Something very strange happens to people when they stop getting paid: they actually start paying attention to their expenses.
Yours truly, the UberEmployable crew, was certainly guilty of this when the paychecks went bye-bye. As gainfully employed individuals, we routinely swiped our plastic with ninja-like speed and accuracy, procuring many a ware that was less than life-changing… automatic pancake machine, we’re looking in your direction.
Nothing like a good ol’ recession to shake you out of that consumptive mindset – all of a sudden the everyday necessities don’t seem so necessary: $4 cups of coffee, cable TV that you barely watch, a new pair of shoes (simply because you got that email from Piperlime with a 20% off coupon)… yeah, turns out that stuff actually does add up to a pretty hefty tab at the end of each month, and as a jobless wino who has no money and plenty of time, you owe it to yourself to sit down and really start tracking your finances to see where you can slim things down.
Let’s break it down into 4 easy steps:
Step 1. Bust out your Microsoft Excel, your pad and paper, your abacus, whatever. Get ready to do some brainstorming and number-crunching.
Step 2. List all your expenses – and stop lying to yourself. People do this all the time… it’s hilarious. Just because you think you need something doesn’t mean it’s not an expense. Have enough self-respect to admit that your $4 latte does indeed exist in the physical and financial realms, and add it to the list. Add everything.
Step 3. Put on your lawyer hat, and make a case both for and against every item on that list. The coffee’s a good example so let’s stick with that: a $4 latte every weekday is about $90/month. What kind of return do you see from that expense? A few hours of energy? A temporary fix for your caffeine addiction? Maybe you can do without it. Or, maybe you can’t, but you can handle waking up a little earlier in the morning to make your own coffee, or going somewhere cheaper, possibly saving $30 or $40 a month. Debate every expense honestly, and there’s no doubt you’ll start seeing areas where you could cut some financial fat.
Step 4. Get addicted to tracking your expenses. It’s so easy to do nowadays, what with the Internet and all. Use an Excel spreadsheet, or pay for everything with your debit or credit card so you can track it there… and don’t forget about some of the awesome web 2.0 tools out there for personal finance: sites like Mint.com are great ways to keep abreast of your spending habits. Unlike your coffee, this is actually something that is good to be hooked on.
So, how low can you go? Try living on as little as possible for a while, and see how you like it. You may surprise yourself. And, if you become accustomed to not paying for TV, or going out to eat less, remember that as you search for a new job, the expenses you’ve cut actually represent a larger figure in salary terms because you get your spending money after taxes. A lower-paying gig might not be as bad as it sounds when you realize that you previously needed about $1,400 in salary to cover your annual $1,000 latte expense, and if you’ve cut that expense out, you can take a $1,400 pay cut and be in the same financial position you were at in 2009 B.C. (before cost-cutting).
