11 Practical Tips to Survive a Recession

Posted Mar 31, 2009 by ChentaQu / comments 3 comments / Print / Font Size Decrease font size Increase font size

Are you affected by the recession? Do not panic, you can apply these 11 very practical tips to handle your economic situation.

Recession takes place and if it affects you, you must take the necessary steps before it is too late. Below are a few tips you can practice to help you survive.

1. Get out of debt as quickly as possible by finding ways to pay for it. If ever you need help, hire a financial consultant who can help you with your budget.

2. Reduce your bills by switching to different companies that offers cheaper rates. Take a look at bills such as the bill for gas, water, electricity, mobile phone, television cable, insurance and internet connection, then make the necessary changes.

3. Reduce your daily spending. When you go to the grocery, buy only necessary items or switch to a cheaper brand. Buying promo items could save u a lot, and the quality could be just as good or even better to what you are used to buying.

4. Grab free samples whenever offered. This will surely spare you a few dollars for other more important items. If the grocery near your place gives out vouchers or coupons, make use of them as well.

5. Prepare and bring your food for breakfast or lunch to your workplace. Your kids should also have a lunch bag rather than getting their weekly allowance. By this way, they too can  understand the current situation and learn ways to deal with it.

6. Ask your employer if you can do some of the work at home, if possible. This would reduce your budget on gas since you don’t have to drive to work. However, you must make sure you are as productive at home like you are in the office. If this is not possible, see if you can carpool with someone from the office.

7. Practice carpooling if it is possible. Find friends from the same office or from the same neighborhood working nearby your office area. You can rotate whose car to be used in a particular week, or use one's car and the others share the gas bill and parking fees.

8. Trade to a smaller car, if it is possible. The advantage of a smaller car is that you don’t burn that much gas so you don’t have to spend that much when it is time to refuel the tank.

9. Cut down your electricity expenses by substituting the bulbs to those that use lower wattage. Another way is to set the heater down by one degree, reinsulated the ceiling and stop drafts coming from the windows and doors.

10.  Sell some old stuff or rent a spare room. If you are smart and creative, you can make money out of it.

11. Invest in long term investments such as stocks or bonds, if you have money to spare. Their value will rise once the recession is ended.

A recession holds up for months and could be years, so you have to know what to do once it happens. Your ability to stay financially stable is the solely way for you to cope with a possible loss of income and raised prices.

Besides knowing how to handle the recession, you too can learn about how to save money at the Saving Money Tips Blog

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Comments

swatilohani
swatilohani said... on May 22nd, 2009 at 7:50 AM

great tips awesome article, thnx for sharing

dbb10001
dbb10001 said... on May 5th, 2009 at 9:05 AM

ChentaQu, nice article and good tips for saving in this tough economy. To that point, I thought I'd add onto your suggestion of cutting mobile phone expenses by mentioning that there are ways to directly use the internet to vastly lower a business or personal cell bill. In particular, there's one great new blog called http://fixmycellbill.blogspot.com/ that constantly tracks new ways to cut wireless costs and exposes shady billing practices utilized by the cell phone companies. Also, check out the consumer advocacy website where I (admittedly) work, http://www.myValidas.com , that slashes the average cell bill by 22 percent. Through the site, we have currently audited over 26,000 cell lines and have saved consumers nearly $5 million off their wireless bills. You can see myValidas.com in the national news media, most recently on Good Morning America at http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6887412&page=1. Good luck to everyone reading on cutting expenses in the recession. Dylan

roberts2009
roberts2009 said... on April 9th, 2009 at 7:12 AM

Good Article



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