There are various ways of stretching your money when you have little or no income coming in.
A few ways to keep the basic neccesities of life at a low cost are the following:
Sign up on company promotions that offer free samples of things from small samples of shampoo to samples of food. One website to look at is Free stuff Free Food Samples. The website has links on offers of free food and other business goodies.
Other ways are to be a taste tester at food companies doing surveys. This can help for one or two days for any concerns about food.
Other ways to acquire money in a pinch is to look around at local blood services. Depending on who is doing blood donations you may be compensated with money for donating blood plasma or whole blood. Charities like the Red Cross ask for voluntary donations while commercial operations sometimes will give you a small amount of money for your participation. Be sure to check your local phone book for your local services.
Sometimes your local government may have an agency that helps evaluate the honesty of businesses in your area. Try to know the name of your local or regional government agency. For those in the U.S. the Better Business Bureau at bbb.gov is a helpful resource to evaluate a blood service before you go to one. I suggest doing this only if you are truly desperate for funds and have no income. Be sure you live a clean life and quit smoking or alcohol consumption so you can keep coming back if you need to. Blood plasma can be donated at a high frequency of two or three weeks between visits. Whole blood is a minimum of about four weeks between donations.
My suggestion is that if you have at least two people get in one this action, then one person can go one week and the other person can go the next week. The compensation money is not that high, but if you need money for one week of groceries, then this is an option. I have had two family members do this for a few times when both of them did not have jobs for a time and funds were very tight.
Other ways are to volunteer a few times a week at a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. Many times that can cut down your food bill and most of the time volunteers get to eat one meal after serving visitors From my experience the food is fine, usually things like chili, fried chicken, corn bread, or other inexpensive food bought through donations and items donated from farmers' markets and other companies. At least its a way to stretch the budget for groceries.
Another way of stretching the budget are to do chores for older seniors in the community. Sometimes there are services with senior citizen programs that have people sign up and give their name out out to senior citizens that are willing to pay for chores to get done. Try using google.com to help you with searching your local area for announcement of that type.
Other ways are to cut out everything that can be cut.
Cable and sattelite television subscriptions being cancelled.
Cancel magazine subscriptions.
Downgrading Internet connections from broadband to dial-up.
Ration your groceries to their serving sizes on the nutrition labels on the packaging.
Lefttovers in the refrigerator are always eaten and not forgotten.
Occasionally skipping dinner when you are truly not hearing your stomach rumble for food.
Wash your clothes in cold water whenever you can; it saves on the electricity bill.
Hang dry your clothes on a clothesline in your basement/outdoors or on hangers on the shower bar that supports your shower curtain or buy a movable clothes stand. I have been drying my clothes on hangers for the last six or seven years and my clothes have probably lasted longer for that fact. Ironing is more of an inconvenience because of it, but the electricity used in ironing is about one-third or less compared to if you consistently use a clothes dryer.
Buy jeans, dishes, some books, business attire and other durable items or classic style clothes from resale stores i.e. thrift stores. Sometimes there are retail chain stores that are specific as thrift stores and they usually have good quality. I have found that I have bought over 90% of my jeans from these stores and I estimate the cost is 25% of what I would have spent going to retail stores buying them new.
[*} If you have some small bit of land or balcony, try growing some tomatoes in a pot or in a garden plot. It may be just one plant or a few more than that, but having a small way to have food security and something that you can produce to trade or sell to a customer is essential in this economy.
Basic advice in tough economic times, live on half of what you normally do if you are living in a middle-class or upper class economic situation.
A proverbial statement I heard about one person say was, "Do not acquire what you need, acquire those things you can not afford to do without."
Eat out a lot less, and when you do, try to keep it inexpensive. Keep track of everything you spend, even something as lowtech as a small notebook can be effective if you write everything down.
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There are many "easy" ways to save money. I have an entire website dedicated to helping people trim from there household budget at thriftytimes.com.
Here are a few suggestions taken from a thriftytimes article entitled 20 ways to save $500 for an emergency fund :
You have heard all those "experts" talk about a small cash emergency fund. Put away at least $500 in a savings account so you can draw on it in an emergency. Many people find this easier said than done. Well, here are 20 simple ways to make your emergency fund happen.
Put aside your loose change. Saving 50 cents a day will help you save more than $180
Always comparison shop. Savings on two expensive items could save more than $500
Make your coffee at home. At 3.50 a day for 250 work days you would save $875
Eat out one less time a month. At $20 savings per month that would save $240
Bring your lunch to work. At $2.50 savings for each 250 days worked that would save $625
Avoid brand named cereals and snacks. Shopping 52 times a year and saving $5 each time will save $260
Purchase store brand over the counter drugs. Savings could be as much as $100
Reduce credit card debt by $2,000 and save $300
Avoid silly banking fees including bounced check fees or ATM fees and save $150 per year
As your car gets older shop around for insurance and save $200 or more
Find out if you can drop credit insurance on installment loans, particularly your mortgage. On every $20,000 savings would be $250
Tune your car and make sure tires are properly inflated, yearly saving $100
Choose a home near your work. Moving 10 miles closer could save more than $1,000
Weather proof your home to save on heating and cooling bill. That could save $100 – 500
Keep a list of clothing needs. Commit to purchasing only what is on the list and wait for good sales. Savings could be as much as $500
Clean and iron your clothes yourself and save between $100 and $300
Comparison shop your cell phone, home phone and internet service. Savings could be more than $250
Give up premium cable services. Savings will be more than $500
Plan gift giving well in advance and get higher quality gifts for less. Savings could be over $200
Invite friends to your home for a pot luck instead of going out to eat. Savings of $40 per meal per month saves $480
You could stop eating and move under a bride too. I hear in Boston they heat the streets with steam from the subway. As winter approaches it might be a cost cutting option for some families looking to save some money.
__________________ "give me a kiss to build a dream on and my imagination will thrive upon that kiss... sweetheart I ask no more than this... a kiss to build a dream on"
There are a lot of easy things one can do that might actually make life better.
1 - Cook. One can have a real meal for less than fast food costs.
2 - Just keep your eyes open when shopping and don;t get hung up on 'name brands'. I put that in quotes because I was really thinking more about specific variety of a fruit. Near me I know of 3 different stores, Value +, Smart and Final and Henry's which have apples and pears. In the last couple of weeks the difference between th cheap variety and the others is stagering. At Smart and final 39 cents a pound for Gala, nothing else under a dollar. Huge difference.
I'm not saying never go by name, just be sure that when yuo do so it is something you care about. Going back to the apples. Granny Smith is often a cheap variety, but it is a more sour apple. It is an off and on desire for me and my wife hates them. More than one or 2 is a bad idea. But if you like the taste a great buy.
3 Planning trips can make a difference. Gas or even buss fare can add up.
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