We probably should have produced this article much earlier than now. But like pretty much everyone else, life gets in the way and our thoughts turn towards many other things. Still, the tips we’re going to give are still available for everyone to do, because unfortunately the pandemic isn’t ending any time soon.
by DarkWorkX from Pixabay
1. Contact some of your creditors and ask for either an extension or adjustment on your monthly payments.
Even if you’ve been able to hold out this long, there’s still a chance that your finances might leave you in a dangerous place. One thing you can think of doing is picking up the phone and speaking to some of the major companies you owe money to and asking them for relief.
This isn’t a hard thing to do, especially because most mortgage companies and credit card issuers are including messages in each bill they’re sending, reaching out to you and giving you the option of receiving some type of assistance. Even car loans are being put on hold or payments are being reduced. These companies are being smart because it’s better to receive something than nothing, and they know that better than anyone.
2. Don’t horde, but don’t wait until the last minute to stalk up on some supplies.
Many of us got caught off guard when knowledge of the pandemic hit the country. Once we knew, many of us went to stores, only to find out that a lot of supplies and foodstuffs were gone. True, some of it could be found online, but there was a lot of gouging, and unless you absolutely needed something, you needed to be prepared to pay as much as 10 to 15 times what you were paying for items beforehand.
Even now, months later, some foods that came back and were on shelves are starting to disappear again, and it’s only 5 months from when we got the original news. Things like toilet paper have come back, but things like Lysol and Clorox disinfectant wipes still haven’t shown up in stores, even though the makers of both said they’d be out around the beginning of June.
It’s smart to start thinking about certain non-perishable items you might consume by the time the weather starts changing to make sure that certain items aren’t being horded again. We don’t recommend overdoing it, especially if you don’t have the space to store that much, but if it’s something as simple as Bran Flakes from your favorite company, something that can easily last a long time, it might be wise to stock up on it, just in case it goes missing again.
As a sidebar, many of these items weren’t actually being horded by anyone. It turns out that when news got out about the pandemic, many companies eliminated producing most of their inventory of products and only produced their best selling items. If some of your favorite items weren’t on the shelves (like Bran Flakes lol), it’s not that anyone was buying them all up, it’s that the companies weren’t making them because they weren’t at the top of their sales list.
3. Put in for a work at home job, even if it’s only temporary
Even if you like what you do for a living, if there’s something that allows you to work from home while you’re staying in quarantine that will help you pay your bills, it’s okay to give it a shot. True, unemployment has been paying quite a few people $600 a week to stay at home, but that program’s about to end. There are places like LinkedIn that has a list of work from home jobs that are out there for people to apply to. Who knows; you might even like it more than your current job.
Truth be told, taking a work at home job, even if it pays less, will save you money because your expenses will be reduced. You save money on gas and clothes, and your own worry is putting on a nice top if you’re having an online meeting. You might need to upgrade your technology a bit if you haven’t done it in a while, but many companies are helping their employees with that.
We hope these tips help if you haven’t taken advantage of any of them yet. We’re in this together; we wish everyone well.