What To Do When You Don't Have Any Money?

I’ve always hated that song- money, money, money by ABBA. Whenever I hear it now on the radio of in shops I break out in a cold sweat. When it first hit the charts my future husband and I were so broke it was pitiful. Every time I turned on the radio that darn song seemed to be playing. I felt taunted by it and it still has the power to make me feel panic. We were very, very young and pretty stupid when it came to money which resulted in us getting caught in a downward spiral of debt.

We were afraid to answer the telephone or the front door. Post lay unopened on the hall table until one of us plucked up the courage to open it. We argued - a lot, always about money, we blamed each other for our sorry state of affairs and our lack of money and it almost ended our relationship before it had even had a real chance to get started. I often wonder just how many relationships don't make it through rough times when money or, to be more exact, the lack of money hits them full in the face.

Looking back on those dreadful days, there were a few simple things we could have done to help ourselves, instead, we ended up losing our home and having to move back in with my parents. It set us back a few years but it did teach us some valuable lessons and touch wood we have never found ourselves in serious debt since. We picked up some valuable money saving tips and advice through the years that have really helped get us through some rough times.

The first thing to do when you know that you are in trouble is sit down, take a deep breath and don’t panic. Make a list of all of your outgoings and all of your incomings. Take a long hard look at where you can make cutbacks. The vast majority of savings are obvious and I doubt most people reading this need to be told to cut back on expensive socialising or have it pointed out to them how expensive a habit smoking is. If you don’t need any new clothes and let’s face it, most of us have whole wardrobes full of stuff we never wear, then don’t buy any for a while. You could think about holding a clothes swapping party, it's a great way to recycle and find a few new to you pieces to update your wardrobe.

Charity shops are another great source of clothes, pictures, mirrors or even small pieces of furniture. You are helping yourself and others by shopping this way. Win, win.

If you know that you are going to have trouble paying your next credit card bills then now is the time to contact them. Don’t wait until you fall behind, give the credit card company a call and come clean, be honest and admit that you have overspent. Ask them for advice, many credit card companies and loan companies will allow you to take a payment break once, if not twice, a year. If the company is agreeable then take a payment break in the coming month.

Maybe a month bill free will be all you need to get your finances back on track. Don’t be tempted to borrow even more money, taking from one source to pay another only gets you further into debt and never, ever put your home up as security on a loan unless there really is no possible way to avoid it.

Maybe you will need to take on extra hours at work for a while if you are lucky enough to have that sort of job, or get a job if you don’t have one. Easier said than done, I know. But there are jobs out there if you know where to look. Think about writing a cv for yourself and take a walk around your local area, ask in shops, restaurants, pubs etc if they have any jobs, don’t wait for a sign to go up in the window. Be polite and look presentable, ask if you can leave your details in case a job comes up in the future. This is how my daughter found a job a couple of years ago.

Of course, you can take a look at the usual suspects - mystery shopper, babysitter and no, you don’t need to be a teenage girl to do this! Dog walker - put up adverts in your local shops and the newspaper. Have a clear out and sell your unwanted goods on eBay, Gumtree or at a car boot sale etc. If you have bulky items that you don’t need such as furniture then you might want to consider contacting a firm that specialises in house clearances or think about having a garage/yard sale.

Then there are all of the ‘make money online’ avenues to go down. The only trouble with that is there are so many adverts, blogs, articles etc out there telling you how you can earn great money working from home, how you can get rich quick, make money online. Etc etc. Some make such wildly outrageous claims that in my experience the more outrageous the claims the more extravagant the promises then the less likely these schemes are to make you any actual money.

Of course, you can make money from these schemes, hub pages are a good example of making money online, some people do make money, some people make very good money on hub pages. But it does take time and effort, then again what doesn’t, and some basic knowledge of just what makes a money-spinning hub. In this case, practice really does make perfect and you just have to keep plugging away and writing more hubs. There’s an old saying that if you throw enough mud at a wall some of it will stick, the more hubs you have the more likely you are to make money. It really is that simple. You can try some of the other sites out there that allow you to earn some money.

Lastly, you can save money on your household bills by making your home more energy efficient read this hub for more information on doing just that. Take a good look at your food bills and see if you can save money by switching to store own brand for things like bread, cereals, coffee etc. Do you throw food away? Find recipes that use up leftover food. Can you cut your bills by downgrading your tv subscription? Do you really need ALL of the movie channels and sports channels, are you paying more for children's channels when there are only adults in the house?

Can you clean your own car or windows? Why pay someone to do a job for you that you can do yourself? There are many ways to cut your bills that really won't affect your life too much.

The most important thing to remember if you are having money troubles is this - things will get better.