I started my first salary job in January 2009. A few months later, the company I work for was having budget problems and had to lay off a few people and cut salaries. As of today, we still have not gotten any of our salary back and for the past 14 months I've been bringing home about $450 less than what I started at. Knowing I'm out that money sucks, but I always remind myself that I am lucky to be employed and I've made it work. With that being said, I am still able to make ends meet and since I've had to be so careful with my money, I've probably actually saved more.
This is how I do it:
I get paid weekly and my paycheck is direct deposited into two different checking accounts. Most of it goes into my Bank of America account, which is for my monthly bills. The other $100 goes into my Chase account, which I use for things such as groceries, clothes, and entertainment. Once that $100 runs out each week, I'm done spending until Friday when I get paid again. I pay my rent, car payment, credit card, and student loan from my other account each month and anything that is leftover goes directly into my savings. By allocating my paychecks in this way, I can rest assured that I will always have enough money to pay my bills and I still have some extra money that I can use for fun things. As I've said before, I try not to use credit cards unless I'm buying something expensive or in the case of an emergency.
Before the salary cuts, I probably spent that extra $450 each month on things I didn't need instead of saving it. So as soon as we do get that money put back into our paychecks, I will have to set up an automated transfer into my savings each week and try to continue living off the lesser amount. While having your salary cut is no fun at all, it has actually been good for me because I've learned that I can live off less. Hopefully I will continue that no matter how much money I make in the future.
Thoughts?
This is how I do it:
I get paid weekly and my paycheck is direct deposited into two different checking accounts. Most of it goes into my Bank of America account, which is for my monthly bills. The other $100 goes into my Chase account, which I use for things such as groceries, clothes, and entertainment. Once that $100 runs out each week, I'm done spending until Friday when I get paid again. I pay my rent, car payment, credit card, and student loan from my other account each month and anything that is leftover goes directly into my savings. By allocating my paychecks in this way, I can rest assured that I will always have enough money to pay my bills and I still have some extra money that I can use for fun things. As I've said before, I try not to use credit cards unless I'm buying something expensive or in the case of an emergency.
Before the salary cuts, I probably spent that extra $450 each month on things I didn't need instead of saving it. So as soon as we do get that money put back into our paychecks, I will have to set up an automated transfer into my savings each week and try to continue living off the lesser amount. While having your salary cut is no fun at all, it has actually been good for me because I've learned that I can live off less. Hopefully I will continue that no matter how much money I make in the future.
Thoughts?
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