Several things come to mind. 1. Is you family operating in the most frugal manner possible? , 2. Have you taken the proper deductions in your payroll taxes?, 3. Are their any savings you can apply for? Some government agencies have electrical, gas, propane plans for people on limited budgets. 4. Are you cooking at home? I hate, hate, hate to cook, however, I also recognize that soup and sandwiches at home are better economical,y than eating out.
Remember that being frugal is a matter of degrees. I had a father that was way past frugal, he was downright cheap. It is all shades of gray. I recommend that everyone in your family write down every penny they spend for a month. Then meet and analyze. Remember that money can bring our emotions that are hard to negotiate around.
Things like magazine subscriptions, phone apps, and those little misc things can throw off your budget.
You can work on this. Your local library will have an entire section on personal finance. Good luck.
One of the fastest ways I found to make money when I was poor was to wait tables at a busy restaurant. I was able to bring home $100-$350 per night, and I’d work 24/7 if they let me. I had great bosses, so I’d eat there for free.
This allowed me to start saving money really quickly, which I was then able to use to ease my families burden by being entirely self sufficient and by selectively paying for things (groceries for this month, utilities, ect).
The thing to be careful of is that you don’t become a crutch that supports bad habits (over spending, not developing skills to earn more $, ect). The family unit needs to budget. They need to stick by it. And it’s even better if everyone works together to figure out a plan to get better paying jobs. That may involve one person temporarily getting out of the job market while they take a 3-6 month training course for that new, higher paying job
It’s in that situation where your funds can really make a difference
Since you are in India, that changes things. Ill take a bite as a fellow Asian.
Firstly, try and take advantage of the FOREX difference. Can you do like fiver stuff? Edit photos, copywrite good resumes and all that for the richer countries?
ANY thing that allows you to earn in USD GBP EURO AUD JPY and so on, its generally gonna be worth it.
I note you said your laptop is not working well. How good are you with electronics? Learning to assemble a PC to sell to individuals or companies is profitable. Repair laptops and phones are also easy. Consequently there are alot of people doing it tho, but its IMHO an easy skill to pick up and reasonably profitable.
I hesitate to say enter trading, as everyone knows about dropshipping and holding inventory requires money, but if you can find opportunities to trade, try and enter it.
Lastly, food business is always something one can profit from if you are both good and in a good location. Seriously. Its HARD work tho.
Without knowing your whole situation. My advice would be to find out exactly where you stand. Make a list of your monthly expenses. Then a list of your monthly income.
Go over the expenses list to find anywhere you can reduce or eliminate.
Go over your income to find where you can increase. Can you get more hours at work, can you get a second hand laptop so you can tutor or sell things in any spare moment. Can you help a relative get a job or can you get a better paying one.
If bills are too high is there Government, or religious group that can help? Do you have a way to eliminate bills such as bankruptcy or refinancing?
Worrying will only make you I’ll. Concentrate on activity to take your mind off it.
It’s a desperate move, but you could always go door to door and ask if there are any household chores/maintenance you could do for an agreed price. I know that really sucks but it could open doors for you in other ways as well. Never know who you meet
As a teenager, I painted house numbers onto curbs with my brother. It’s easy work, sells itself (safety, ease of food delivery and emergencies, etc), and the entrance price of some stencils and spray paint is affordable. 1 curb for $20 two for $35 or whatever. Some cities post their fees to do it and I used that to set my price. Find an affluent-ish area, grab your kit, and start knocking door to door where you see a house that needs it.
It’s really generous of you to want to help your family. How old are you and how many in the family, and in which country do you live? Resources vary. In the USA, you can call 211 which is United Way, and they have people who can guide you to the resources available to you. If you’re old enough, the military can be a good option for getting out of the house, so there is one less mouth to feed, while being paid to learn a marketable skill. Also, since all of your basic needs would be provided, you could send money home. That was the option I took, decades ago.
This isnt gona fix everything but il say this anyways: your mentality alone is huge. Wanting to help is huge. Youl make a difference.
Best wishes. I hope you can tweak your budget and get ontop of things. You rock!
Hey OP, if you could give me more specifics, I can offer you better advice. Your options depends heavily on whether you’re the breadwinner, spouse or a dependent. Based on what I have, here goes.
