Broke in January? January can be a tough month to get through. It’s after the holidays, and maybe you spent too much money. If you’re like me, you may only get paid once a month. I work in a school and get paid when we get out for the holidays, which is usually mid-month. This means I won’t get paid again until January 31. Believe me, the month of January seems to stretch on forever! But the bills don’t stop coming in. Couple that with the fact that we didn’t anticipate my husband being off work way more than usual during the holidays, and things have definitely been tight!
If you find yourself broke after the holidays or close to it, here are some ideas you can use to make it through until that next big payday.
Meal Plan/Pantry Cooking
To help curb spending at the grocery store, see what you already have on hand and start meal planning. I’ve never been a meal planner, but this was a huge eye-opener for me. I went through our pantry and was disgusted to see how much expired food we had bought. Why did it expire? We rely too much on convenience and fast food. I had good intentions when I bought these things, but I never got around to using some of them. That’s a lot of wasted money.
After tossing what had expired, I had a better idea of what we had on hand, and now I am planning meals with that and avoiding overspending at the grocery store. Now I buy only things we need to make or complete a meal. This is not just good advice for when you need to be careful with your money. I realize I should be meal planning ALL of the time.
Sell Something
Many people use the time after the holidays to clean out and organize. You can make extra money by selling things you no longer need or want. I always have my eBay side hustle going, but you can also sell on Facebook Marketplace, Mercari, Craigslist, and a few other places.
How To Not Be Broke in January
If you’re broke in January or find yourself living close to the edge, here is what you can do to prevent it from happening next year. My husband and I realize now that in order to have a smoother start for next year, we need to start doing a few things now and throughout this new year.
We’ve managed to make it through this month, but I hate having to worry about making our money stretch so far right after the holidays. After talking it over with my husband, we came up with a few ways to make sure next year is a smoother start to the year and less stressful. Here is what we plan to do:
Get Real About the Problem
We had to get real about how we spent money in December. The problem is that we waited until December to try to pay all of our regular bills AND buy Christmas presents for everyone. This is a plan that will never work for us. We had to come up with a better way to make the end of the year and the beginning of the next possible in a way that doesn’t hinder our finances.
Gift Cards
Purchasing gift cards throughout the year can help you in a couple of ways. First, if you give gift cards during the holidays and buy one a month all year, you will have your gifts bought in time for the holidays! This is very appealing to us, as we have a lot of family to buy for. We can see this helping us not to need so much money all at once to buy gifts.
Secondly, gift cards can help your family! We’ve decided to purchase a gift card every month to a grocery store or big box store where we can purchase lots of things just in case of a financial emergency. It may sound crazy but think how much better you would feel if you had a backup for groceries, household goods, and gas. Trust me when I say things can happen out of the blue so fast! It’s best to be prepared.
Savings
There are a ton of savings challenges floating around online. We have a savings account, but even just setting aside an extra $25-50 a month can help with holiday purchases in December. We tend to spend a lot more on groceries as well that month. Having a little extra padding for gifts and other things that don’t come out of the main budget is important. Even if you can only throw some change in a jar, it eventually adds up.
With a bit of planning each month, you’ll be better prepared for the holidays and never find yourself broke in January again.
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