How To Stay Financially Afloat During COVID-19

Some timely advice from Emily, our guest poster from Crediful; COVID-19 is the pandemic that is taking over the world, and even if you have not been directly infected with the disease it is having a detrimental effect on our everyday lives and furthermore our finances.

Like many, you may have been forced to take a pay cut or even been made redundant during these unprecedented times, making money sparse.

Today we’re going to be taking you through a few handy tips to help you manage your finances during this time of uncertainty that will not only help you whilst the crisis is taking place, but allow you to map out what the future may hold once this has all blown over.

The tips that we are about to discuss may not be suitable for everyone and their living situations at the moment, but we hope that they can provide a little relief and ease some of the anxiety that everyone is feeling at the moment, if you need any more pointers or tips then check out some of the best credit monitoring services by Crediful.

1. Map out your finances

If like we suggested you have taken a pay cut or lost your job altogether during the COVID-19 epidemic it is important to identify your sources of income, when you will be receiving them, and how much you could be looking to receive, this will allow you to paint a bigger picture of what the future may hole.

Once you have a clearer idea of how much you are expected to see incoming each month, this will allow you to budget your expenses for those outgoing payments such as food, utilities and rent.

If you are lucky enough to have some money saved up, this may also provide you with some relief whilst your income may be lower than usual. It makes sense to use a checking account for your daily expenses and try to put money aside for family emergencies, or big bills like car insurance renewal, Christmas, holidays etc.

2. Budget

Budgeting is a brilliant way to save money at the best of times, but during the time that we are currently living in it may be evermore important for you and your family.

We suggest making a plan on a Sunday evening of ways you can budget and keep your expenditure as low as possible throughout the week, then when it comes to the weekly food and grocery shop set yourself a budget and aim to buy things that you will not only be able to use more than once but are versatile for a number of meals such as rice and pasta.

Even when this pandemic is over, it may take you a while to financially recover from the strain you have been put under, so again, aim to budget and stop yourself from going over the top with your spending all at once.

3. Research your rights

COVID-19 has raised a lot of uncertainty for the economy over the past few weeks, so governments have introduced ways to help ease the strain on you and your finances. One example of this is that the IRS have extended tax filing deadlines until July 15 2020 as a way to help people prioritize their money and are even helping those file for extra costs they are experiencing associated with the virus.

Everyones working and living situation is different, so we suggest conducting some research to see how the government can best help you throughout this time, whether it be on rent deferrals or mortgage freezes there are a lot of ways that the government is trying to help people out and you may qualify for some.

4. Put money away

If you are lucky enough to still be working whether it be full or part time, we suggest putting some money away each month, possibly into a separate savings account. As we are unsure as to when this pandemic will be over and our normal lives will resume it is best to bank some money so that you have this to fall back on if situations are to change unexpectedly.

5. Think positive

Although you may have less money incoming each month, you have to look at the positives. Now that the word is essentially on lockdown, there is little chance of you having expenditures for activities you may usually take part in such as meals out, the movie theatre and shopping trips, so it is important to remember that you are saving money in these aspects.

Summary

We know that times are scary and uncertain at the moment, so we must pull together to help each other and not just when it comes to finances.

We hope that we have provided you with a few ways that you can ease the strain that this global crisis is having on you and your family economically and help you plan for the future when we finally see the end of it.

As we said, everyone’s situation at the moment is different but the likelihood is that we are all having to make sacrifices in order to remain comfortable.