Edit: I just saw from other comments that you’re in India and have tutored. There’s your answer. Get your laptop fixed any way you have to. Go back to tutoring and see if you can pick up skills tutoring as many different subjects as possible. Versatility is a tutors biggest asset. Advertise in colleges, as well as in upper class areas near you. I found that the most lucrative gigs I ever had was middle and high school math. If you can tutor math, you’re set. I would still look into talking to your parents about budgeting and cutting expenses, etc. but tutoring is how YOU can contribute.
Financial stability stems from managing money flow. You have to balance money coming in and money coming out. If you have more money going out than coming in, debt will build and savings will drain. That’s why living below your means is so important.
So, there’s only really two paths to choose from. Increase cash flow in, and decrease cash flow out.
Let’s start with out. This is where most people focus, because getting a higher paying job can be daunting. The biggest piece of advice I have is to budget aggressively and track EVERYTHING. You won’t know what to do if you don’t know what you’re doing. Your family could be losing money on daily expenditures that add up. $10 a day for lunch doesn’t sound like a lot, but over the course of a year it adds up to $2,600. Think about what you could do with $2,600.
Budgeting is equally as important. Determine what your obligatory expenses (like rent, car payments, groceries etc.) are and list them. Also budget for any recurring habits or hobbies. (I budget for my weekly range trips and my SIL’s bf budgets for cigarettes for example). If there’s a recurring expense, budget for it. Once you do both of those, you can track where every dollar is going. If you need to reduce expenditures, you can.
Now let’s focus on “money in”. This is tough. Most peoples income is kind of locked into place due to life situations and past choices. If you’re a teenager, your earnings will be limited. If you don’t have a degree, your job prospects are limited. That’s why most people focus on money out.
Changing your income potential takes time and money that most people can’t afford to spend. I don’t know your situation, but I do have three ideas. First, is everyone who should be working doing so? If not, there’s an obvious first step. Tied into this, is everyone working a job that pays the best they can get? As an example, if you’re in America and you’re working for minimum wage, quit and apply to Walmart or Costco. They’re currently paying a minimum wage, more than I made working as a chemist. Second, if the first idea won’t work, consider a side gig. You can drive for DoorDash and Uber. If you have a more niche skill you can market, do that. I needed to make extra money when my wife went back to school, so I tutored my ass off. 12 hour days were brutal, but my wife got out and got a great job so it was worth it. Third, if you’ve exhausted both of those, see if you qualify for government help. If you qualify, it could be a huge help.
Facebook marketplace is great. It’s like safe Craigslist. Before I give a stranger my address, I get to see his full name and pictures of him with his kids.
Buying and selling stuff secondhand on rummage is a great way to save money
I decided to start working with my hands and master as many skills as possible. Keep a garden, maintain an engine, repair my own issues. That way, I’m ready for the world going off the rails but more importantly to just take care of my life and things.
You’re all a lot stronger together than apart, specially if you put your heads together and help each other.
Here are the topics you gotta consider:
1. Do you have a family budget?
2. Is it possible to downgrade your living conditions?
3. Can a temporary sacrifice be made for better earnings in the future, like a 3 year bachelor’s degree for you?
4. Are there any side hustles you, and members of the family can engage in?
YouTube search side hustles a do a deep dive. Try to see if there’s something that you think might be possible for you.
Lastly, in this world it is better to be in the owner class than the working class, if you want economic safety lay a 5 year plan that moves you into the owner class.
Knowledge in Arduino has great potential. Look around for people that use temperature, humidity or gas monitoring in their business. If they are using cheap “Stat” probes that fail often or are hard to keep track off then talk to them about making them a system that can use Arduino to keep track and present the data on their smartphone or laptop. Their are Stat probes that package the code with their product.
Arduino has other uses. Look at making people more technical in a less expensive way.
if you have time, maybe look up different art projects you can make out of garbage (plastic bottles, shopping bags, etc) and try to sell them so its all profit, also I’ve never been to India but some churches/ temples can help with donations of food like rice and beans or if ur lucky financial assistance, even if ur local church/ temple doesn’t do that, they might know someone that does. even if you don’t go there, some might still be willing to help and it cost nothing to ask
Things I learned when finances were dire: Elks/Rotary club here will assist with utility bills. Don’t be too proud to use food banks. Buy food from bulk containers (beans, rice, cereal etc). As others have said, absolutely keep track of spending. Pay for food, rent, transportation FIRST before any credit card bills…don’t let them bully you. Check out Dave Ramsey on internet for finance suggestions. Bring your own lunch and coffee from home. Kids will live if they have to have clothing from Goodwill. Good luck and I have every confidence you’ll get through.
