Budgeting Help

If you have found yourself out of work or have been forced to close your locally owned business it’s imperative to focus on, and monitor your income and spending habits and actively cut back where you can. If you fall into that category and are starting to rely on emergency savings to get through this period, these suggestions can help guide you on how to spend your money.

Eliminate Unnecessary Expenses.

The most impactful thing you can do immediately is to be ruthless with your expenses and eliminate everything that you can live without right now. This includes things like your morning coffee from Tim Hortons and ordering from Skip the Dishes.

Make a list of everything you’re currently spending money on and circle the items that qualify as “wants” hit the pause button on any recurring subscriptions, including gym memberships, your unlimited cable, or expensive phone plan and make an effort to avoid online shopping. Guesstimate the total per-month that you’d save and highlight that number.

Eliminating those expenses may not have to be permanent, but can and will free up some much-needed cash in the meantime.

Prioritize your Remaining Expenses

If you don’t have any money in your savings, you may have to start prioritizing your needs.

Food and housing should be your top priorities. If you’re concerned about your ability to make those payments start by contacting your mortgage lender if you’re a homeowner and your landlord if you rent to discuss payment options.

When it comes to your grocery budget, stick to the essentials.

After prioritizing food and housing, you’ll want to be able to tackle your other bills. Contact Saskenergy, Saskpower, your water provider, internet provider and/or cell phone provider and ask if they are able to get you on a payment plan.

Make Minimum Debt Payments 

If you can afford to pay the minimum due on your credit card balance, do so. If you don’t, you may owe fees and extra interest, and your credit score could be negatively impacted.

Need more help? Start working on your budget with this Budget planner provided by the Government of Canada.

This blog post was created as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information about our response, including changes to our service delivery and other resources, please visit: https://familyserviceregina.com/covid19-a-message-from-the-ceo/