Paying off debt is not the only reason we need to find margin in our budget. We all have things we need to save for such replacing our car, projects in our home or take a vacation. The following are ideas of ways to save and earn money that were previously posted on the FOCUS Facebook page with a few tweaks.
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There is still a coin shortage. At the end of each week dump your change into a container and periodically roll it and deposit the money in a savings account. This could be your Christmas fund!
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Create a Job Chart for children to earn their allowance. Show each chore and the $$ amount to be earned and let them choose.
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Contact your local social work agencies in your town or County and see what types of government assistance you qualify for. Your household paid taxes into this system for years, make use of the services.
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Tutor online or in person. Teach a second language, or computer skills. Help with reading or math skills. Find out the needs in your area through your schools, homeschooling groups, or town. Join your community Facebook group and those of communities surrounding you and let people know how you can help. You could be helping children or adults.
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Use credit counseling to reduce the interest rates on your credit cards and pay them off once and for all in 3 to 5 years. Christian Credit Counselors at christiancreditcounselors.org or Trinity Debt Management at trinitycredit.org are both recommended on Moody Radio. (Note: Credit counseling is not available in all states.)
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Sell items you no longer use. It could be from hobbies, decor items, extra kitchen utensils, furniture, costume jewelry you no longer wear, clothes, if in style. You want to be determined to get rid of items, donate them if they don’t sell, don’t warehouse them. If you are paying for a storage space, clean it out, if you haven’t used the items in 6 months or more you don’t need them. Have a garage/yard sale or sell them online. Some churches hold rummage sales in which you can take part. You could offer to organize one, if your church would be interested in holding one.
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If you are buying coffee every morning and lunch out every day, you are spending $15 – $25 a day X 260 weekdays a year is $3,900 – $6,500 a year!Make coffee at home and use a travel mug or thermos, you don’t have to buy fashionable expensive ones.Bring lunch from home. Make extra for dinner and bring the leftovers for lunch.
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Make a spending plan so you know where your money is being spent. You may find extra you didn’t know you have! You can download a plan from the FOCUS Financial Coach webpage.
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Rent out a closet, garage, driveway space, basement, storage shed or attic space. You can advertise on the website called Neighbor.com.
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Use the app Rocket Money to filter out any subscriptions you are unknowingly paying for so you can cancel them.
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Take online surveys for money; Survey Savvy, Inbox Dollars, Swag Bucks, Survey Junkie are a few sites. They usually payout in gift cards, or to PayPal. You might want to set up a separate email account on Gmail or Yahoo just for taking surveys.
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Make a weekly meal plan and shopping list and stick to it! Don’t impulse buy. Don’t be tempted by end of aisle “deals”. Check your freezer and pantry so you don’t buy duplicates. Once you get in the habit, try shopping every other week and build up to once a month, except for fresh items. Buy generic whenever possible. Shop at a discount grocer like Aldi. Look online for coupons and plan around what is on sale that week.
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Be on the hunt for Job Fairs at churches, community colleges or through local organizations. See if your local food pantry has a place where they post job openings.
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Review your cell phone plan. You may be paying for a data plan that you don’t need. Check your usage on your phone and adjust your plan accordingly. Shop around, plans start at around $20.00 a month. If you have owned your phone for 12 months and it’s 5G you can have it unlocked by your current carrier and bring it to another carrier by just changing the SIM card.
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Check the websites for your town, Township and County for job openings. They list jobs openings for all types of work from office cleaners to civil engineers.
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Use websites like Ramsey Solutions (ramseysolutions.com) and Faith & Finance (faithfi.org), which will give you money saving ideas and articles with wise Biblical financial advice. Use the Apps from Ramsey Solutions called Every Dollar or the Faithfi App to help you create your budget. They both have free and paid subscription apps.
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Let your hobby earn money. Sell what you make or sell overstock of your supplies. Teach others your craft: cooking, sewing, needle work, knitting, pottery, painting/drawing, to play an instrument, vocal lessons, train an animal, play tennis, golf, or another sport. You can start people up to your proficiency level and then pass them along to someone with more advanced skills, if they want to go beyond what you can teach them.
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Make sure you check your credit card statements every month to be sure you are not being charged for things you are unaware of. Some carriers are very good at notifying you about unusual purchases, but sometimes they slip through the cracks. You may think you cancelled a subscription to only to find out you are still being charged. If you have PayPal or another payment source, check that statement every month too.
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Post Covid, restaurants and other small businesses are still really struggling to find help, some have had to close because of it. Consider applying, hours are usually flexible and can fit within your schedule.
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Until you have paid off credit card debt, car loans, medical bills, or educational loans, cancel any paid TV services you have over and above the basic. Put that extra money toward paying off the debts.
