295
How do you deal with being broke?
(lemmy.ml)
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
Hey man, first off I'm sorry for the situation you're in. I'm not sure if you are looking for commiseration or advice, so if I offer some please know comes from a place of love.
I was in a similar spot to what you're describing. I am not going to suggest that you can budget your way out of poverty - that's absurd, the only long term solution (aside from fixing a lot of broken systems) is more money.
That being said, this is something that made my situation more bearable. I cut up all my credit cards. I created two checking accounts, one for bills and one for everything else. I added up all my monthly bills and divided them by the number of pay periods in a month. I split direct deposit so that one checking account got the bill money and the other the rest. I never touched the bills account outside of depositing money and paying bills - I kept the physical debit card locked in my closet.
This helped me keep on top of my bills and keep an eye on how much discretionary money I actually had to spend. I found the alternative was piles of late fees when I forgot that x bill was coming out of this pay check and I stupidly bought a donut that week or whatever (man it sure is expensive to be poor).
Like I said, it's not a solution and I don't know your situation. No amount of budgeting is going to help if you don't have the income to cover your expenses, and I wish that that fact wasn't treated as a moral failing by so many people.
One thing I’d change here is the credit card thing.
Not using a rewards credit card (like it’s a debit card) is leaving money on the table. I get 1-5% on every purchase I make and never pay interest because I pay the credit and as I go, never spending more than cash I have on hand.
Granted, this is a discipline thing and not everyone can trust themselves with a credit card, but if you can get that under control, you should absolutely be using a credit card for all spending unless the fee to do so is greater than the reward.
Studies repeatedly show people spend more with cards. It's often more than the cash back amount in the first place, and additional fees for credit cards is becoming more common. Cash is vastly superior at controlling spending.
Yes, I am keenly aware