Search Results for: budget

How to Deal with a Person Who Keeps on Asking for Money

November 8, 2021 By MelissaB 9 Comments

Most of us know a family member or friend who is always asking for money. They may start their request with a typical line, “I hate to ask, but I have a financial situation and wondered if you could help?” If they’ve asked you many times before, they may also add, “I promise, this will be the last time I ask.” Sound familiar? If you have experienced this, here’s how to deal with this type of person in your life.

Recognize Your Role in the Problem

If you have a person like this in your life, recognize that you’ve enabled this person to feel dependent on you. You do this by lending the person money over and over again even though the person repeatedly shows that she is financially irresponsible.

I don’t point this out to make you feel bad but rather to help you recognize your role in this cycle. However, you can take steps now to end the dependency and become part of the solution rather than the problem.

How to Deal with a Person Who Keeps on Asking for Money

The first step is to decide that you won’t allow the person to take advantage of you anymore. Instead, try one of these tactics.

Firmly Say No

The next time a friend or family member asks for money, firmly but nicely tell him that you can’t lend him money anymore. Be confident in your delivery. If you say, “I’m sorry, I just can’t lend you money right now,” or “This week my money is tight, so I can’t give you anything,” you leave open the prospect of giving him money in the future, and the person will ask again next week.

You must instead clearly say that you will no longer be able to help him out financially. Then, he has no choice but to receive and understand your message. He may ask you again at a later time, but perhaps he won’t be as persistent in his request.

As you continue to firmly say no to his every request, he will stop asking. However, don’t be surprised if he becomes angry with you and perhaps even stops speaking to you for a time.

Manage Her Finances

If you’re close to the person, perhaps offer to manage her finances and teach her good financial habits. My roommate in college, Jenny, was terrible with money and regularly asked her friends for handouts. One of our friends, Simone, was studying to be an accountant. She offered to manage Jenny’s finances. Jenny happily agreed.

For six months, Simone managed Jenny’s finances. She set up a budget for her and gave her money for spending, gas, groceries, etc. Simone paid the rest of Jenny’s bills with Jenny’s money. Once Jenny got used to the system and having a limit, Simone taught her to budget her money and pay her bills herself. By senior year, Jenny was a budgeting pro and even sometimes offered to pay the tab when she was out with friends.

Person Keeps Asking for Money — Photo by Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash

For this arrangement to work, you must be close to the person, and you must both trust one another. In addition, the person has to want to improve their financial situation. If the person doesn’t have any interest in managing her money, you’ll just waste your time.

Offer Him a Financial Course

If you don’t want to manage his money (which is understandable), you could offer to pay for him to take a financial course. Financial Peace University is a Dave Ramsey course that has helped many people turn their financial lives around. However, it’s not the only course available. Find one that will best resonate with the person and that you can afford to pay for.

When you make this gesture, you’re not refusing the person outright. You’re refusing to enable the person, but you’re offering to pay for a class and invest in him and his education. This shows that you want to keep the relationship strong.

Why You Should Stop Lending Money

Saying no to someone who repeatedly asks for money can feel awkward and embarrassing. However, you should say no for several reasons.

You Work Hard and Should Keep Your Money

You likely work hard for your income. Giving a portion of that money to someone who mismanages her own money isn’t fair to you. If you choose to donate the money, that’s your decision. However, if you give this person money out of guilt or because you feel bad saying no, do yourself a favor and value yourself, your time, and your money more. You’ll feel better when you do.

Avoid Spousal Disputes

The number one cause of divorce is money disputes. If you continually give money to someone in your life, chances are your spouse is not happy about this. Your spouse will likely be much happier if you learn to say no to the person. Then, you can use your money for your own family—for vacations, retirement savings, college savings, etc.

Let the Person Become Independent

You may feel bad when you say no. You may wonder how she’ll survive without the money she needs for whatever pressing emergency she has now. She’ll probably be angry with you and lash out.

However, take the time to look in the future. Imagine how much happier and stronger this person will be in a year when she is no longer looking for handouts and knows how to manage her own money. She’ll be more confident and feel better about herself. By saying no, you’re helping her grow as a person.

