Ok, so you have your gun, your toilet paper and 300 tins of generic potted meat from the dollar store.
What do you do about finances?
I socked-away a little cash in the house. My job is in serious jeopardy, so half-pay unemployment is a real possibility.
In addition, I am facing some prepping start-up costs (gardening supplies, food stores, etc)
The purpose of this thread is how to manage money during this time.
EDIT:
So, my household is saving about $1,500 a month right now (absent Corona prep costs) and I thought I would share what I did:
1) Cut cable: It was only for sports, and that's not happening right now
2) Eating out: Between my daily taqueria lunches to Friday night pizza for the family, this was a substantial amount
3) Starbucks: this adds up surprisingly quickly
4) Student loan forbearance: we have several student loans between us. They are all on forbearance.
5) Car payment forbearance: Ford is offering temporary forbearance on car payments.
6) Gas -- working from home has put about $200 - $300 a month into our pockets on saved gas.
7) Cell phones -- Everyone is in lockdown at home, so wifi is doing the heavy lifting. Moved us from unlimited data to the lowest plan. Saves about $75 a month,
8) Insurance -- While my better half did not allow me to do this, I think this is a good time to raise your deductibles and lower your coverage amounts. There is almost never a time when we aren't home, so our risk of break-in has gone down. In addition, we are driving about 90% less miles, so I think it's a good time to reduce that coverage as well.
9) Trash -- Reducing our can size by starting a compost pile is another small savings.
10) Mortgage forbearance -- we don't currently qualify, but our mortgage company is allowing this for anyone who saw a drop in their income due to Corona.
We are using the additional cash flow to pay-down credit cards that were used paying for our move last year.
Hopefully this helps someone else.
Financial Management in the Coronavirus Age
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Last edited by senorgrand on Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.