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Do You Know Where You Stand?


There are many people who, once they write down everything and actually stick to their plan, feel like they’ve gotten a raise. Being in control will do that for you.

This week’s task is to figure out every dollar that is going out. Add your total monthly debt payments to your total monthly expense payments. The total should be less than your monthly income. If not, then you have been living way beyond your means and you are probably using credit cards to just “get by” every month. If this is the case, you need to make some fast, hard adjustments to reduce your living expenses and/or get more money coming in. Here are some questions to ask yourself and your significant other:

 Is my television service really that important? Can I eliminate my home phone/can we find a cheaper cell plan? What subscriptions are we paying for that we can eliminate? How much are we eating out or “having drinks”? Can we brown-bag lunches? Can we combine trips in the car? Can we sell a car with debt and buy something cheap just to get us around for now? Can we give up soda/coffee runs, pedicures, and expensive haircuts? How much time do we spend watching TV? Can we (or one of us) find a part-time job instead? Can we work opposite shifts to cut down on daycare costs?

Finding ways to reduce expenses is going to be tough—there’s no way around it. In addition to reducing costs, there are ways to bring in extra money:

 Have a garage sale or find things around the house to sell on eBay, Amazon, Craig’s List or Facebook Marketplaces. Get that part-time job—paper routes still exist or deliver pizzas. Find what you are good at and tutor/teach someone else—do you play an instrument? Are you good at math? Do yard work or shovel snow, and dog-sitting is really a thing. Now is a GREAT time to quit smoking. Do you craft? Check out selling things on Etsy. TEMPORARILY stop contributing to your retirement—just till you’re out of debt. Change your W4—get less of a tax return and more in your paycheck (remember my blog post “Interest-free Loans”?

I’ve said it before and this probably won’t be the last time…knowing where you are can be half the battle. You can do this! 

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