Final Thoughts

Saying no when a person keeps on asking for money isn’t easy. However, remember that you’re doing the right thing for yourself, your spouse, and the person who keeps on asking. When you set clear boundaries, you strengthen your relationships. If the person doesn’t understand this, you may, unfortunately, lose the relationship. If she does understand and makes changes, she’ll thank you later.

How to Handle Financially Toxic Parents

Creative Dating Tips When Broke

What to Keep in Your Pantry?

October 25, 2021 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Since the pandemic, many of us now realize that having a full pantry is a necessity. Of course, this is different than hoarding and having so many items in your pantry that you’ll never be able to use them. Instead, your pantry should have enough to be able to feed you and your family for a month to three months. How much you need depends on a variety of variables.

Why Keep a Fully Stocked Pantry?

Keeping a fully stocked pantry is necessary for a few reasons:

You May Get Sick

If you get sick, you may not want to or be able to go to the grocery store. In such a situation, you can find items in your pantry to prepare for meals.

You May Have a Weather Event

In many parts of the country, having a fully stocked pantry is essential because weather events may prevent you from getting to the store. You may have hurricanes in the South. In the Midwest and East Coast, blizzards may keep you from the store.

You Want to Save Money

If you build your pantry slowly, you can stock up on items when they go on sale. For instance, maybe canned beans are $1.29 a can, but you buy them on sale for $0.99 a can. If you buy 20 cans, you have saved $6.

In addition, if you have a fully stocked pantry, preparing meals is a snap because you likely have all of the ingredients you need. If you decide one night that you’d like to make chicken noodle soup, you probably have everything in the pantry, so you can easily make the meal. When everything is at your fingertips, cooking can be quicker than ordering take-out and waiting for the meal to arrive.

Supply Chains May Be Interrupted

In the United States, we are spoiled. Before the pandemic, most people never had experienced empty store shelves. If you, like me, thought that after 2020, empty store shelves were a thing of the past, you likely now know that thanks to supply chain issues, our days of items being unavailable are not over. We may be facing this situation through next year. If you keep a fully stocked pantry, you’ll be less affected by the market turmoil.

What to Keep in Your Pantry?

So, you’ve decided having a fully stocked pantry is necessary, but what does that mean exactly? What should you include in your pantry? Here are some ideas.

Baking & Cooking Supplies

You’ll want to include ingredients for basic baking and cooking recipes:

Baking soda,
Baking powder,
Flour,
Sugar,
Cocoa
Salt,
Pepper,
Onion,
Garlic,
Seasonings

Ingredients for Simple Meals

You’ll also want to include ingredients for simple meals you can make fully from the pantry. If you like spaghetti, include noodles and spaghetti sauce. If you like taco soup, make sure to have taco seasoning, beans, tomatoes, and nacho chips. You may also want to have some canned soups. Just open, heat, and eat.

Vegetables and Fruits

If you don’t mind eating canned vegetables and fruits, make sure to have those. If you’re without power due to a hurricane, for instance, you could always eat those without needing a stovetop.

Toiletries

Before 2020, I don’t think most of us realized just how much we take having toilet paper for granted! Toilet paper is just one of the toiletries you’ll want to have stocked in your pantry. You’ll also benefit from having the following:

Toothpaste,
Deodorant,
Dental floss,
Shampoo,
Soap,
Band-aids

What Should Be in the Freezer?

If you can afford a freezer chest, I highly recommend buying one. My husband and I have had one for almost as long as we’ve been married, and it’s paid for itself over and over again. If you want to have a well-balanced diet even if you can’t get to the store, a freezer is essential. Consider stocking these items:

Meat

If you’re an omnivore, consider stocking a variety of meat. We usually have beef, pork, chicken, and a variety of fish. A deep freezer pays off if you can stock your freezer with meat you found on sale or if you can buy a quarter side of beef direct from the farmer.

