How to Stretch Every Dollar When You Have No Income

Being stuck with no income and some savings is a situation that most of us would love to avoid like the proverbial plague. Yet, despite all our best efforts and desires, there could be circumstances so compelling that we might be left unemployed or with no source of steady income and just some money in hand, either in cash or on credit cards. In such times, knowing how to stretch your dollar can make all the difference.This isn’t a scenario you, or anyone for that matter, would love. 

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we might sometimes encounter situations when we’re stuck without income and just enough money to last a few days or maybe, weeks. Learning to stretch your dollar helps in overcoming such financial challenges.

Understandably, we can’t stop spending altogether. That’s because you would require basics including food, clothing and shelter as well as communications, transport and utilities to ensure physical and mental wellness. Add to that, modern necessities such as education for kids and some entertainment. Managing these expenses wisely will help you stretch your dollar effectively.

Adding up all these expenses means you would be spending more than someone did say 30 years ago if they had no income and had little savings. Because, today’s needs are different. With rising expenses, it is now more important than ever to stretch your dollar to survive.

Instead of scraping the bottom of the barrel, here’re a few things that you could actually do and stretch every dollar when you have no income. With the right financial habits, you can stretch your dollar and maintain stability.

Ways to Stretch Your Dollar to Fullest

Actually, most of us are unaware that it’s possible to stretch every dollar to the fullest when we don’t have any income or even wish to save more money under ordinary circumstances, when things are going pretty well. Therefore, you can use these ways to stretch every dollar, even when your income resumes. Learning these tips now will help you stretch your dollar even in the future.

Here’re some time-tested and proven ways to stretch every dollar when you’ve no income or have gone almost broke. These tricks will help you stretch your dollar even in difficult times.

Create a Budget

It doesn’t matter whether or not you budgeted earlier. However, when you’re jobless and your cash might soon go on its last crutches, it’s best to start budgeting. Track your expenses and prioritize needs such as food, housing, and utilities that are an absolute must. That way, you could cut or stop spending on other things that were draining your money.

A budget helps you stretch your dollar by making every expense count. A budget is always handy since you would get a clear picture of your finances and the amount you would need to spend for a few weeks. By sticking to a budget, you can stretch your dollar and avoid unnecessary expenses.

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Meal Planning

American households, in general, are notorious for their food wastage. American households combined “waste 92 billion pounds of food annually, equal to 145 billion meals. They throw away over $473 billion worth of food annually. Shockingly, they waste 38% of all the food in America,” says Feeding America. Reducing food wastage is an easy way to stretch your dollar and save on groceries.

It’s possible to curtail such food wastage easily through meal planning and cooking enough only for one or two meals to prevent food from going rancid. This is one of the best ways to stretch every dollar when broke or jobless. Smart meal planning helps you stretch your dollar by ensuring you make the most of every ingredient.

There’re several community kitchens, also known as ‘soup kitchens’ in every city. Eating there can save enough money on food expenses. Taking advantage of such resources is a great way to stretch your dollar when you’re low on funds.

Seek Community Resources

There’re quite a few community resources located nearby that you could use to reduce living expenses almost immediately. The best such resource would be local food banks and food pantries. Using these resources wisely can help you stretch your dollar and reduce expenses.

Apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It's a federal program in the United States that provides food-purchasing assistance to low- and no-income individuals and families. Depending on your household size, it’s possible to get adequate supplies of food from these facilities. Programs like SNAP are essential tools to help stretch your dollar during tough times.

Some food banks and food pantries are operated by charitable trusts and religious groups. There’re over 372 food banks across USA operating several food pantries for distribution. Meaning, you could locate one nearby. Programs like SNAP are essential tools to help stretch your dollar during tough times.

Borrow Instead of Buying

There could be some stuff that we might have wished to buy before losing job or source of income. And it could be something so vital that it could prove useful to the entire household. If that’s the case, ask relatives, friends and neighbors if they that that stuff and if possible, borrow. Borrowing instead of buying helps you stretch your dollar without unnecessary spending.

Understandably, here you’ll have to be very careful about what you wish to borrow and how long do you intend using that stuff. If it’s something pretty mundane and wouldn’t be missed, they might lend you such stuff. However, in such cases, its best to maintain the things you borrow and return them in excellent condition too. Taking care of borrowed items ensures you continue to stretch your dollar without financial strain.

Use Rideshares & Public Transport

Americans spend between $162 and $204 every month on gasoline to fuel their personal vehicles. This amount varies in each state. This expense is possible when you’ve a steady income and use the vehicle for daily commutes between home and workplace. But once income stops flowing, such spending might become unjustifiable. Switching to cheaper transport options is a great way to stretch your dollar.

Obviously, you wouldn’t be commuting much too. In such cases, save money by reducing or eliminating gasoline expenses. Utilize mass transit, public transport and rideshares.

By making these small changes, you can stretch your dollar and cut unnecessary expenses. Using rideshares and public transport works in two ways: it eliminates undue gasoline expenses and cuts on needless travel too. You could ask neighbors for a ride if you’ll both to some common destination.

Manage Debt

A very crucial part of American life is debt management. That’s because we live off credit cards. Not because we’ve no money. Instead, we prefer paying on credit cards while shopping and paying later due to the cashless nature of such transactions and settling dues with a single click of the mouse.

Then there’re home mortgages, sometimes vehicle mortgages and also personal loans. These might prove difficult to service during periods without income. To stretch your dollar, you need to take control of your debt and manage repayments wisely.

