People are struggling every day for money because it is the core source for people to have a good living. A number of people do not usually take care of their budget management why they lose an amount of their finance on unnecessary things especially during tough times such as COVID-19 pandemic of global financial crisis. Below are some key tips for you to occupy your budget more effectively during tough times:

1- Evaluate the Budget

It is an important step to understand your current financial situation and challenges or if your income will remain stable or not in the following months, so that you can preserve plan B to prevent any effect on time. For example, if you know in advance that you are about to lose job because of the disease outbreak or your company is bankrupcy, you should start to consider what type of job you want to seek for. Also check how much your emergency fund shall be used if the bad scenario happen. You need also to be clear with your monthly expense and what they are mostly spent for in order to make it balance with your income.

2- Figure out Solution

After identifying challenges/problems from your evaluation, you can start to brainstorm for options to solve each specific issue. Go through your list of things that are causing financial stress that you can do something about. Then prioritize which ones are most important for you to tackle first. For instance, you can take a deep breath and commence to reduce unnecessary expense for payment your food, water and electricity bills or increase income source such as looking for a freelance job instead.

3- Be Frugal on the Nonessentials

Money is the worthy thing in all circumstances so you should save as much as you can. During hard times, you should not spend much on unnecessary things such as new series of well-known brand clothes, phones, cars, etc. while travel restriction is also in place. Making food at home also make you save more than eating outside and the food is even safer and healthier.

4- Review Your Debts/Loans

Financial institutions/Bank offer a range of measures to assist clients when they meet short term financial crisis. If you have a mortgage/loan and are worried you won’t be able to make your monthly repayments, contact your lender immediately and they will be able to tell you what your solutions are.

5- Reserved Work

If the hazard makes you lose your income/job promptly, you should have a quick backup plan for your work. This is a way that you could respond to such financial shock. You can start with an online business/work or any part-time careers in order to get some profit to ease your daily expenditure.

6- Emergency Plan

Emergency fund is crucial for any serious unforeseen affect. You should extract a portion of your income to reserve for this fund. When there are any emergent cases occurring in your tough times and you don’t have this fund, it will be really hard for you to find any immediate support.