Slimming your spending
Managing finances can feel like walking on a tightrope at times.
You can try your best to balance everything, but a change in circumstance can cause you to fall unexpectedly. This hurts in more ways than one.
You might experience money loss through a reduction of income, a change in health through illness or accident (self or a family member), a relationship breakdown, or a large unforeseen expense. The change can be temporary or permanent.
Many of these changes are beyond your control and can be stressful. Moneycare has experience working with people who face changes in their financial situation. We're help to support you.
Activity
This guide is adapted from Beyond Blue's helpful guide Taking care of yourself after losing your jobs.
- Make a list of possible options for reducing your costs in the table below (we've listed a couple of examples).
- Record the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
- To help identify the best solutions from your list, give each advantage a score out of 100 for how important it is: e.g. +50. Do the same for disadvantages, giving a negative score out of 100: e.g. -40.
- Work out the total score for each option by adding up all the advantage scores and reducing all the disadvantage scores.
- Start with the solution with the highest score.
| Option | Advantage | Disadvantage | Total |
| Cancel monthly subscriptions | Save $ [+50] | Finding alternatives [-20] Children enjoy it [-20] | 10 |
| Cut down on electricity and water use | Save $$ [+70] Good for the environment [+40] | Increased efforts and inconvenience [-30] Challenges to get family to comply [-60] | 20 |
Tip!
When it feels overwhelming...
Look to your loved ones
The best way to support your loved ones is to look after yourself. Be aware that family members may also be having a difficult time, as more financial stress can increase pressure and tension in the family. Likewise, your family's support can help you get through this.
It's really important to have those challenging conversations with your partner/family about the impact that the loss of income may have on household spending. Talk with them about your worries and listen to theirs. See page 20 for more tips on having conversations.
Children
The best thing to do is keep an open conversation with your children, without giving them too many emotional or financial details. Give them an opportunity to feel like they're contributing to the family solutions. Take steps to make sure life remains as normal as possible, including scheduling affordable and enjoyable activities as a family.
Remember
These are difficult but not new experiences. In the Bible, Paul wrote: 'Isn't it true that our hands were empty when we came into the world and when we leave this world our hands will be empty again?'
Seek support
Below is a list of support options for people going through a job loss / redundancy.