Blew your budget? Outta
cash? Depleted your checking account? Maxed out on your credit cards?
Chanukah is
coming, and like most of our wonderful Jewish holidays, it takes money for all
those gifts and Chanukah gelt that you are hoping to distribute. Or perhaps you
have a more mundane financial obligation coming up and simply don’t have the
money to fund it. Hopefully, this article will give you some recommendations to
get money quickly. Remember, these are only suggestions, which may or may not
work for your family situation. But even if only one or two of these tips work
for you, it will translate into found money.
1) Sell any items in your house that you don’t need, don’t love, or don’t
want. This includes old phones, electronics, smart phone
accessories, video games, records (yes, there is a market for those on the
internet), books, toys, clothes, purses, shoes, household items, jewelry, and
fashion accessories. Look around your house. Your unwanted stuff can
be on someone else’s wish list. It is not too hard to learn to list your items
on Craigslist, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace.
2) Return any new items from the store that you have lying around the house. This
may include the couch pillow from Target that you never used because it didn’t
match your decor. How about the toy from Walmart that was an impulse purchase
and is now sitting in the back of your closet? Don’t have the receipt? Many big
box stores will simply look up the price from the credit card with which you
paid for the item.
3) Check out automatic bill paying. Many companies offer a discount when setting
up bills for automatic payment. If you are on an eligible plan, Verizon
offers a small discount with Auto Pay and paper-free billing. State Farm Insurance
offers a small discount for automatic bill pay and going paperless. In addition,
you will save money on postage and checks if you usually pay by mail, and you
will never get charged late payment fees. Although the discounts may be small,
$2 to $5 a month, over the year it can add up to a nice amount of money. For
instance, if you put two of your bills on automatic payment, one that saves you
$3 a month and the other that saves you $5 a month, at the end of the year you
will have saved almost $100.
4) It may be helpful to have a cash envelope around your house.
Instead of swiping your credit card for close to $15 for a bagel with lox
and a large signature latte in the morning before going to work, taking $5 from
your cash envelope will help you quickly understand that you won’t be able to
pay for these two items. Craving something before work? Perhaps just a cream
cheese bagel from the local bagel store and a coffee at your workplace would
satisfy you and stay within your $5 budget. With this example, you will have
saved almost $10 in just one morning.
5) Look into hidden fees. Hidden fees can be lurking at
your bank when your balance drops below a certain amount. These are called
minimum balance requirement penalty fees. Many banks charge between $2 and $5
per month to send out a paper statement. Other hidden bank fees include fees
for having insufficient funds, returned and stop check fees, inactivity fees,
bank notary fees, and international transaction fees. Check to make sure that
your bank is not charging you. If your bank is charging you hidden fees, you
may want to consider changing banks. An extra bonus is that some financial
institutions are now offering special bonuses, including cash bonuses, if you
open a new account. So, in addition to saving money on hidden fees, you may
accrue even more money by opening up a new account at a different financial
institution.
6) Review your subscriptions. Do you subscribe
to a magazine or newspaper; a gym membership; Amazon Prime; monthly clothing
boxes; science, baking, or art boxes shipped monthly for your kids; a beauty
membership; or even a monthly sock club? If you don’t use your monthly memberships, consider stopping them.
And if you do use the subscriptions, perhaps you can put them on hold in order
to build up your bank account. An added benefit is you may find that you can
really do without the monthly subscriptions.
7) Look
to reduce your fixed expenses. When was the last time you called to
see if you could find less expensive home or car insurance? Have you called
your cell phone carrier to see if your bill can be reduced? Can you reduce your
electric or water bill in any way? Contact customer service to see if you can
go with paperless billing, automatic payment of bills – anything that will
reduce your fixed expenses. You may be pleasantly surprised at how helpful the
customer service representatives are and how much you may be able to save on a
monthly basis.
8) Thrift, trade, and barter. It is now trendy to check out
local thrift stores to purchase clothing, household goods, and toys. Today’s
thrift stores are usually well lit, well organized, and have a plethora of
beautiful merchandise. You may be astonished at what others have given away
that may just fit your needs.
Have you ever thought
of trading and bartering? These terms are often used interchangeably. The most
important thing to know is that neither trading nor bartering includes the use
of money. In a simple barter, for example, a sheitel macher may wash and set a neighbor’s sheitel. This neighbor happens to sell custom-made cookies. Instead
of paying the $50 for the sheitel
services, the cookie maker will “pay” with $50 worth of custom cookies. Trading
and bartering are helpful as they keep cash in your account for things that cannot
be traded and bartered, such as mortgage, car, or utility payments.
9) Eliminate or curtail spending
money on convenience items. These can include fresh coffee and
a donut in the morning before going to work or a quick bite out to eat for
lunch. Brown-bag it for lunch, and borrow a book from the library or your
neighbor instead of purchasing one.
10) Look
at no-buy groups, FreeCycle, WhatsApp chats, and text group messages
for individuals giving away baby equipment and clothes, workout gear, furniture,
books, and food. You can get so many
things for free. Many individuals have excess in their lives and want to share
it with others or simply want to declutter their house. Many who picked up
government food boxes have excess peanut butter, cereal, and pasta. If you
don’t see it posted, don’t be shy to post a “looking for.” You may be surprised
at the multitude of positive responses you will receive.
11) Examine your day-to-day
spending choices. Do you go to the grocery store
everyday for an item that you are missing? Stressed and just want to take an
hour out of your busy day to get an ice cream? Saw a sale on clothing that you
simply can’t miss? Take it one day at a time to see what you can do today that
will pay off with extra funds for tomorrow. Ask yourself if you really need to
spend any money today.
12) Set up a flexible spending
account (FSA) for your healthcare needs. An FSA lets you set aside pretax money with your
employer for medical and dental care that your insurance doesn’t cover. An FSA
is usually a use-it-or-lose-it proposition, in which the money that is in the
account needs to be used by the end of the calendar year. You may be shocked at
what your FSA can pay for, including medications whose costs aren’t completely
covered by health insurance; eyeglasses; contact lenses; LASIK eye surgery;
feminine hygiene products; pregnancy test kits; Neosporin; Zyrtec for allergy
relief; Alleve, Motrin, Advil, and even sunscreen! Decide how you want to use
your FSA monies and don’t wait until it’s too late. Purchasing items with FSA
monies at the end of the year will save you money on future purchases. Don’t
need anything? Stock up on what you may need for the future.
Reviewing and
recalibrating spending habits improves self-discipline and motivates an
individual with their money goals. By using only one or two of the suggestions
listed above, you will hopefully have extra money in your pocket.
Still need to save
money quickly? Did any of these suggestions work for you and your family? Want
to hear more about a 26-week savings challenge, a 30 day-meal planning
challenge, a $5 savings challenge, or a no-spend challenge? Feel free to email
me.
Rivka Resnik has developed the
Living Smarter Personal Finance Curriculum that is used in high schools across the
country. If you would like a specific topic addressed or for more information
on Living Smarter Jewish Coaching or the Kosher Money Podcast, please
contact info@livingsmarterjewish.org.