More info needed. Are you looking for ways to cut costs, or earn more money? Or both? Are there people in your family that cannot work / might be eligible for disability benefits?
I feel like this could be any of us. After 20 years of working to pay down debt I find myself nearly back to being paycheck to paycheck. It’s terrifying because I’m afraid I’ll die still working and in debt. Glad to see billionaires are doing fine.
It’s all about your capacity to adapt. Learn new skills, reinvent yourself. Make a pause to really understand what you need and from there develop a plan, think big and follow it one step at a time, but don’t stay steady. Consider that desperate times call for desperate measures.
1.Analyze the income and spending family-wise. Try to cut the edges to get some breathing room if possible.
2.If you oftentimes buy something – consider getting more independent alternatives. Food? Grow at home. Bottled water? Consider getting a water filter if possible and take one bottle with yourself. Technology? If something breaks apart regularly consider saving some for a better alternative. Oftentimes better means more simple and this reliable.
3.Consider getting a foreign education or a work abroad. I.E. Russia has quite some international programs for students. Look for RUDN to get started. Life abroad may bring more perspectives and possibilities, also the salaries there may be higher.
Coming from someone who’s seen this happen first hand… Do not under any circumstances ruin your own long-term financial independence to take care of your family. Not to antagonize your family but people will be less likely to figure it out themselves if they know they have you as a safety net.
Set boundaries or requirements for them to meet before you can help out. This can be things like a written budget for them to follow and shopping for groceries frugally.
No one knows your situation better than you. I would ask yourself if your family is using money wisely. See you can easily find ways to reduce expenses. Basic frugality; buying used, make your own food + buy food in bulk, using your local library. If you can find these relatively simple ways to cut cost, your family is most likely using the money wastefully. Consider joining /r/frugal for a wealth of resources and sharing what you learn with your family. If it doesn’t help, you may want to consider setting money aside for yourself to help get out. Cost of living is instance but if you suspect something nefarious, you need to leave. Some people and lifestyles are insatiable, there is nothing you can do but make sure you yourself are secure. Bonus tip to help combat cost of living; see if your town has a discount grocer. A rotating stock of slightly past sell date food for a fraction of the price at big grocery stores. Farmers markets + roadside food stands are a great way to gather fresh produce. /r/eatcheapandhealthy
Financial stability is a balance. There’s money coming in and money going out. The way in which one solves money problems is first determining the current streams of in and out and looking at how they balance. Balance is achieved by many different approaches. The top level ones are increase the flow in and decrease the flow out. Whatever solutions you apply have to fit into the system. Where it goes badly but can still work is a patchwork system.
So essentially, what I would do in your position is completely assess all expenses and figure out what the minimum could be. Then look at the money coming in and then determine if you can balance things on the current inflow. If yes, then focus all your effort to balance the system with the existing inflow of cash for now. If not, then still work to balance things as best as possible with the current inflow of cash.
After that, in either case look to where cashflow can be increased over time. The goals should be IMO to first find stability or the optimum stability, then with that in place look to optimize the system with additional changes.
Step 1: Document everything in a little notebook (or note app).
Seriously. Keep meticulous record of money coming in and money going out, as it happens. Spent $0.75 on some candy? Write it down. Spent $27.32 on gas? Write it down. Spent $14.95 eating out. Write it down.
Ideally, all this data ends up in a spreadsheet so you can more easily analyze it, but even paper notes are enough. Keeping track like this does several things:
It makes it more possible for you to really understand where the money is going.
It makes it possible for other people to look at your financial situation.
It makes you more conscious of the purchases you are making, which in turn may help with curbing impulse spending.
Look at all of your expenses and see what isn’t absolutely necessary and cut that out. No streaming services, Stop eating out, etc. Sell somethings if you have them that you don’t need. Do side jobs. Look for government assistance programs and church food banks to help out with food costs.
Learn to cook. The ability to turn cheap groceries into tasty food will serve you well for the rest of your life, and likely be healthier too.