Not paying these could seriously damage your credit score. Therefore, stretch every dollar in your kitty by renegotiating repayments with lenders. Smart debt management will help you stretch your dollar without harming your financial future. Ask for smaller monthly repayments. Some might up the interest rates but that would prove worth the money since it spares your credit score from any harm.

Use Coupons, Codes & Loyalty Programs

Nearly 60 percent of all Americans use online coupons, including discount codes while buying something. However, there’re 40 percent that don’t use coupons and codes. If you’re looking to stretch your dollar, start using coupons and loyalty points to reduce costs. Should you be among those shunning use of discount coupons and codes or even loyalty programs to get cheaper stuff, now’s the time to do that.

Nearly 52 percent of all consumers in the US waste their points earned from various loyalty programs. Gartner research puts the combined value of these wasted points at whopping $140 billion. By redeeming these points, you can stretch your dollar and get more for your money.

You could use these points for saving money while making purchases or get something free, while trying to stretch every dollar to the fullest. Shop only from stores that’re offering hefty discounts through coupons but ensure the delivery is free.

Use FQHCs

You might already know that Federal Qualified Health Centers are called FQHCs or community health centers. They’re funded by the Federal government and hence, offer prescription drugs free or at very low cost. When you have no income, using FQHCs can help you stretch your dollar while still getting necessary medical care.

Medical treatment here is also free. Healthcare and medical services in the US are extremely pricey, as you’re aware. Those holding medical insurance plans also bear out-of-the-pocket expenses on drugs and other essentials for treatment. Reducing medical costs through FQHCs is an effective way to stretch your dollar without compromising on health.

Therefore, it makes lot of good sense to use FQHCs when you’re without income and living on savings. This is particularly important if you’ve a chronic ailment that needs frequent consultations, checkups and medication.

Save on Utilities

An average American household spends about $600 per month on various utilities including electricity, water, gas, sewer and communications. That’s fine but American households also waste about 35 percent of all utilities, especially water and electricity they pay for, every month. Eliminating utilities wastage could help save around $200 per month for every household.

Lower bills would definitely be welcome when you’re without income and spending from savings. Speak with household members and find ways and means to curtail wastage as well as unnecessary use of utilities at home. One of the commonest ways power gets wasted is by keeping lights burning even while not needed or leaving TV switched on.

 Cancel Subscriptions & Memberships

As much as 67 percent of gym memberships go unutilized or underutilized in USA. Furthermore, channel bundles on OTT and cable TV also go underutilized each year. Regardless of use, you might still be subscribed to these services and memberships.

Some could be on auto-renew mode meaning the money goes directly from your bank or credit card each month. Cutting out on these useless subscriptions and memberships would definitely give you some extra cash in hand. During financial crises, you could also avail free entertainment that’s available in your city. These include live performances, exhibitions and other such events.

These are top 10 ways to stretch every dollar when you’ve no income. Additionally, there’re a few more steps you could take to try and achieve a semblance of financial normalcy during such periods.

Steps for Financial Semblance

There’re countless steps available to create financial semblance or live and show a normal life, despite having no income. That way, you could take away the bite from cash crunch and try maintain the same lifestyle where possible.

1. Find Side-Gigs

Yes, finding side-gigs on apps such as TaskRabbit, Woof and Rover, Amazon Flex, Post Mates or even Uber and Lyft could help generate some income that would prove useful to meet living costs. Such tasks can be done during hours of your choice since timings are flexible. And they pay well too.

2. Freelance

Almost half of America’s working population does regular freelancing. This is a superb way to earn money on the side, away from main job, should you possess such skills. Browse website such as Upwork.com and Fiverr.com to check whether if your skills can prove useful and can be sold online in the freelance market to earn some money.

3. Bulk Purchases

Generally, buying in bulk could help save lots of money and stretch every dollar to fullest. Buying in bulk is cheaper but the flipside is, you might be saddled with more than it’s possible to consume. In such cases, share these bulk purchases with family and friends or neighbors. That way, everyone saves money.

4. Instore v/s Home Delivery

Often, instore shopping proves economical over online. Most online sellers don’t really offer free deliveries unless you buy worth a specific amount or are member of paid programs including Amazon Prime.  In such cases, instore shopping allows you to save a lot. However, ensure that your shopping sprees are few since too many of these could lead to higher gasoline costs.

5. Sell Unwanted Stuff

Being without income is actually an opportunity to clean up clutter at home and selling the unwanted stuff lying unused since long. Its possible to sell or trade almost everything from used clothing to broken computers, scrap metal and paper or other such stuff lying around home while denying adequate free space for comfort. You could sell the stuff online through free resources such as Craigslist or offline by hosting a garage sale.

6. Grow Own Food

Should you have a garden or backyard, put it to good use by growing own fruits and vegetables. Here, I’m not talking about produce that takes long to grow. Instead, I mean fruits and vegetables that grow in few days or a couple of weeks. These could ensure proper nutrition for the family while helping stretch every dollar when there’s no income.

Taking these few steps could give you some income that could serve as financial buffer when you’ve no income. These steps can also be used effectively once your income resumes and there’s no need for frugality.

Wrap Up

Stretching every dollar when making best of the money we have is the best way to live regardless whether there’s no income or we’re on regular earnings. In fact, saving money on monthly expenses could propel you swiftly towards financial freedom.

Living thrifty doesn’t involve giving up on pleasures in life. Instead, it involves deriving pleasure from resources you have. Therefore, you could use the above steps, ways and means to curtail spending while stepping up savings for investments.