweet tooth is in spending. Where do you seem to go out of control?

Once you know, you will be able to control how much and how regularly you spend on them.

Take responsibility for your situation.

Don’t go blaming everyone for the financial situation you are in, that’s a little bit unwise. Don’t point fingers at your family or your spouse, instead point the fingers at yourself.

There are money mistakes you have made along the way that have put you in your current state. Mistakes such as not having a budget, not tracking your expenses and not prioritizing your needs etc.  

The money related decisions that you make every day affect your finances. Recognizing and owning up to these mistakes will help you avoid them pretty early and notice them soon before you make them.

Develop simple good money habits.

There are those simple money habits that will help you be in control of your finances and manage whatever money you have.

Stop borrowing money from friends and mobile lending apps. This one here is always a bad idea trust me. Let’s not even mention the friendships you might lose when you owe friends money or you are always borrowing. 

This easy money will put you in pressure to pay back the money as soon as possible. Eventually this will push you to borrow more to pay what you borrowed before.

All you will be doing is getting money that all goes to repaying debts. So, you will be in a cycle of money coming in, money going out to debts.

Carry minimal cash enough for the important things of the day such as transport whenever you leave the house and avoid carrying your credit cards. This will at least help you avoid unnecessary spending since you cannot spend money you don’t have with you.

Conclusion.

Importantly, develop a budgeting habit and plan all the money you have even the little you have.

Many people struggle with money and find themselves broke because they do not plan their finances. You don’t need to have a lot of money to plan for your money, even the little you have, plan for it to run through until your next pay.

Plan your basic expenses, plan your savings, plan for the extras – fun etc. But, make sure to balance your income and your expenses, they should be in line and not outdo each other. That’s how you end up in debt and being broke.

In short, the little you have is not that little. Just, plan yourself and your money.