Insulate your home. Even if you rent, cheap weather stripping around doors and windows will eventually pay for itself and make your home more comfortable along the way.
Make a budget. Start by writing down EVERYTHING you spend.
Read the Vimes Boot Theory. There may be ways you can save money by spending more up front; it’s worth saving up for things that will save money in the long run, like electric blankets that let you turn down the thermostat at night.
Think about what kinds of job training pay off. A certificate as a welder will pay off more, faster, than an AA in Sociology. Learning to write well unlocks all kinds of white collar jobs, but they can be hard to find. Math is the gateway to tech jobs.
1. Reduce expenses as much as possible – what do you need to survive and what can you give up?
2. Build up savings. This is what separates the rich and poor; access to capital.
3. Make smart investments that work for you. You can’t do this without capital, and you can only build capital when income > expenses, and you save the remaining income.
4. Life is not about hard work. So stop working hard. Life is about connections and selling your experience by being able to tell a good story. So start building connections and learning how to tell your story in the way that gets you the most money.
5. An unfair amount of hard work will be needed to improve your family’s situation. The world stacks the deck against poor people. It’s far easier to remain wealthy than become wealthy. A wealthy person can do 1% of the hard work you do and see 1000x the gains. You have to understand that in your core, and accept that it’s NOT about how many hours you put in or what you save up.
6. Ultimately, you have your family and that’s worth more than any amount of money. Yes, it is admirable to want to improve their situation. But dont lose the small joys in life: telling someone you appreciate them, being honest and open, treating each other with respect, and being generous with what you do have
Most tips here seem to be about increasing earnings, but decreasing costs can also be important. The starting point I suggest is a budget where you list out your family’s average monthly income and expenses so you can understand the most effective place to focus your attention.
Several things come to mind. 1. Is you family operating in the most frugal manner possible? , 2. Have you taken the proper deductions in your payroll taxes?, 3. Are their any savings you can apply for? Some government agencies have electrical, gas, propane plans for people on limited budgets. 4. Are you cooking at home? I hate, hate, hate to cook, however, I also recognize that soup and sandwiches at home are better economical,y than eating out.
Remember that being frugal is a matter of degrees. I had a father that was way past frugal, he was downright cheap. It is all shades of gray. I recommend that everyone in your family write down every penny they spend for a month. Then meet and analyze. Remember that money can bring our emotions that are hard to negotiate around.
Things like magazine subscriptions, phone apps, and those little misc things can throw off your budget.
You can work on this. Your local library will have an entire section on personal finance. Good luck.
One of the fastest ways I found to make money when I was poor was to wait tables at a busy restaurant. I was able to bring home $100-$350 per night, and I’d work 24/7 if they let me. I had great bosses, so I’d eat there for free.
This allowed me to start saving money really quickly, which I was then able to use to ease my families burden by being entirely self sufficient and by selectively paying for things (groceries for this month, utilities, ect).
The thing to be careful of is that you don’t become a crutch that supports bad habits (over spending, not developing skills to earn more $, ect). The family unit needs to budget. They need to stick by it. And it’s even better if everyone works together to figure out a plan to get better paying jobs. That may involve one person temporarily getting out of the job market while they take a 3-6 month training course for that new, higher paying job
It’s in that situation where your funds can really make a difference
Good luck!
Since you are in India, that changes things. Ill take a bite as a fellow Asian.
Firstly, try and take advantage of the FOREX difference. Can you do like fiver stuff? Edit photos, copywrite good resumes and all that for the richer countries?
ANY thing that allows you to earn in USD GBP EURO AUD JPY and so on, its generally gonna be worth it.
I note you said your laptop is not working well. How good are you with electronics? Learning to assemble a PC to sell to individuals or companies is profitable. Repair laptops and phones are also easy. Consequently there are alot of people doing it tho, but its IMHO an easy skill to pick up and reasonably profitable.
I hesitate to say enter trading, as everyone knows about dropshipping and holding inventory requires money, but if you can find opportunities to trade, try and enter it.
Lastly, food business is always something one can profit from if you are both good and in a good location. Seriously. Its HARD work tho.
Edit : typo on “food”
Without knowing your whole situation. My advice would be to find out exactly where you stand. Make a list of your monthly expenses. Then a list of your monthly income.
