For those of you just barely making ends meet financially, how are you making ends meet?
Pretty much the title. Put slightly differently: for those of you who are financially surviving by just a razor thin margin, how are you managing to scrape by?
Floating bills. Last month was phone service. It's actually currently cut off. This month I'm floating my medical insurance and medications. Next month is internet and car insurance. (additionally I've cut all discretionary spending, driving up to my home town to see my parents, and have cut 1 to 2 meals a day.)
Damn bro, that's rough living right there.
I could get rid of my dog Zoey but she's literally the only reason I get out of bed these days. So that's a none starter. (single male, looking for the DINKWD life style. Any active women in Colorado in their 40s/30s looking to split bills? 🤣😂)
I have a credit card that's gotten out of control. I haven't been able to make a decent payment on it in a while, so the balance is growing faster than I'm paying it. Finally decided to just get a flat loan to pay it off completely so it doesn't milk me dry.
This is more historical as fortunately I was able to work my way up in my industry over the years.
A little over 10 years ago I was living in my first flat by myself. 90% of my income from part time retail went on rent and bills. What I was left with was £4 a week for all groceries, medicine prescription fees, etc. (Travel I considered to be bills because I couldn't walk to work as it was too far)
I just had to buy the absolute cheapest of everything, bulk deals, etc. Anything I couldn't immediately afford I'd spread over a few months on my credit card.
Anything health related fell off quickly. I never saw the dentist the entire time I was this poor, and I couldn't afford healthy food at all. I'm still paying the price for that now. I swear my teeth are 90% glass at this point.
It was an extremely difficult point in my life, but I needed that freedom and independence and would do it all again if I had to.
When I knew my income was going to be destroyed I prepared by stopping all my outgoing subscriptions immediately. Changed phone plan to bare minimum etc. traded our car in for electric which cut our fuel bill from £100pm to £15. Finally I’m slowly selling my stuff, but I’m now at the stage where I have a 10 yr old laptop, 8yr old phone and something is going to break soon. Fun times.
15-20 years ago I lived on about subsistence minimum for about 5 years.
No subscriptions. No TV. No car. No kids. Cook myself only cheapest food, no tobacco, no alcohol, no candy. Most of my furniture was used. Moved to a cheap-ish part of the country.
Government assistance. Luckily I live in a blue state, so getting several major bills subsidized for being a filthy poor helps me eat regularly and not worry too much about turning the heat above 50 in the winter.
I've been telling people that my autopilot is in the best spot where it is right now. That is making sure I don't sink so it is prioritized to making sure expenses are paid before anything else. Also, I have a quality in myself where I tighten up at times when money starts leaving the triple digits and upper double digit values. I just don't want to spend anymore than I have.
I'm not a consoomer either, so I don't go out buying shit because that company or this company told me to.
Family
A little nepotism diesn't hurt.
That assumes we are.