Wishing for bad things to happen isn’t in my of cup tea. But sometimes these come as blessings in disguise. The worldwide crisis that is the Covid-19 pandemic has brought chaos in our lives in ways we haven’t thought of before. But it also had its good effects I’d say.
I have a nice day job. But the pay isn’t as big as I am hoping it would be. But when things got sour, I found myself calculating my expenses and learned that I actually earn enough to meet my basic needs and I can even save a little if I don’t have loans to pay off and just live simply. Just spending on what I basically need with a little splurging every now and then. But having lived the YOLO mantra for a decade now has caused my newfound adulthood plans to get derailed. I am not proud of it but I am slowly getting there. The harsh truth is that there is no one to help me but myself.
I’ve had several credit cards before and loans that I was just using for personal gain i.e. shopping or travel. Buying a property or even renovating my house isn’t even in my vocabulary. Why? It is because of lack of funds. Or according to my realization, lack of proper spending and budgeting.
I know now that having a single source of income is not commendable. Investment is the best answer to our financial woes. But for the meantime, I need to implement the basics first. And proper allocation of funds is a great place to start towards financial freedom.
I have read up several articles on how to properly budget. And more specifically, how we can properly spend during Coronavirus times. But I came up with my own and I have been doing these since early last year. I hope this helps.
1.Change Your Mindset – This is something very crucial for anyone who would like to start changing their spending habits. In my experience, changing how we look at spending is the key on how we can improve our budgeting skills. Ask yourself, what is my purpose for doing this? What am I going to gain after? Is this really necessary? Once I have answered all of these questions, budgeting seems really easy now.
2. Know Your Priorities – My priorities right now are to fend for myself and tend to my family’s basic needs, which we can’t really do away from, and to start saving a portion of my salary.
3. Pay off Debts – This is a very crucial step towards my financial freedom. I have started paying off my credit card’s running balance and in few months’ time I am sure I won’t have anymore.
4. Let Go of Unnecessary Spending – Goodbye online sales. Hahaha! I only buy now the things we need i.e. food and groceries. I have realized that I don’t need to buy things which I do not always use. Save for a good book at times. 😊
5. Save! Save! Save! – No matter how small, I try to save a few coins or several hundreds from my salary. Starting small is better than not having started at all right?
These are just some of the things I have started implementing. It is so hard to stick to your budget because it entails a lot of sacrifices. For me, going to the mall without a specific purpose means a lot to me now. Even my plans for future travels will now be based on my how much I can save. And in a way I consider it a big triumph. Saving money and sticking to your budget is a must because we never know when tragedy strikes. I believe that once we developed this habit, we can go through tough times with more resilience than we can handle.
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