Go over the expenses list to find anywhere you can reduce or eliminate.
Go over your income to find where you can increase. Can you get more hours at work, can you get a second hand laptop so you can tutor or sell things in any spare moment. Can you help a relative get a job or can you get a better paying one.
If bills are too high is there Government, or religious group that can help? Do you have a way to eliminate bills such as bankruptcy or refinancing?
Worrying will only make you I’ll. Concentrate on activity to take your mind off it.
It’s a desperate move, but you could always go door to door and ask if there are any household chores/maintenance you could do for an agreed price. I know that really sucks but it could open doors for you in other ways as well. Never know who you meet
As a teenager, I painted house numbers onto curbs with my brother. It’s easy work, sells itself (safety, ease of food delivery and emergencies, etc), and the entrance price of some stencils and spray paint is affordable. 1 curb for $20 two for $35 or whatever. Some cities post their fees to do it and I used that to set my price. Find an affluent-ish area, grab your kit, and start knocking door to door where you see a house that needs it.
It’s really generous of you to want to help your family. How old are you and how many in the family, and in which country do you live? Resources vary. In the USA, you can call 211 which is United Way, and they have people who can guide you to the resources available to you. If you’re old enough, the military can be a good option for getting out of the house, so there is one less mouth to feed, while being paid to learn a marketable skill. Also, since all of your basic needs would be provided, you could send money home. That was the option I took, decades ago.
This isnt gona fix everything but il say this anyways: your mentality alone is huge. Wanting to help is huge. Youl make a difference.
Best wishes. I hope you can tweak your budget and get ontop of things. You rock!
Hey OP, if you could give me more specifics, I can offer you better advice. Your options depends heavily on whether you’re the breadwinner, spouse or a dependent. Based on what I have, here goes.
Edit: I just saw from other comments that you’re in India and have tutored. There’s your answer. Get your laptop fixed any way you have to. Go back to tutoring and see if you can pick up skills tutoring as many different subjects as possible. Versatility is a tutors biggest asset. Advertise in colleges, as well as in upper class areas near you. I found that the most lucrative gigs I ever had was middle and high school math. If you can tutor math, you’re set. I would still look into talking to your parents about budgeting and cutting expenses, etc. but tutoring is how YOU can contribute.
Financial stability stems from managing money flow. You have to balance money coming in and money coming out. If you have more money going out than coming in, debt will build and savings will drain. That’s why living below your means is so important.
So, there’s only really two paths to choose from. Increase cash flow in, and decrease cash flow out.
Let’s start with out. This is where most people focus, because getting a higher paying job can be daunting. The biggest piece of advice I have is to budget aggressively and track EVERYTHING. You won’t know what to do if you don’t know what you’re doing. Your family could be losing money on daily expenditures that add up. $10 a day for lunch doesn’t sound like a lot, but over the course of a year it adds up to $2,600. Think about what you could do with $2,600.
Budgeting is equally as important. Determine what your obligatory expenses (like rent, car payments, groceries etc.) are and list them. Also budget for any recurring habits or hobbies. (I budget for my weekly range trips and my SIL’s bf budgets for cigarettes for example). If there’s a recurring expense, budget for it. Once you do both of those, you can track where every dollar is going. If you need to reduce expenditures, you can.
Now let’s focus on “money in”. This is tough. Most peoples income is kind of locked into place due to life situations and past choices. If you’re a teenager, your earnings will be limited. If you don’t have a degree, your job prospects are limited. That’s why most people focus on money out.
Changing your income potential takes time and money that most people can’t afford to spend. I don’t know your situation, but I do have three ideas. First, is everyone who should be working doing so? If not, there’s an obvious first step. Tied into this, is everyone working a job that pays the best they can get? As an example, if you’re in America and you’re working for minimum wage, quit and apply to Walmart or Costco. They’re currently paying a minimum wage, more than I made working as a chemist. Second, if the first idea won’t work, consider a side gig. You can drive for DoorDash and Uber. If you have a more niche skill you can market, do that. I needed to make extra money when my wife went back to school, so I tutored my ass off. 12 hour days were brutal, but my wife got out and got a great job so it was worth it. Third, if you’ve exhausted both of those, see if you qualify for government help. If you qualify, it could be a huge help.
Hope this helps.
I predict this being a more common post in the future.
