Getting out of debt without the dreaded budget may seem a bit far-fetched but if we can lose weight without a diet why can’t we get out of debt? I’d imagine that in a perfect world, a budget would make sense, but my life has been anything but perfect. What about those of us that work off commission or tips? Or, self-employed folks that only see a paycheck after everything and everyone else is paid first? And, what if you were to combine that with events such as the roof needing to be replaced or a car breaking down? Or, worse, a major medical situation?
Even if you do have a steady paycheck, the thought of having constraints such as, “No, we can’t eat out tonight. We did that 3 weeks ago.” Or, “I’m sorry that you can’t sleep but we can only run the AC twice per week” just don’t cut it for me. I’m not into clipping coupons or living below my means!
Don’t get me wrong, if there is a sacrifice that needs to be made, I’ll do it but I’m not going to have my family suffer. For them, I will do anything and everything that I can do to see that they are happy, safe and comfortable.
So, if you’re like me and you don’t like the “B” word either, what should we do? EARN MORE!!
All too often, we get so wrapped up in how much we’re spending that we forget that there is another side of the ledger called “income”. There is nothing wrong with cutting the cable on your TV to save some money or eating hamburger instead of steak now and then. Just don’t get so lost is saving that you forget there is another way to make ends meet.
There are so many ways to earn extra cash nowadays that they’ve come up with the term “side hustle”. You can search Google or YouTube and find a hundred ways to each extra cash. One of the simpler ones that we’ve done is simply selling off items we no longer need or want on FB Marketplace or ThredUp. Or, buying books at Goodwill on “Super Saturday (when everything is half off) and reselling them on sites like SellBackYourBook.com. You can even download their app and see how much you can get for a book BEFORE you even buy it.
If you were to purchase $100 of books and resell them for $300, that’s $200 left over for things like sprinkles on your kid’s ice cream cone. So, let’s not get so lost in a budget that we stop thinking of ways that we can make life BETTER for our family instead of telling them that this is the price we must pay. NO IT’s NOT. Who even came up with that phrase?
Clearly, this is my opinion. There are others with better degrees that may say otherwise. What do you think? I hope that makes sense to you. If you have any questions or maybe you have a favorite side hustle that you’d like to share, please address them in the comments below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.
