Frugality In Times Of Crisis

all right now. Yeah, there's a lot of uncertainty right now, and depending on where you live, you may feel that burden really heavily or not see it at all. We are with our frugal friends in Italy right now. UM, we see the suffering and everything that's going on, and we're hoping in the United States and North America in general that we can avoid that. Um. But to our friends in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, UM, our hearts are with you and we feel the pain that you're

going through right now. So we're going to be releasing an episode in the next few weeks on how to respond financially when your income is disrupted by something like this. But in the meantime, we wanted to give you, uh this short episode with three things you can do right

now to prepare for anything that's to come. Yeah, and so while there is a lot of health concern with coronavirus right now, we also recognize some of the peripheral impact that this is having with closures and people being out of work, and particularly those who are on hourly wages or who are independent contractors or small business owners.

A lot of the concern and panic around this this issue right now is finances, and so that's what we are mainly going to be focusing on with this bonus episode, is what can we be considering both now and in the future with our finances during these uncertain times. So with that said, our first tip is to beef up your emergency fund. Uh. So we know that some of this is kind of as we go building up an emergency fund that that you may or may not have a super beefy one right now. So push pause on

making extra payments towards debt right now. This is okay for the things that we're facing right now. You can give yourself permission if you don't have three to six months saved to not be putting extra strainer stress on yourself to pay down debt. If you're paying off a federal student loan, you know that interest is not accruing on it right now, so it seems like a great

time to be paying extra. But you may need more than a thousand dollars if that's all that you have in your emergency fund or whatever your starter emergency fund is. So if you don't have three to six months of expenses saved, then I know that there is permission in this financial journey to press the pause button on that and and get at putting aside a little bit more money because we don't know how long this is going to last for and paying bills and purchasing food is

priority for sure. And if you do have three to six months, there's no evidence that that leads me to think that you would need more. UM. So if you feel like you want more, do it. If not, wait it out and see your job volatility is going to have play a big role UM in that decision for you. So uh. The second one is to simplify your spending,

so not to just lower it, but to simplify it. Um. This is a great time to try and no spend challenge, especially if you're trying to increase your emergency fund and you can't do that with extra income. Uh, than simplifying your spending can allow you to transfer more to that fund. Um. Things are closed, events are cancels, you're stuck inside. There's never been an easier time to try and do a no spend challenge. Um. Also, there's a lot going on,

a lot to think about. Our brains can't manage everything all at once, so things like spending go on autopilot, and when you pair that with fear and anxiety, we can make some really bad spending decisions. So start setting rules for yourself, uh to simplify your spending. So that includes like a simplified meal plan, a list of essentials you need to spend on, non essentials you really care about.

Is ain't a time to be given up coffee. You don't need to be battling your caffeine eddiction and whatever is going on out there. Uh, and then not essentials you're committing to cut out. I do want to spend a little bit of time on this one because I think this goes back to some of the foundational principles of frugality where we say there is greater exponential benefit

of cutting spending versus increasing wages. So before we start to dip into emergency fund or savings, let's look at what are spending is, because you have greater benefit by cutting out spending in the long run, then saying well, how do I just keep finding money to meet the spending? Like where my spending is currently, Let's recognize that we are in unusual times right now right nobody knows exactly how long this is going to last for although I

will say it will end. This is not forever. We we know that these things do not last for forever, but we we don't know exactly how long it could be another two months of us kind of being in this type of situation where there's limited work or um limited interaction with other people. So let's look at because because this is not status quo, because we're not going about life as usual, where can we really pull back on spending that we don't have to be getting right?