Facebook marketplace is great. It’s like safe Craigslist. Before I give a stranger my address, I get to see his full name and pictures of him with his kids.
Buying and selling stuff secondhand on rummage is a great way to save money
I decided to start working with my hands and master as many skills as possible. Keep a garden, maintain an engine, repair my own issues. That way, I’m ready for the world going off the rails but more importantly to just take care of my life and things.
Sit your family down and talk about it.
You’re all a lot stronger together than apart, specially if you put your heads together and help each other.
Here are the topics you gotta consider:
1. Do you have a family budget?
2. Is it possible to downgrade your living conditions?
3. Can a temporary sacrifice be made for better earnings in the future, like a 3 year bachelor’s degree for you?
4. Are there any side hustles you, and members of the family can engage in?
YouTube search side hustles a do a deep dive. Try to see if there’s something that you think might be possible for you.
Lastly, in this world it is better to be in the owner class than the working class, if you want economic safety lay a 5 year plan that moves you into the owner class.
Knowledge in Arduino has great potential. Look around for people that use temperature, humidity or gas monitoring in their business. If they are using cheap “Stat” probes that fail often or are hard to keep track off then talk to them about making them a system that can use Arduino to keep track and present the data on their smartphone or laptop. Their are Stat probes that package the code with their product.
Arduino has other uses. Look at making people more technical in a less expensive way.
Look at jobs that provide helpful discounts. Grocery stores, gas stations, etc. Anywhere you can save money and get paid.
if you have time, maybe look up different art projects you can make out of garbage (plastic bottles, shopping bags, etc) and try to sell them so its all profit, also I’ve never been to India but some churches/ temples can help with donations of food like rice and beans or if ur lucky financial assistance, even if ur local church/ temple doesn’t do that, they might know someone that does. even if you don’t go there, some might still be willing to help and it cost nothing to ask
Things I learned when finances were dire: Elks/Rotary club here will assist with utility bills. Don’t be too proud to use food banks. Buy food from bulk containers (beans, rice, cereal etc). As others have said, absolutely keep track of spending. Pay for food, rent, transportation FIRST before any credit card bills…don’t let them bully you. Check out Dave Ramsey on internet for finance suggestions. Bring your own lunch and coffee from home. Kids will live if they have to have clothing from Goodwill. Good luck and I have every confidence you’ll get through.
More info needed. Are you looking for ways to cut costs, or earn more money? Or both? Are there people in your family that cannot work / might be eligible for disability benefits?
I feel like this could be any of us. After 20 years of working to pay down debt I find myself nearly back to being paycheck to paycheck. It’s terrifying because I’m afraid I’ll die still working and in debt. Glad to see billionaires are doing fine.
It’s all about your capacity to adapt. Learn new skills, reinvent yourself. Make a pause to really understand what you need and from there develop a plan, think big and follow it one step at a time, but don’t stay steady. Consider that desperate times call for desperate measures.
If you are good with arduino and C I have an embedded systems project I’m willing to pay hourly for. PM me.
How many are in your family? Are they all under one roof? Is everyone in your family working?
1.Analyze the income and spending family-wise. Try to cut the edges to get some breathing room if possible.
2.If you oftentimes buy something – consider getting more independent alternatives. Food? Grow at home. Bottled water? Consider getting a water filter if possible and take one bottle with yourself. Technology? If something breaks apart regularly consider saving some for a better alternative. Oftentimes better means more simple and this reliable.
3.Consider getting a foreign education or a work abroad. I.E. Russia has quite some international programs for students. Look for RUDN to get started. Life abroad may bring more perspectives and possibilities, also the salaries there may be higher.
Coming from someone who’s seen this happen first hand… Do not under any circumstances ruin your own long-term financial independence to take care of your family. Not to antagonize your family but people will be less likely to figure it out themselves if they know they have you as a safety net.
Set boundaries or requirements for them to meet before you can help out. This can be things like a written budget for them to follow and shopping for groceries frugally.
