Living next to nothing is not an easy situation to be in. In fact, it comes with a lot of mental and emotional stress as you have to deal with empty pockets.
Living within your means on a daily basis becomes your key to survival, but it takes a lot of patience, perseverance, and determination to get out of this situation — but definitely not impossible!
Stay with me as we explore all ways to live while spending none to as little money as possible.
These tips will help you relax and be confident that you are one step closer to being financially comfortable!
1. Be Conscious of Your Spending
When was the last time you picked up a pen and wrote down all your expenses or even your earnings?
If you haven’t done so yet, now is the time!
Being aware of where your every penny goes is a great way to track how you can prioritize your spending. Use it for the most basic of things to survive — food, clothing, and shelter.
Practice self-control and stay away from excesses in your life.
Avoid going for that luxury coffee, that more expensive burger, or those subscriptions you don’t even use.
Once you develop the habit of listing your earnings and expenses, you are already showing signs of financial maturity, and this is the start of making smart budgeting decisions!
2. Sit Down and Plan Your Budget
You might wonder, “What is there left to plan if I don’t have a budget?”
Let me answer this with another question — How do you plan to live within your means and still save something at the end of the month?
Unless you want to continue living on next to nothing, I suggest you really sit down and draft a financial plan that will get you out of your current situation quickly!
A workable budgeting framework for someone whose funds mostly involve paying debts and surviving is 70/20/10. Here is how it works:
- 70% – Allocate this to all your non-negotiables, like food, housing, utilities, and debt payments.
- 20% – Set this amount for savings. It is best to have a separate bank account for this from your regular account to avoid touching this.
- 10% – This is your discretionary spending budget. You can use this small amount to treat yourself for achieving something, or you may even add this to your savings or debt payment.
As you slowly gain more earnings or are able to cut your expenses, you can adjust this framework so you can add more to your savings.
3. Find Ways to Lower Your Bills
One of the best ways to save money while living on next to nothing is to look for ways to lower down your bill.
This strategy will allow you to reallocate some of your money for savings, like building on your emergency funds to help protect you from debt during an emergency.
Here are some tips on how you can lower down your monthly bills:
- Check out your subscriptions and remove those that you never use at all. For those that you do not fully utilize, try to go for a lower subscription offer that matches your usage.
- Get rid of memberships that you do not use anymore, like your gym or club membership.
- Negotiate with your utility company on how you can pay less on your monthly consumption. Apps like Billshark, Trim, and Rocket Money can make this task easier for you.
- Be strategic on airconditioning and heating costs. Move to a cooler area of the house during the summer season and create air insulation layers on your windows during the winter.
- If your house or car is mortgaged, consider refinancing to get a lower interest rate. If you can afford it, you could also go for biweekly mortgage payments to pay off your principal faster.
Pro Tip: The best approach to lowering down your bills is to list first all of them. Once listed, check out each one if you can negotiate, refinance, strategize your usage, or even completely remove.
4. Stop Accumulating Debt!
One major mistake of people who live next to nothing is they have a tendency to accumulate their debts in order to survive.
Cut this habit now!
Getting into another debt to pay off your existing one will just make matters worse and will never get you out of the cycle.
What do you do instead? Negotiate!
Regardless if these are individuals or your credit card company, learn to talk to them and create deals that will help you get out of debt.
Check your budget and see how much you can really pay monthly while you still have enough for all your other living expenses.
Most credit card companies can also help ease your payment. They may even offer to remove your interests and charges if you make certain bulk payments.
Note: It will take a while to pay off most of these debts, especially if they have accumulated over time.
Remember, negotiating is always a better option than getting new loans and being stuck in this cycle forever!
5. Use Free Coupons and Cashback Apps
Why pay for your groceries when you can earn them for free?
If you haven’t explored the world of coupons and cashback apps, you are missing out on a lot of savings!
Here are some of the most effective cashback apps you can use for your groceries and other essentials:
- Rakuten: Previously known as Ebates, Rakuten has a wide base of over 3,500 participating stores. I find it easy to use, with my cashback rates averaging between 12% and 20%. I conveniently saved over $600 using the app, which I redeemed through my PayPal account.
- Ibotta: With just a simple upload of your receipt in the Ibotta app or using your linked loyalty card in-store, you can already earn cash backs. Once you have reached $20 in cash back, you can redeem your reward via your PayPal account or through a gift card.
- Fetch: I find Fetch to be one of the easiest apps for converting my purchases into points. I can get points from hundreds of brands and I redeem them for gift cards. I select gift cards from stores I regularly shop at, saving me hundreds of dollars.
- Dosh: Dosh is my go-to app when it comes to convenience. I have linked my debit card to the app and I earn cashbacks automatically when I swipe my card in participating stores, restaurants, and hotels.
- Checkout 51: Adding coupons and offers to your Checkout 51 account during grocery shopping can help you earn cashback. All you need to do is mark the items you purchased in the app, upload your receipt, and then wait for your cashback to reflect.
The ones above are just a few of the many existing apps online. Aside from this, you can also clip coupons from your trusty Sunday paper.
