Don’t let January catch you with your fridge empty! I’ve got your January Survival Guide on this episode of #MoneyMondaysJa! I’m giving you these tips now, so you can be prepared when January comes. If you wait until January, it’s already too late. I have five survival tips to last you through January.

January Survival Guide

Don’t let January catch you with your fridge empty! I’ve got your January Survival Guide on this episode of #MoneyMondaysJa! I’m giving you these tips now, so you can be prepared when January comes. If you wait until January, it’s already too late. I have five survival tips to last you through January.

1. Pre-pay all your January bills

The bills keep coming and they pile up. That December paycheck that you usually get around the 15th is supposed to last you through to the end of January. We all know that January lasts around six months! January is not one month; it’s six months all by itself. So, we need to make sure that we pre-pay our January bills from that December 15th paycheck, because it’s supposed to be for the January bills anyway! And trust me, you might not want to do it now because the money is there and it’s tempting to spend it on Christmas, but when your light gets cut off and you get red tagged from JPS, your water is cut off, you have no internet, no cell phone, your rent is due and you can’t pay it, you’ll be so happy that you pre-paid those bills and got that out of the way. You can then spend what is left on Christmas.

2. Put aside money for food

You don’t want to have an empty fridge, an empty cupboard and only one stick of butter in January. That cannot be you this January. We need two things: shelter and food. I already told you to make sure you set aside rent money and the other thing you need to survive is food. You have to eat. Everything else can wait. Put aside your food money for January. Or you could stock up like it’s hurricane season if you know that you’re not going to be able to put that money aside. If you’re into spending right now, buy some non-perishables, buy some canned food and put them aside for January so that you can survive that month. At the bare minimum, you’ll have food to eat.

3. Save your vouchers

This includes rewards programs and all your points that you might have accumulated through the year. This has saved me many a January and I have lived off food vouchers. At a previous place where I used to work, instead of giving us a cash bonus for Christmas, my employer used to give us vouchers for a particular supermarket. A lot of my colleagues would spend them for Christmas and buy ham and turkey and stuff for the house at this supermarket. But what I used to do, was to save the vouchers for January, and trust me, they came in so handy. So even now I have a Magna rewards card. You can check how many points you have on your account and use those points in January when you have no money and need it the most.

4. Learn how to budget

I have a couple videos on budgeting that you can check out. But you need to remember, budgeting is about both income and expenses. You have both sides of the budget. So, if you make your list of expenses and you realize that they’re not adding up to what your income can cover, you need to take a look at the other side of the budget. Now, income doesn’t necessarily equate to salary. You can have other sources and streams of income, so start thinking creatively about other ways that you can earn an income outside of your salary. That way, when you see how much your expenses are, you can see exactly how much additional income that you need to earn. Everybody has a creative side, and everybody has something that they’re good at that they can use to earn additional income. Learn how to budget, use a budget tracker app; my favorite one is called Home Budget. It’s free in the Google Play Store and the App Store. You can use that to track your expenses and your goals and see where you are. Learn how to budget. This is a really crucial tip that you’ll need to take into the new year.

5. Learn how to invest

Let me tell you: when those dividend cheques drop in January, it’s a great additional source of income. And of course, I have my brand-new Investing for Beginners Master Class so you can learn how to invest. Take the 6 part Beginners Investing Course, read the e-book, use all the resources and materials provided and you’ll be on a great track for surviving January and 2022, because after Omicron, who knows what else is going to drop.

That’s it for this episode of #MoneyMondaysJa!

Categories: MoneyMondaysJA