No one knows your situation better than you. I would ask yourself if your family is using money wisely. See you can easily find ways to reduce expenses. Basic frugality; buying used, make your own food + buy food in bulk, using your local library. If you can find these relatively simple ways to cut cost, your family is most likely using the money wastefully. Consider joining /r/frugal for a wealth of resources and sharing what you learn with your family. If it doesn’t help, you may want to consider setting money aside for yourself to help get out. Cost of living is instance but if you suspect something nefarious, you need to leave. Some people and lifestyles are insatiable, there is nothing you can do but make sure you yourself are secure. Bonus tip to help combat cost of living; see if your town has a discount grocer. A rotating stock of slightly past sell date food for a fraction of the price at big grocery stores. Farmers markets + roadside food stands are a great way to gather fresh produce. /r/eatcheapandhealthy
Good luck
Financial stability is a balance. There’s money coming in and money going out. The way in which one solves money problems is first determining the current streams of in and out and looking at how they balance. Balance is achieved by many different approaches. The top level ones are increase the flow in and decrease the flow out. Whatever solutions you apply have to fit into the system. Where it goes badly but can still work is a patchwork system.
So essentially, what I would do in your position is completely assess all expenses and figure out what the minimum could be. Then look at the money coming in and then determine if you can balance things on the current inflow. If yes, then focus all your effort to balance the system with the existing inflow of cash for now. If not, then still work to balance things as best as possible with the current inflow of cash.
After that, in either case look to where cashflow can be increased over time. The goals should be IMO to first find stability or the optimum stability, then with that in place look to optimize the system with additional changes.
Step 1: Document everything in a little notebook (or note app).
Seriously. Keep meticulous record of money coming in and money going out, as it happens. Spent $0.75 on some candy? Write it down. Spent $27.32 on gas? Write it down. Spent $14.95 eating out. Write it down.
Ideally, all this data ends up in a spreadsheet so you can more easily analyze it, but even paper notes are enough. Keeping track like this does several things:
It makes it more possible for you to really understand where the money is going.
It makes it possible for other people to look at your financial situation.
It makes you more conscious of the purchases you are making, which in turn may help with curbing impulse spending.
Be sure to know the difference between wanting and needing. If you have a tight budget, focus only on primary stuff and nothing else.
Seek cheeper alternatives. See what you usually buy and try to look for same stuff which is cheaper.
If you need to buy something, try looking up online if someone is selling used stuff. It can be much cheaper.
Try to cook things from cheap ingridents
Look at all of your expenses and see what isn’t absolutely necessary and cut that out. No streaming services, Stop eating out, etc. Sell somethings if you have them that you don’t need. Do side jobs. Look for government assistance programs and church food banks to help out with food costs.
Learn to cook. The ability to turn cheap groceries into tasty food will serve you well for the rest of your life, and likely be healthier too.
Insulate your home. Even if you rent, cheap weather stripping around doors and windows will eventually pay for itself and make your home more comfortable along the way.
Make a budget. Start by writing down EVERYTHING you spend.
Read the Vimes Boot Theory. There may be ways you can save money by spending more up front; it’s worth saving up for things that will save money in the long run, like electric blankets that let you turn down the thermostat at night.
Think about what kinds of job training pay off. A certificate as a welder will pay off more, faster, than an AA in Sociology. Learning to write well unlocks all kinds of white collar jobs, but they can be hard to find. Math is the gateway to tech jobs.
There’s this thing called cocaine…..
1. Reduce expenses as much as possible – what do you need to survive and what can you give up?
2. Build up savings. This is what separates the rich and poor; access to capital.
3. Make smart investments that work for you. You can’t do this without capital, and you can only build capital when income > expenses, and you save the remaining income.
4. Life is not about hard work. So stop working hard. Life is about connections and selling your experience by being able to tell a good story. So start building connections and learning how to tell your story in the way that gets you the most money.
5. An unfair amount of hard work will be needed to improve your family’s situation. The world stacks the deck against poor people. It’s far easier to remain wealthy than become wealthy. A wealthy person can do 1% of the hard work you do and see 1000x the gains. You have to understand that in your core, and accept that it’s NOT about how many hours you put in or what you save up.
6. Ultimately, you have your family and that’s worth more than any amount of money. Yes, it is admirable to want to improve their situation. But dont lose the small joys in life: telling someone you appreciate them, being honest and open, treating each other with respect, and being generous with what you do have
Most tips here seem to be about increasing earnings, but decreasing costs can also be important. The starting point I suggest is a budget where you list out your family’s average monthly income and expenses so you can understand the most effective place to focus your attention.