There are a few ways to avoid living paycheck to paycheck. If you are not, then you should definitely transition yourself to be on a budget. Budgeting and learning where you spend your money is, believe it or not, a way to have money that seems like it is suddenly “appearing”.

Don’t let your money make you this stressed.

I have a friend who used to live paycheck to paycheck. She even found herself stuck in one of those pay-day-loan type of situations. She would get paid biweekly. One whole check would go towards her bills and the other paycheck would pay back everything she over-drafted when she bought groceries after paying all her bills. This was obviously not a sustainable way to live. I asked her how she got out of the pay-day-loan cycle and how she got herself to a point where she was not at a zero or negative balance on payday.

Here were her tips

If it seems like every single one of your bills is due in the first part of the month, then call the companies up and ask if you can change your due date.
- Most companies (utilities, credit cards, cable/internet/phone providers) will offer you another due date if it means you will pay them on time.
Open checking for different bills and have your paychecks automatically filtered to each whether you do it through the bank or a payroll company.
- Keeping your money separate from your spending funds and having it automatically go into an account that is set up for auto pay (for bills such as internet, cable, cellphone, car insurance, car payments, etc) will make it easier mentally to make sure your bills are paid and have reasonable expectations of the money left over.
HAVE REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO.
- My friend spent a whole year saying “NO”. Was it easy? No. Did she like doing it? No. Did it have a lasting effect on her finances? HELL. YES. Sometimes you just do not have the means to do the things. She did not say no to every single thing, but she did say no to the things that she truly could not afford because they would have put her in the red and she would have spent months trying to get back on track.

Outside of her experience there are other things you can do to stop living paycheck to paycheck. These might include you asking for a raise. Did you know inflation is sitting at a whopping 8.6%?! Ask your employer for a cost-of-living increase. Stay tuned for a blog about side hustles. You can also pick up a shift or a PRN job!

I do tell people I want to teach them to save without sacrificing. I think you should be able to pay debt and build wealth without sacrificing the things that make you happy, but if you are just starting out and trying to just make it day-to-day financially, then there may need to be some give and take. You may need to step outside your comfort zone and ask your employer for more compensation or maybe find a new employer altogether. You may need to work a few more hours or pass on events that you can not afford. But I promise that it won’t be forever. If you make the changes now, you will be setting your future self up for success.