Hello, how do you get ontop of bills and debt we are struggling we had a good $2000 buffer but it’s now all gone due to emergency reason and repairs and I can’t seem to get back on our feet we are behind on everything! Just looking for some tips and tricks on how to get back ontop of everything I feel like we are drowning, TIA
3 Replies
Same here. It’s so difficult, there’s always something and especially with Christmas coming up I don’t see it happening soon. I have noted everything that comes out of my bank account.
Then make a plan for the income I have. I also changed my ftb back from yearly to receiving it fortnightly to help at the moment. The only tip I have is do one thing at a time and try not to stress about the ones sitting there, you have a plan to get to them. Just keep going without spending until it’s all sorted. Keep some savings each pay to restart your savings but also emergency money in case you need it. There will be Christmas casual work available very soon if you need more income than you have.
Grab a copy of the Barefoot Investor (most council libraries have copies) has helped heaps of people get on top of the finances with step by step advice.
Anything on a direct debit gets put in a separate account. That account is dd only. Income comes in main account used for everyday purchases. DD account is "topped up" when pay lands.
I get paid fortnightly so all expenses have to be worked out fortnightly even if they come out monthly. I'll round each thing to a $5 nomination. Eg: Premium Spotify is $18 but round to $20. Phone bills come to $139 so round to $145. If you add $1-6 to each thing, it stacks up. I pay into gas & electricity fortnightly to get ahead so when bills come it's not a lump sum to try and scrape together.
Estimate income as less than and estimate expenses over.
If fortnightly is $1587, round to $1500 even. If fortnightly expenses come to $1389, call it $1420 when you add all the extra $1-6 together. If I get a "surprise" thing where something cost me less (groceries came to $150 instead of $200 for example) put the $50 away in DD account.
Within 6 months I'm now 3-4 months ahead in my DD account so if I need money I can take it out of the fortnightly top up I'd normally do