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Babysit, house sit, pet sit, dog walk, provide senior care. Website care.com can help get you started.
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Don’t shop unless you absolutely need something. Create a list and then wait at least a week and reevaluate the importance. Sometimes you realize the “need” is only and “want” and you can wait until you are in a better financial position to buy it.
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You do not have to link a credit/debit card to Google Play or App Store. Do not have apps you need to pay for until you are out of debt and have at least 6 months of living expenses in savings. Delete any payment options you have listed. This way you are sure you aren’t being charged for something you are unaware of, and you are not tempted to spend money on apps.
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Check with the temporary agencies in your area and see what type of jobs they have available. Many times a temporary job can turn into a full-time job. The agencies can help you learn new skills to add to your resume.
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Review all of your insurance policies, home, life, health, car to make sure you are not over insured or paying premiums that are too high. Also make sure you are not paying for insurance that might be covered by your employer.
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Tell people you know you are looking for work, it may come up in conversations they have with other people.
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Buy Term Life Insurance, not whole life. If you have dependents that are not self-supporting, and no one else has them listed as beneficiaries, coverage of 10-12 times your annual salary should be sufficient. If someone else has coverage for minor children, then you can insure for much less like $25,000.If your employer offers Life Insurance, compare the cost, and the benefits to what a term policy would cost you. If you don’t have any dependents, you only need enough to pay for a funeral, $10,000 – $15,000, you do not need to fund anyone else’s lifestyle.
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Find out what the teacher’s aide qualifications are in your area (called para-professional in some States) and apply if you qualify. Some States may require you to have an Associate’s Degree. Private schools might have different qualifications than public schools, check both. If you are Bi-lingual, you are especially needed!
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To determine the order of importance when creating a spending plan remember the “4 Walls” approach: Housing, Food, Transportation, Clothing. Allocate your funds to these 4 categories first and then plan the rest of your payments from there. Your housing costs would include your rent/mortgage, insurance and utilities. Your transportation costs would include car loan, fuel, insurance and maintenance. Clothing, until you are debt free, would be what is necessary for you to wear for work and toiletry products.
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Set up a LinkedIn account and in your profile stipulate what types of jobs you would be interested in; you will receive daily emails with job suggestions. You will also receive notices of free online courses to improve your skills. Also post your resume on Indeed.
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Use the “Debt Snowball” when paying off debts. List by amount owed smallest to largest. Allocate any extra money in your budget to the smallest debt and continue to pay the minimum amount on the others. As you pay off the smaller amounts allocate that money to the next debt on the list and continue the process until you are debt free.
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Buy furniture at yard/estate/garage sales, refinish, refurbish or reupholster and sell it. Don’t go into debt to do this, save up and start small.
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Get your free credit report every year at annualcreditreport.com. Check and make sure you do not have accounts open in your name of which you are unaware. Start cancelling any paid off store credit cards 2 at a time, 6-months apart. The more information you have available to people, the easier it is to be hacked. Remember, you are trying to get away from debt entirely and use cash or debit cards only.
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Clean offices evenings or weekends. Restock shelves in stores. Small businesses are still short-handed and looking for workers.
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Avoid any money making opportunities that ask you to spend money to make money. Whether to buy a computer program or buy merchandise to resell. Remember, you are trying to stay out of debt, not acquire more debt. Once you are debt free, if you want to try one of these ventures, proceed with caution.
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If you live in a safe area, drive for Uber, Lyft, Door Dash or Instacart. Be an order picker and delivery driver for groceries. Check Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Super Walmart or Super Target.
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Make a game out of saving money, try to better yourself from one month to the next. Involve friends in your goals, you can exchange ideas and support each other in the process.
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Follow the Neighborhood Facebook page for your town and neighboring towns. Many times there are short-term jobs posted, they are usually care giving or pet sitting jobs. Sometimes times a local company will post jobs. Free items that people have overages of and are willing to give away are also posted.
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No sale is a deal if you have to use a credit card and pay it off over time and pay 20+% interest on it. You have lost all the advantages of the “deal”.
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Find ways of rewarding yourself for a job well done that doesn’t cost you anything. This is a lot easier to do in the summer, things like free local concerts, outdoor movies, events at a local college, library events for adults and street festivals, enjoy the search.
Please post any ideas you may have in the Comments. Let us know if you have tried any of these and let us know how it worked for you. If you would like more personalized financial help register on the FOCUS website for 3 coaching sessions for the reduced price of $25.00. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
Karen Ferguson
FOCUS Financial Coach
Email: [email protected]
Web page: https://www.focusministries1.org/help/financial-coaching-online