Do you absolutely need cash right now? What is it that you need cash for? Is it your car payment? Your home mortgage? Or is it something a little less important? Before you just start trying to dig up cash fast, it’s important to know the difference between a want and a need.
The options above (the car payment and the home mortgage) are pretty essential to continue to surviving life. You need to have transportation to get to work, and having a roof over your head is pretty essential too. Tack on things like food and clothing too – those are definitely things that you need to have each day. All of these bills are necessary and if money is too tight for even these items, then you really need to make a change in your life.
If, however, your “need” is not really a need, then you should re-evaluate what you truly can’t live without before dropping the big bucks on it. For example, many people “just couldn’t survive without their iPhone”! But, you know what? If yours breaks and you don’t have the money to repair it or get a new one, you could absolutely survive without it. What is it you do on it anyway? Check Facebook? Send senseless texts to your friends? Even if you use your phone all the time as your GPS or for important emails, I still believe you could survive without it. Remember when people used to use maps and print out directions? That can still be done today. And as for email, I’m sure you can find a computer nearby to respond to those ever important emails.
Where Can You Find the Money?
If you do have a need and you don’t have the cash in your bank account, my first option would be to sell something. You must have something in your possession that’s worth something and you hardly use it. This could be something like a decorative piece that just sits in the corner, or maybe it’s a video game system that you haven’t used in the past couple months. Sure, it might be tough to give up, but if you truly have a need, then you should have no trouble letting it go.
Melissa, a mom to three little ones (ages 7, 3 and 1), blogs at both Mom’s Plans where she writes about living a fulfilling life on less and paying down debt, and Fiscal Phoenix where she writes about rising from the ashes of your financial mistakes.