Budgeting with No Cash-Flow

Thursday, April 04, 2019

It matters not whether we are talking dollars or hours; it is the same principle.

Let’s Talk Dollars

My neighbour complains that she’s always short of cash, but she has a regular job, gets paid each fortnight. To me it’s an easy no-brainer: Sit down and map out your expenses; trim some. Cook at home instead of ordering take-out, and so on.

Me? I live from cheque to cheque. Never know when the next cheque is coming in. low bank-balance, the usual.

Yet I budget my dollars better than my neighbour.

How?

I sit down at the start of the month and work out what I absolutely have to pay; typically rent, telephone, internet, postage. Food.

If I have cash to cover those, I write the cheques and send them out. Then I economize for the rest of the moth.

If I don’t have the cash to cover all my creditors – I phone them up and tell them so; they appreciate knowing I’ve not skipped the country, and I sleep a little easier at nights.

Let’s Talk Hours

My friend complains that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. She’s wrong.

There are 24 hours in each day, always have been, always will be. (This is not the place to discuss the moon’s gravitational impact on tides and their frictional impact on the earth’s rotation; we know we know that stuff …)

Like you, I woke up this morning with another 24 hours.

Like you, I get to choose what to do.

If I find that I need twenty wide-awake hours to get through the load, I decide that that can’t be done, and I shed tasks until the hours come down to a reasonable level.

Then I start work.

First task is a short email to a couple of people advising them that they WON’T receive an update today after all.

That they won’t receive an update is a pre-ordained fact; I don’t have that much time.

Letting them know in advance that updates won’t arrive allows them to plan their day accordingly.

When you don’t have the resources, managing the resources you do have is doubly critical.

Talk to Me !

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