This could be a time where we're just sitting at home and we might want to go on autopilot like you said, to be purchasing random things on the internet. Let's press the pause button on that and focus on the essentials. Let's pull back on the unnecessary subscriptions. Consider pulling out of a gym membership if you're not going to be going there anyhow, are there exercises that you can be doing at home? And this is I'm just

throwing ideas out there. I'm not saying everybody needs to be taking each one of these steps that I'm saying, but consider what you're spending is and where you can simplify it. I won't spend a lot of time on this, but I do want to talk specifically to the hourly workers, to the independ contractors. I think these are the people

who are going to feel it the most intensely. And there is some deep concern, and I'm hearing from people like I'm scared just for financial situation, like my job is cutting me for the unforeseeable future, and and I'm already living paycheck to paycheck. Okay, for you all, we then we need to we need to buckle down a bit more and look at how bare bones can we get. And I don't want to be alarmist. I'm not trying

to like again this will end. But I also want to recognize the unique position that you're in, and so this this could mean, all right, I might even start to look at my portion sizes when it comes to food. Do I typically eat too much? Do I have to cook everything and feel like I need to have like two sides with every meat? And this and that, Like this could mean for a time, we are doing pasta, for a time, we are doing some beans and rice,

We're doing leftovers, We're clearing out the freezer. It could get to that point and and consider that there's no shame in that. Also, and I know we'll get to this with tip number three, but if you are a person in need, there are people in the community around willing to help, So there is no shame in reaching out to family, friends, churches. If there is need that you have where you're not making your bills, you're not you don't have money for food, Please know that there

are people in your community who want to help. And this could even be an opportunity for us on our Frugal Friends community Facebook group to to talk about what are we doing. Let's continue to share our ideas on how we are combating this. What could seem like a financial crisis for some um and and ways that we can kind of come together. What are the resources out there so that this doesn't have to put us in a completely dire situation come a few months from Yeah, yeah,

we're not telling you to starve yourself. We're saying get creative. This is the time where you put your fear and anxiety in a little box for a minute and then think, okay, that aside, if that wasn't a factor, how could I get creative in how I'm spending? And we, I mean we, we are sitting with you in that fear and anxiety. We are both freelancers and independent contractors, and so we are with you, and we are thinking about these things as much as we are giving advice on them. Certainly,

do not starve yourselves. We are just talking about where to cut spending. And again, for those who are in very difficult financial circumstances, I'm not talking to like people who who have still got their salaries coming in and all of that, Like where where we might need to take a little bit closer of a magnifying glass, like you know, for the people who are already saying I'm already living frugal I'm already living paycheck to paycheck now

I'm being cut. Now what creative? Let's get creative and let's reach out for help. Definitely, do not starve yourselves. Please reach out for help. Yeah, and that leads into our next one. Yes, it's that to be the helpers if you can be. I know that we really want to focus on protecting ourselves, protecting our families, but I think that we can still be wise and make healthy and smart decisions and still be on the lookout for

how can I help people that need it? Do? I have friends that are hourly workers, freelancers like contractors, and reach out to them say hey, has your work been affected by this? What do you need? And you can make drop offs to their house without touching them, you know, or even seeing them. So think about how you can

be the helper in this situation. And this helps us to come up out of this place of fear, anxiety, panic, to be able to identify what we can set our hands to, who we can be helping, what we have to share. Um it can provide tremendous benefit to us as well as those that we are helping. So this

isn't just about like hunker down in your home. Certainly, I'm not advising to go out um and yeah, do anything against what is being recommended by the CDC and and within your county and public officials what they're saying to do. But there are ways to move towards the need of others while also caring for yourself. Yeah, and we would never say go against anything the CDC is recommending. We think that the precautions that are being taken right

now are wise. They're they're inconvenient, and they are going to be financially Devin stating for some people. But I think our lives are more important than our money, and we've always said that, and we will bounce back. We will come out of this if we are trying to be wise, uh and and we'll bounce back quicker if we make the right decisions. So whatever is coming in the next weeks, months, years, we're going to be here, and we are going to bring as much comic relief

to this messed up situation as we can. Um. But we also take our roles in it really serious. People are about to need a lot more frugality in their lives, So don't just tell them about the podcast. Be the example show the people around you that this isn't the end of the world and you can still live a full life with spending less. Yeah, thanks so much for listening. Everybody. We really genuinely hope that um yeah, this this situation

doesn't leave you in in some I our situations. But we are also here to help and be an encouragement and we encourage you to also reach out to one another. And thank goodness for the Internet and having an online platform that we can be giving tips and staying connected without being present with each other, we can still social distance and and so talk. Yeah, so thank you again for listening and we will see you Friday. Bye.