Tips To Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck

If you are like millions of Americans, a single missed paycheck will bring your financial house of cards to the ground around you. I lived like that for a couple of decades until the cards came crashing down around my ears. An unexpected stretch of unemployment made me open my eyes and look for a way off of the merry-go-round I had been living on. Here are a few tips that may help you stop living paycheck to paycheck.

Attitude
The first is a look at your attitude. Do you live beyond your means because you want things that you know you can not afford? Most of us do. Change this attitude by setting goals that have clear rewards at the end. Things like paying off debt to buy a home or paying down credit card debt to improve your credit score often help your mindset.

Budget

Create a realistic budget. Many of us track the big expenses(rent/mortgage, utilities, phone), but neglect the other things like food, gas, and clothing. Your monthly budget should include every possible item that you will face including a set amount for savings. Pay the savings as if it is a bill.

Tracking
Track your spending. Do you forget stuff at the store and run back? That will blow up your gas budget. How many times do you swipe a card for some impulse buy? Even if it is just a few dollars, do you really need it? Keep all of your receipts for a month. Seriously, all of them down to the last penny. Once you see how much money you throw away, you will stop spending some of it without a bit of trouble.

Expenses
Trim the fat from your expenses. Paying for a home phone and a cell, premium cable channels, and unused memberships are easy ways to eliminate bills. While these are easy targets, they are probably not the only ways you can save money each month.

Enjoy
One last tip is to not be so frugal that you can not enjoy your life. If you enjoy eating out with friends, do not completely cut it out of your life, just cut back to once a month. If you color your hair, why not do it yourself instead of paying a salon? If you cut back too much, you will fall off the frugal bandwagon and may waste even more money each month to make up for the ''lean'' times.
No one enjoys living paycheck to paycheck. The only way to reverse the trend is to make a concerted effort over a number of months. Look to yourself first and you may find the answers are staring you in the face.

T. Brown has provided this article on behalf of Car Loans with No Credit, a leading resource for people who need to finance a car with bad credit, no credit, or bankruptcy.  For more of his work, go here.