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Just can't make ends meet…advice?
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Hello, all. I know many of us here talk about being frugal, stretching our dollars, finding good deals, budgeting and such, but I’m finding our family is REALLY having trouble making ends meet. I mean REALLY…as in we’ve been selling things that we own that we think are worth anything, we’ve cancelled our health insurance and so on. It’s never been this bad for us and I don’t see it getting any better at this point. Gas and grocery prices are eating up any money we have and we’re ALWAYS behind on everything. I sometimes hear on the news of things getting better in our economy, but you can’t prove it by my family. Are we the only ones who are struggling worse than ever? I would love any suggestions you might have as to how we might weather this storm a little better. Right now this seems to big to overcome.
Prayers for you.
Have you considered childcare in your home – even if just for a few hours a day? Last year I did that for a while because a friend of mine was in a bind. I made quite a bit of extra money.
Praying for you. Sorry if it sounds a bit rambly, but I tend to think of ideas (maybe one will help or jog an idea of your own).
1. Have you thought of contacting your church to see if the deacons could help? It hurts the pride something fierce, but our deacons have put new brakes on our van and bailed us out a couple of other times.
2. You could also see if anyone at the church knows of any extra jobs? For a while I cleaned our church…I babysat…I filed papers for a friend who had an “at home” business…
3. Do you have a workout place near you? Ours pays $10/hour for childcare. You can bring your own children and you get a free membership.
4. Sometimes Netflix hires people to stuff movies into those little mailers…
5. Do you have a friend who hunts? You live too far from me for me to send it, but my dad hunts and frequently has too much meat. He gives it away to his kids and anyone who might need it.
6. Most towns pay pretty well for people to deliver papers. It’s ridiculously early in the morning, but the money isn’t bad and your work is done for the day by the time your family is up.
If you’d like some help brainstorming or just someone to pray with, PM me and I’ll give you my number!
BTW, I was assuming you lived too far. I’m in central IL. If you’re anywhere close (within IL, MO, IN), I’d be happy to bring you some deer meat!
I think times are getting tough for many people and getting tougher and I don’t see it improving in the near future, so I think we all need to be thinking of ways to stretch the dollar and if things are really bad look for work of some kind. I am sad you have had to give up health insurance, that is tough when you have children…I find myself spending little at the moment and repairing a lot of things clothes wise, more than I did before…we are ok, but I am not confident that things in this country are going the right way, so we are really tightening up. Are you ok for curriculum and things like that? I wish I had more ideas to offer you – but I will pray for you, and all on this forum and for the country, that things start to move in the right direction. God bless you. Linda
I found several companies in my area that provide in home tutors. They have my name on their list and when someone needs tutoring that fits the areas and schedule that I gave them, they connect us. It’s great because they collect the money and do all that stuff. I just show up, tutor, and they send me a check. Some companies even pay for people to do online tutoring. I usually make around $20 an hour. I don’t know if you have any qualifications to show that you could do this. They all have different requirements. Some just have you take a test to prove that you know the subject. I get even more clients because I have more flexibility than tutors that work full time.
No, you’re not the only one. This year has been the toughest for us in quite some time. We’ve had more med/dental bills (and we have insurance) than we’ve ever had and that has proved to be very difficult on the budget. Our kids are getting bigger, so the grocery bill is going up (and we very rarely ever eat out) and I am really not used to that. We have been able to eat out some and get by with the grocery store bill in the past, but not anymore. We have contemplated getting rid of our home phone or take one cell phone away for awhile, which we’ve never really had to consider. I know that sounds awful spendy to begin with but we really live a very simple life (few real vacations in our married life)….we’ve cut back on all extracurricular activities for our kids and I have stretched out my haircuts far too long 🙂
My husband used to have ample overtime if he wanted it, but hasn’t really had any for 2-3 years now. But, we have learned to get by on much less than we thought we could and that has been a good lesson for us and our kids.
BTW, I have considered daycare myself, just to get a few bills paid, (that would make a big difference for us), but can’t quite commit to it. I honestly don’t know if I could handle more kids over, sad, but true.
Good luck to you and hopefully someone will have better advice than I have offered.
The first thing that came to mind is couponing. I know, I know, thoughts of that awful show come to mind. I fought it for years, but finally we just ‘got poor enough’ that I started to do it to try to bring teh ends closer together. I’ve been able to cut some of our budget by almost half, when you factor in food, cleaning supplies, paper products, medicines, drugstore stuff, makeup, hygiene, etc. If it overwhelms you, I am happy to pay forward what I’ve learned 🙂
I’ll take the couponing tips… I’ve been trying on and off for a year – but although we have saved a little bit, I wouldn’t say we have saved a lot.
I think some of the things they do on that show just don’t work in Canada. (ie, no stores around here double coupons….)
I think I have over-all saved more by watching the scanning of prices. The stores I go to, if the product scans the wrong price, if the product is under $10, you get the first 1 free (and the rest at the correct price) – if the product is more than $10 you get $10 off the first one. I’d say about 1/3 or 1/4 of the trips to the store, something scans in wrong…. The other week I got a $6.99 bag of pears for free because it scanned for $7.50. Oh, you have to mention the scanning policy or they don’t do it (they just give it to you for the correct price….) I don’t think all stores have it – but find out what their scanning policy is. (I think in Canada, they have to have some sort of policy, and it has to be posted – but not always in an easy to find place)
A scripture that is hard to grasp if you are going through such a time, but so TRUE because God is TRUE to His word:Psalm 37:25 “I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread”
I second the advice that you should let your church leadership know. As a church body, we need to carry each other through these times.
Also, do you have friends that you can exchange services for? I’m thinking of exchanging things like haircuts, extra garden produce, childcare, exchange clothes that another child outgrew, grocery shopping, landscaping, handiman work, errands, etc….
I’ve had the thought of advertising to the retirement community near me for ability to do light housekeeping, light cooking, grocery shopping, relief sitter for a full time caregiver, and such for some extra income.
Since becoming one income we have given up our cable bill (and have netflix instead, but don’t NEED that), given up our home phone (our cell phone with basic minutes and no extras like texting or internet), I’ve trained my ds to LOVE beans and rice (which was hard, glad it was my dd’s favorite from age 2), eat out much less and if so with coupons, we buy few pre-prepared foods, oatmeal or oatmeal bars instead of prepared cereals, we LOVE goodwill and despise the mall (a new norm in our house), we make our own chicken broth from chicken bones and freeze it, we eat less meat and are more creative about protein sources, we buy most things that are packaged in generic form (unless BOGOF or great coupon), we ask my mom to occassionally watch the kids instead of paying for a sitter.
I still need to be careful with our budget and more strict and we still have things extras we don’t need, though.
Also, I read on this blog site I think, there is an organization that helps put a homeschool curriculum package together for families going through times such as yours. If curriculum is a need of yours, please post that and I will try to research the organization.My hubby owns a financial business. He recommends mint.com to friends who ask about budgeting and/or recording money spent, and this free online site categorizes it according to your needs. It is amazing how much money one can save just KNOWING where it is going. It takes some time to set up, but well worth it. Before I spend money on anything, I check mint.com to see what my allowance is first. 🙂
Although I have never read his books, I have heard Dave Ramsey’s books are really insightful for those struggling with debt and spending.
HTH!
I don’t have any great advice, but am sending ((hugs)) your way. We are in a similar situation. I have been selling everything that is not nailed down to help keep us afloat…and its still not enough. We have had more unexpected bills in the past 3 months than the last 5 years combined.
I will pray for you and your family,
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