Two ways to fix a pinchy bank balance (I do both)
“I can't be out of money! I still have checks!”
~Some old person who knows what checks are
Everywhere, prices are creeping up.
It's rare that I can shop at Walmart for under $50 anymore, and I don't buy crap.
What's worse, our pay stubs are just barely keeping up with rising prices over the past couple of years, so no help there. And tariffs haven't even hit badly in the US as of now (June 2025).
Being around break-even isn't much fun, is it?
I bet you've seen this equation before
Income minus expenses equals surplus (or deficit)
Income is the money that comes in. Expenses go out.
If income is more than expenses, there's a surplus. Otherwise, there's a deficit.
Easy peasy.
If the surplus is small, or if there's a deficit, we want to fix that.
Let's put some numbers in and look at expenses
Let's take an income of $3,000 (after taxes), and expenses of $2,800. That leaves a surplus of $200.
To the extent that we can lower the expenses, we can increase the surplus.
Here are some ways to spend less. You've likely heard of at least a few of them, and perhaps many others.
- Trying out store brands over name brands.
- Buying foods that take a bit more preparation.
- Brewing coffee at home instead of hitting the coffee shop.
- Checking out Goodwill or consignment shops for clothes.
- Canceling subscriptions you don't use a whole lot
- Learning to do basic vehicle maintenance.
- Figuring out repairs to fix appliances.
If you spend $400 less doing any combination of these money savers, your surplus just rose to $600.
The other side of the equation is more powerful, though.
I just made those numbers up. Cutting $400 from your monthly budget may be darn near impossible.
There's only so much you can cut out, anyway. You can't spend less than nothing. (It is quick, though, not to spend on something, and that helps your bottom line.)
You can increase your surplus by $400 another way, though:
You can bring in $400 more.
Doing things like:
- Getting a second part-time job, online or offline.
- Doing freelance work or gig work.
- Flipping things (buying low and selling high).
- Building an online presence and getting that audience to pay you for some value you provide.
(The last one usually takes longer to build up, but it can be good residual income. The others are faster ways to make more money, but they're mostly trading time for money. Nothing inherently wrong with that, of course!)
Even better though is that you're not as limited in how much more you can bring in.
There's no reason you can't bump your income from $3,000 to $30,000.
With the same $2,800 in expenses, your surplus is now $27,200! That's a far cry from $200!
Why not do both? (Perhaps at the same time?)
There's also no reason that you can't spend less AND make more! Hit the equation from both sides.
You can even do them both at the same time with a single activity.
Here's an example. Say you're good at repairing things. You can save money doing the repairs, and video yourself doing them. Create a YouTube channel that focuses on the kinds of repairs you know how to do, and build an audience. You get both the benefit of having fixed all of your things, and you're also building something you can monetize, or use to sell a course or sell your services.
I've been doing this with my main blog, MightyBargainHunter.com. It started out as a way to make money by telling people how they could spend less online. I still get some residual income from the traffic to the site, as well as some other ways like affiliate income.
Your efforts don't need to be two-for's, but it's kinda nice if they are!
Excited? Here's a free way to learn more
My Solid Cash Tips newsletter comes out six times a week, and has three links.
You'll get resources to help you spend less, make more, and live well!
Best of all? It won't be another expense for you! It's all free — AND you'll get a free ebook 49 Ways To Spend Less!
