Hi,
When your income can't possibly cover your fixed monthly expenses and other monthly expenses, drastic action has to be taken for month to month survival while you're working yourself out of your situation. First let's address a monthly budget for your fixed expenses. The following methods might help to ensure that you meet your monthly goals for food, utilities, and transportation:
1) Pay your rent or mortgage.
2) Analyze your utility bills. Investigate any payment programs offered by your companies. Some companies offer programs in which utility costs are calculated evenly over the year reducing fluctuations in monthly payments. This will prevent you from being caught with an unexpected high bill one month due to weather etc., Find out every method available given to you by your utility companies to conserve and reduce, which will then reduce your cost.
3) Revisit your monthly transportation cost. Is this an area which can be trimmed?
4) Food and drugstore expenses: Establish your food and drug store budgets for the month. Buy gift cards for the stores in which you shop, and use them to manage your budgets. It is important to save receipts for every food and drug store purchase. This allows you to analyze expenditures if you go over your budget in those areas. Your goal is to recharge the cards on a monthly basis.
5) Cash. Set aside the amount of money you will spend on "whatever" during the month and place it in an envelope. This envelope might be empty until you reap the rewards of going under budget in other areas.
Tomorrow I'm going to begin a series of blogs identifying different types of debt.
Until then,
Alan
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