Surviving hard times

When times get hard and finances are tight it can be tough to figure out how you are going to survive month to month, pay your bills, and put food on the table. The following are some good tips for preparing yourself for hard times, and surviving them when they hit. Some of the tips are a little bit extreme, others are stuff you can do on a daily basis to make surviving hard times much easier.

One of the most important parts of surviving hard times is having food to eat, and ways to feed yourself and your children. With the economy starting to decline, and with foreign trade prices increasing, we are seeing a rise in grocery prices. Most experts agree that the food prices are not going to go down, and may even increase as much as double in the next few years. In order to help yourself survive some tough times, and to be able to feed your family with high grocery prices, it is a good idea to stick up on non-perishable items, and store some food in your home. You can start small and buy a few extra items each time you go to the store. If you are worried you have no place to store extra food, consider using spaces like under the bed. You can fit hundreds of pounds of rice, beans, tuna, etc. in the space under the bed, and should you barely have enough money to make your bills, you will be grateful to have that food under there. Think about the foods you like to eat, and stock up on anything that is non-perishable that you use. For example, if you love pasta, stock up on the pasta noodles, and the sauce.

When times are hard, it can be difficult to pay to heat and cool your home. One thing that most people do not realize is that they can handle far colder or warmer conditions than they think. Cut your heating and cooling costs down significantly by turning your heater off, and bundling yourself up in sweaters and blankets. Turn it off at night and use an extra comforter. Cook more meals, and let the stove heat your home. Sometimes it is far less expensive to keep the family in one room, and use a small space heater to heat that space, then to heat a whole house. If you do want to use your heater, consider closing vents to rooms that are not occupied often, and in the bedrooms. Also set the heat lower so you spend less. Your body will adjust. In the summer, take advantage of the evening breezes by using windows and fans. Keep blinds shut, and curtains drawn so that less heat gets in through your windows. When times are tight, and you are just trying to make ends meet you will learn that surviving a house that is too hot is much easier than figuring out a way to pay a high electric bill.

If you are struggling to survive hard times it is important that you make changes to help yourself out. For example, a vehicle can be extremely expensive to maintain. Besides the cost of licensing and fuel you have maintenance costs such as oil changes, tire rotations, etc. So, instead of letting your budget hemorrhage because you think you need a car, sell it, and invest the money you make off it into food, and paying other bills, and buy yourself a messenger bicycle. These bikes have a basket so you can grocery shop. You can then make a more concerted effort to car pool, use public transportation, etc. You will find that asking the neighbor to pick up groceries for you when they do their shopping is not nearly as embarrassing as you think, and can help you make ends meet. In addition to finding ways to get food on the table and pay your bills, you need to use precaution when trying to survive tough times. For example, do not buy something with the plans to sell something else to pay for it. Sell the something else first. Do not quit a job hoping to find a better paying one. Find the better paying one first.

Next, if you want to survive hard times, it is crucial that you figure out a way to bring in an income. You will want to assess your job situation. When hard times hit, jobs often disappear, so make sure you are someone that is dependable, that people like, and that would be very difficult to fire. The more valuable you are to your employer, the higher chance you will have of keeping your job. You may need to take a pay decrease, or work less, but any income is better than none when times are tight.

Next, one of the best tips for surviving hard times is to have some rainy day money set aside for it. This is a reality few people have. But the truth is, if you can plan ahead and build an emergency fund, surviving hard times will be a lot easier. Experts all say that you should have at least three to six months' of living expenses in a safe place such as a money market fund or savings account. This seems unreachable for some, so let's look at ways to make surviving hard times easier, and ways to cut costs so you have money to dedicate to an emergency fund, or to paying your bills if you lose a job, or find yourself in a pinch.

The best way to save more money is to spend less. So, start by cutting down on the amount you spend on things you simply do not need, like television channels, eating out, and seeing all the new movies at the theater. This can mean substantial savings that could really come in handy during a hard time financially.

Next, look for ways to increase your income in order to have more money to put aside for surviving hard times. You can do this by picking up a part time job, working some overtime if it is available, or even selling things you have and do not need.

If you want to know a great way to survive tough times it is to de-junk. If you are struggling, and want to come up with some money, one great way is to clean out your closets. Having a yard sale, selling clothes, furniture, décor, jewelry, etc. can be a great way to help you pay your bills or buy your groceries. Almost everyone has stuff they no longer use. People will buy it because it will be a good deal for them, and help you earn some money.

If you want to survive hard times you have to keep yourself as out of debt as possible. Pay off credit cards so that you can use them as a rainy day fund should the need present itself. If your balance is already high, you won't have any wiggle room with them.

If you are in a real pinch, and aren't sure how to make ends meet, one option is to pull some equity out of your home to help out until you get back on track. You can open a home equity line of credit at any time, and have it there in case you need it. As long as you do not borrow from it, you won't pay on it. But, it is available to you should you need it. Just remember to practice discipline of your might put yourself in a tough time by overspending.

One of the best ways to survive hard times is to find ways to relieve stress that do not involve spending any more. Many people find their ways of relieving stress are going out, buying something new, etc. If times are tight, stress is usually high. If you spend to reduce stress, you effectively add to your stress instead. So, remember the viscous cycle and find other, no-cost stress relievers.

If you are laid off, file immediately for unemployment benefits. It can take a few weeks before it kicks in, and you do not want to rack up debt, late fees, etc. in the meantime or it will be even harder to get back on track.

If you want to survive tough times and come out relatively unscathed, stay out of debt, do not neglect your health, and don't dip into your retirement plans and investment accounts unless it is absolutely necessary. Too many people face road bumps and try to solve them by dissolving their IRA's etc. This, in the long run is a poor solution.

Basically to survive hard times, control your wants, reduce your spending, get help where you can, and do not do anything to make matters worse, like borrow too much money, empty retirement funds, etc.