How to Be Broke.... Gracefully {How to Get Through a Financial Crisis}

Being broke is never fun. I can't think of anyone whose money has run out and they jumped for joy exclaiming, "YAY! The electricity is going to be turned off tomorrow! WOOHOO!"

Many of us have to live paycheck to paycheck  and we can live quite comfortably until the next check rolls around, but what if an emergency pops up? Now you've got to hand over all of your grocery money plus some to get your windshield replaced (shouldn't have pissed off that ninja). Now there's hardly any money to get you through until the next pay day. Poop.

Stress time!! GAH! Let's freak out and run around like waving our hands in the air, screaming a slinging snot everywhere!

Nope.

Calm it down and let's learn to handle the situation with some grace, shall we?

▲ Stay calm. That's what anyone will tell you as the very first step to take when dealing with any emergency. When we panic we tend to make very poor choices and often times we'll become just plain useless from hysterics...so try your darndest to stay calm.


▲ Prioritize. During stressful situations everything begins to get jumbled up and thoughts begin to fly about in your head like one of those weird gnat clouds out in the yard. Take a breather and make a list of everything you need to take care of in order from "most important" to "least important." Example list: #1 Rent, #2  groceries, #3 phone bill, #5 Netflix bill.


▲ Don't be afraid to admit it. Example: if a friend asks if you would like to go out to da club and... make it rain or whatever you do at da club.... simply decline and explain that you're not doing so well financially. You never know - said friend might just buy a drink or two for you! Also, now that they know your issue, they might be able to help you someway. Which leads me to my next tip:


▲ Swallow your pride and accepts handouts. If someone is offering to help you with no strings attached, you need to hop on that deal. No one wants to be a moocher, but if someone wants to help you and you NEED the help.... TAKE it.


▲ Don't borrow money if you know you can't pay it back. Not paying back money is a serious offense that can ruin your reputation and destroy relationships with friends and family. If you need cash ASAP, check out my other post, How to make money TODAY {without loaning or pawning}


▲ Pray. I don't want to make you uncomfortable by getting too preachy so I'll just leave it at that. But if you're not sure where to get started, try this prayer here.


▲ Stay positive. Having a poor attitude during "brokedom" is not going to help anything. It's just going to make you feel worse and bring down everyone involved in this with you. You need to stay optimistic and...

▲ Realize it's not forever. Because of the huge changes we have to make in day-to-day life because of  a lack of money it will seem like it goes on forever and, "Sigh, this is my life from now on", but I guarantee if you take my advice, you'll be able to focus on what really matters so you can work towards getting yourself out of this funk quickly and gracefully.