The most common source of stress in most people’s lives is money, or lack there of. The old saying says “money is the root of all evil”, but perhaps it would be more apropos to say “the lack of money is the root of all evil”. It’s understandable that money troubles are such a huge cause of stress. When money is tight, you may face all kinds of issues. You may be at risk of losing your car, your utilities, even your home.
Not only do you have to worry about losing the actual items, but you have to worry about the repercussions of this. For example, your family might be pretty upset with you if they suddenly had no cable television. This might cause arguments within the family. Also, if you lost your car, you might have no way to get to work. If you lost your home, you might have nowhere to live.
These are all extremely stressful situations. And the arguments and conflicts that tend to crop up as a direct result of money problems can make the situation a lot worse.When dealing with money issues, there are two main elements at play.
First, you must make more money. Next, you must find ways to control expenditures so you spend less. Making more money may involve taking on another job or starting your own business, but this could end up being more stressful, especially if you are already under a lot of pressure at your main job.
You may also take on some par time freelancing or consulting jobs, perform odd jobs here and there, start a small business on the side, sell some of your unused stuff, or something similar.
It may not be realistic for you to make more money if you’re already extremely short on time, so you may have to instead work on spending less. There are many ways to cut expenditures. Even if you think you aren’t spending much unnecessary money, almost everyone can find ways to cut expenses without experiencing too much discomfort. Some ideas to get you started include:
• Cutting down to basic cable
• Moving your cell phone plan down to a cheaper monthly rate
• Eating out less often
• Taking your lunch to work instead of eating out
• Eating breakfast at home instead of on the way to work
• Turning lights off when not in use to save electricity
• Taking public transportation instead of driving
• Take coffee to work in a thermos instead of buying it
• Pursue free forms of entertainment
These are just a few ideas to get you started. If you don’t feel comfortable cutting out certain expenditures, don’t. Just find some that you can feasibly cut out and do so.
The point is to make your life less stressful. If cutting out a certain expense would make your life less happy and fulfilled, don’t worry about that one. Just do your best to cut spending down as much as possible without affecting your quality of life too much.
