Make Sure You Can Afford An Unexpected Emergency – Budgeting For Safety

No one likes to think about emergency situations, but the truth is that they can happen to anyone at any time. If you’re not prepared financially, a financial emergency can quickly become a full-blown crisis.

According to a recent 2020 survey, barely 41% of Americans could pay off an emergency financial expense purely with savings. Unexpected medical expenses, job loss, and car repairs are some of the most costly and common. Can you believe that $3,500 was the average unexpected expense that respondents reported?

Therefore, it’s absolutely vital that you prepare and set up an emergency fund for yourself and your family. Here are a few tips to keep your current expenses in check and savings growing, particularly when you need it.

Understanding The 50/30/20 Rule

The 50/30/20 budgeting rule is a simple way to help you keep your finances in order. The rule is that you should spend 50% of your income on essentials like rent, food, and bills, 30% on things you want like clothes and nights out, and 20% on savings or debt repayments. This rule can help you to make sure that you are not overspending in any one area and that you are putting enough money away each month. 

Slash Your Bills

With inflation constantly pushing up prices, from fuel to food, it’s time to start looking for discounts, cutting coupons, buying private-brand alternatives, and slashing your monthly subscription services. We’ve included three sections below to help find apps and websites to help you slash your bills in these various categories.

For the best discounts on the items you use every day:

• DealNews.com
• DailySteal.com
• DealCatcher.com
• TheInventory.com
• 1Sale.com
• BensBargins.com
• BradsDeals.com

For the best coupon apps:

• Coupons.com
• RetailMeNot
• Ibotta
• Honey
• The Coupons App

For trimming or canceling your monthly subscription services:

• DoNotPay
• Truebill
• Trim
• Clarity Money
• Bobby
• TrackMySubs

Pick Up That Side Hustle

Thanks to the internet and rise of the smartphone, there are a huge number of popular side hustles that people can use to make extra money each and every day. For those that like to cruise around town, ride-share apps like Uber and Lyft are always seeking new drivers. If you still like to drive but prefer a more solitude type position, you can drive food and grocery deliveries for apps such as Uber Eats, Door Dash, and Grub Hub. For the creatives out there, small business owners are always looking to connect with the right social media managers, graphic designers, videographers, writers and editors, and online virtual assistants. Creative types will find ample opportunities on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and even Craigslist.

Through a more robust budgeting mindset, intrinsic desire to slash monthly bills to their absolute minimum, to just picking up another job, saving up to fill your emergency fund is looking easier by the day!