Remember that these apps and coupons are absolutely free to use. So take advantage of them as much as you can!
6. Stay Productive (Get Rid of Time Wasters)
How many of you are guilty of scrolling social media mindlessly, and you end up losing hours of productive time?
You need to get rid of this habit fast!
Instead of spending hours and hours not accomplishing anything, try to do something to develop yourself.
Learn a new skill, educate yourself financially, do something to support your passion, or look for opportunities to add more streams of income!
Doing something productive will keep you motivated to get out of your current situation of living on next to nothing.
7. Go for Free Entertainment
In order to survive the emotional and mental aspects of being in financial difficulty, we need to also take time to breathe.
You might think that this is something that will just eat away more of your funds.
Guess what? There are a lot of fun and entertaining things to do inside and outside the house — without spending a penny!
Instead of going to the movies or dining out, try the following free forms of entertainment:
- Take a stroll in the nearby park.
- Enjoy reading motivational books from your public library.
- Play board games with your family.
- Go on a picnic.
- Try camping (look for campgrounds that don’t charge fees).
- Take your camera and go on a photography trip around the neighborhood.
- Do crafts made of recycled materials.
One of my favorite pastimes, without spending anything, is walking my dogs and taking them to the local dog park.
I enjoy spending time with my dogs and interacting with other dogs and their owners, as well.
Try to be as creative as possible when coming up with an activity for yourself or your family. These will help clear your mind and breathe as you deal with your financial recovery.
8. Declutter Your Home
As you explore every corner of your house, you will find items that you can sell and convert to cash.
This will not only give you a cleaner area and a clearer mind but also more money that can go to your savings or emergency funds!
I used to collect candle holders when I was younger. As I cleared out my attic, I found about a dozen of these still in great shape.
I sold them in a nearby antique shop and got $200 out of them, which went straight to my savings account.
If there are items that are no longer saleable, you can try donating them or simply throwing them away.
Remember, clearing things in your house makes way for new ones.
9. Make It a Habit to Drink Water
You might be wondering how drinking water helps you live next to nothing.
For one, drinking water is definitely much cheaper than your fruit juices, energy drinks, and sodas — and are much healthier, too!
Buying bottled water is also discouraged since this is also going to be expensive in the long run.
It is still best to buy a water filter, like the Brita filter. It is a one-time cost, and it is an investment that will save you a lot in the long run.
Drinking clean water has many advantages, including maximizing physical performance, boosting energy levels and brain function, preventing headaches, relieving constipation, and a lot more!
10. Live a Simple Life
A lot of times, the reason why we are struggling financially is because of the wrong decisions we make concerning our purchases.
If you are living beyond your means for a long time, expect that it will create a bigger hole in your pocket and you will even resort to debt to maintain that type of lifestyle.
Now that you are experiencing the consequences that are causing you a lot of stress, you can fix the situation by downsizing.
Get rid of your car that you rarely use, move to a smaller house, or live in a less expensive area.
If you are single, you might even want to consider sharing a house with friends or family members so you can split household costs.
When it comes to transportation, you might want to try commuting publicly, biking, or carpooling to save on gas and the maintenance of owning a car.
You can also check out our article on the habits of frugal people who do not overspend, which can help you live a simple life.
Remember, sometimes, taking a step back and living a simple life will help you recover faster from a financial perspective.
11. Build Your Own Backyard Garden
How convenient it must be to no longer have to go grocery shopping for basic ingredients when cooking at home.
Just imagine going to your backyard and picking your ripe tomatoes, onions, carrots, or lettuce as you prepare your meals.
My father, a natural green thumb, helped me grow my own backyard garden four years ago, which helped our family survive the pandemic.
We grow our own carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, radish, and sweet potatoes, among other produce.
This is a great way to still eat in a healthy manner while living next to nothing — not to mention the amount of money you can save!
12. Rely on DIY Repairs and Carpentry
When you don’t have the extra money to pay a plumber to fix your sink or a carpenter to rebuild your broken cabinet, you might not have a choice but to be your own handyman.
Instead of enduring broken fixtures at home, you can take advantage of free YouTube videos and online instructional materials on basic repairs or carpentry.
As you grow your own skills, you also grow your savings in the process!
13. Look for Charities and Other Local Help
When it comes to food, hospitalization, medicine, and other essentials, remember that there are charities and local institutions that are more than willing to help.
One such organization is the PAN Foundation, which offers financial assistance to people with serious illnesses who need treatment.
The Office of Community Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also has a program called the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
This federally funded assistance covers the expenses of low-income families when it comes to energy-related bills — a great way to survive extreme temperatures even without a budget!
Meanwhile, if you have dogs or cats, watch out for free neuter and spay programs sponsored by animal rescue organizations in your area.
Make sure you do your research on local charities that can take care of many of your expenses while you allocate what is left of your money for savings or emergencies.
Although these practical strategies will help you survive living on next to nothing, I highly encourage you not to become too used to this type of lifestyle.
Dream and motivate yourself to increase your sources of income and get out of your current financial status as fast as you can.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about living on next to nothing? Feel free to share them in the comments below!