There are a variety of starting points to a rough financial period. It can be a career transition or having a child like it was for my wife and I back in 2011. It can also be a realization that credit card debt or student loans really need more attention. Regardless of the starting place, the most important thing is finding the right mentality to hunker down and focus on saving money. The focus can’t just be about the tactics of money but also needs to be about finding joy and fulfilment in this time in order to maintain momentum.
What does it really take to be happy?
When money is going to be tight, it puts a major focus on what actually brings happiness in life. If going out to eat is going to a rarity and new clothes are coming infrequently then its critical to find joy in the more basic things. Oddly, this is kind of what we need in a culture that pushes stuff on us at an ever-increasing pace.
Focus on Building Relationships
Whether its family or friends, everyone seems to agree that community is critical to finding joy in life, but the constant challenge is that this part of life gets squeezed out by all of the busyness of life. If the focus is on spending more time with key people in your life rather than just on dollars and cents, this can bring a whole lot of fresh energy to a period when money is tight. This can also include stepping out and starting some new friendships. If you are in a spot where things feel uncertain with money you can only focus on that so much and so relationships are a much better spot to shift.
- Going out to coffee
- Taking a hike
- Meeting friends with kids at a playground
- Thrift shopping
- Joining a club
- Attending a Financial Peace University Group
- FPU is a great place to build community with people who are in a season where they are focused on boosting their financial situation.
Get connected to your food and eat healthier
If you are looking to save money, then it’s pretty much automatic that you are going to be more focused on cooking at home. This can be a great opportunity to embrace improving your skills in the kitchen and becoming skilled at using more basic ingredients. For my wife and I, this was the greatest benefit from our hard financial years with small kids. We had virtually no money to eat out and so we embraced cooking in a way we likely wouldn’t have if we had more money for eating out. This also led us to eat more grains just due to the expense and we noticed that we just felt better eating that way. Neither of us is vegetarian, but less meat has been connected to both of us feeling better as we moving into our 40s.
- Use the endless recipes online
- Buy a set of ingredients and then get creative to stretch them out
- Embrace a slower pace for cooking
- Learn more meatless recipes – Good for your health and wallet.
Focus on Having a Good Week, not on the Long Term
When you are in a season with a tight budget and will be there for a while its critical not to have the weight of the whole journey on your mind all the time. Its best to focus on small chunks. During our years with small kids, my wife and I focused our attention on each week. We pulled cash out for the budget and always kept a little aside for fun even if it was small. This helped the process feel manageable and allowed us to start fresh each week even if the previous on went over the budget.
- Planning food for a week helps limit grocery runs
- This allows for a cash budget without pulling lots of money out
- Trying slightly different approaches each week keeps things fresh
- Actively push back against long term anxiety.
- Allow each week to be a fresh start.
Embrace a Simple Life
The years that my wife and I went through on a super tight budget were definitely stressful. Unexpected expenses like a car repair felt devastating and I was constantly having anxiety about money. The lifestyle that we learned in this time was worth the challenges. We learned to slow down and embrace a simpler life. These years included lots of walks and time spent exploring Austin for cheap fun. We bought all our furniture second-hand and most of our clothing as well. I learned to garden, and my wife discovered creative ways to decorate our house. Now that years have passed and our financial situation has improved, we can look back and see the value of the rhythms we developed in these years.
- Slow is good for the soul
- Daily walks help to reset after work
- Cities offer tons of fun options to explore on the cheap with a little creativity
Focus on Learning for Your Future
We live in a time where content is everywhere on every subject. If you are in a tight year for your finances, there is likely some great content out there to help you learn more about anything you may be headed towards in your life. This is one thing that I wish I had embraced more in years as a young parent. It would have helped my quite a bit when I was feeling nervous about money and parenting to simply pour my effort into learning a new skill. In my experience, healthy distraction can be the best medicine when your mind wants to focus on things that you can’t change.
- Free Online Education can give initial exposure to a potential career change
- Growing in understanding of opportunities in your current field
- Learning skills for home improvements
Final Thoughts
If you are facing a tough stretch financially, my hope is that this article gives some thoughts to help you think about this period as part of a bigger story. In that story, this is a rough patch on your way to something great and there are plenty of cool things to focus on while the cashflow is tight. This is the advice I would have given myself as I often sat and wondered how I was going to make it through to find solid ground. There is a lot of health and happiness that can come out of the times in life where we don’t have much. If we embrace that part, it is also the best way to provide a boost to stay on track financially.
By: Chris Bemis