Vegetables

Keep a variety of frozen vegetables. Once your fresh vegetables run out, you can turn to frozen for nutrition. You may want to include

Peas,
Corn,
Mixed vegetables,
Greens like spinach and kale,
Cauliflower,
Broccoli,
Lima beans

Fruit

You’ll also want to include frozen fruit for the same reason. We frequently make smoothies with our frozen fruit, but you can also eat it plain or mixed into items like yogurt. We keep the following in the freezer:

Blueberries,
Strawberries,
Mango,
Pineapple,
Bananas
Smoothie mixes (I bought a bag from Costco that has berries as well as some greens like spinach. The kids said it tasted less sweet than a regular smoothie, but they drank it down.)

How Should You Build a Pantry?

Most of us can’t afford to fully stock a pantry in one swoop. Instead, buy items little by little as they go on sale. For instance, spaghetti is a great pantry meal. Recently, there was a coupon for our preferred jars of spaghetti sauce. Instead of being $2.49 a jar, they were on sale for .99 a jar. I bought the maximum limit of 5. If you do this week after week, you’ll soon have a full pantry with items bought at a lower price than if you just went to the store weekly to pick up what you need.

How to Maintain a Pantry

Once your pantry is full, keep a running list of items that are low or that you’re out of. Then, buy those items again to refill your pantry.

Don’t forget to put the items that expire soonest at the front of the pantry so you’ll use them up first. Put the replenished items with a later expiration date in the back.

Final Thoughts

If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a fully stocked pantry. Hopefully, you now have some ideas of what to keep in your pantry and can start building it with items you find on sale each week at the grocery store. Even if you don’t have an emergency, you’ll be glad to have a fully stocked pantry because it makes meal prep so much easier!

Why I’ll Always Keep a Full Pantry Now

9 Ways to Get Your Child a Christmas Gift If You Can’t Afford One

How to Get Back on a Solid Financial Path

October 3, 2021 By Justin Weinger Leave a Comment

The last couple of years have been rough for many Americans. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns forced a lot of people to dip into their savings or completely wipe it out.

According to the Federal Reserve, 200,000 more businesses closed than the number that shut their doors in a normal year. Similar to the Great Recession, Americans are struggling to get back on their feet.

If you’re one of the millions of people who are struggling to recover from the pandemic, don’t stress. There are small steps you can take to get back on a solid financial path. So, take a deep breath, grab your coffee and make a plan.

Get Rid of Your Debt

Getting rid of your debt seems like a no-brainer, but it can feel like you’re drowning if you have a lot of it. Oftentimes, when people go through financial troubles, they’ll use their credit cards to survive. Many Americans only have the cards for emergencies.

The problem with using credit cards to survive is the fees quickly add up. The lender might charge you interest and then compound interest. If you’re trying to get your finances in order, speaking to a professional to get strategic debt solutions is one of the first steps you want to take. An expert will tell you where you stand and help you develop a strategy to pay it off quickly. To ensure you have money left at the end of the month to pay down your debt, you will want to create a budget.

Create a Budget

Budgets sound awful, but once you get the hang of documenting your spending, it starts to become second nature. Creating a budget can seem like a scary task, but it’s really quite easy. You can use free programs to help you do this, or you can create a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

Once you choose a program, list all of your expenses for the month. This is the most important part, so even if you spend $5 on a cup of coffee on Tuesday mornings, add that to your list. List some goals on your sheet as well. For example, if you want to start contributing to a vacation fund, put that on the list.

After you’ve listed all of your expenses, add up the total amount of money you spend. Then, on a separate line, place your monthly income on the sheet. Then subtract your expenses from your income. If your number is negative, meaning you owe more than you bring home, then it’s time to start cutting your expenses.

Start by eliminating unnecessary spending. If you haven’t used a subscription in more than a month, get rid of it. You want to at least break even.

Save for Retirement

One day you’re going to retire. When you do, you want to be in a comfortable position. Social Security is available to you, but remember, that should supplement your retirement savings. The earlier you start saving for your retirement, the better.

If you are in your early 20s and just getting your career off of the ground, that’s okay, you can save as little as $20 a week. Tuck it away in an interest-bearing account and forget it exists. That money should be completely separate from your regular savings account.

If your employer offers 401(k), join the plan and contribute to it every time you’re paid. Often employers will match what you contribute, basically giving you free money. Who doesn’t like that?

Once you take some steps toward financial freedom, you’ll feel so much better. Just remember, it can be difficult at first, but soon your changes will become second nature.