|
Sentry Page Protection
Please Wait...
Ready for Tomorrow — Step 1: Know Where You Stand
If your household normally relies on two incomes, what would happen if one disappeared tomorrow?
Not forever. Not because we're expecting it to happen. Just for a month. Could you still pay the mortgage or rent? Could you keep the lights on? Could you put petrol in the car? Would there be enough food? Would you immediately need to use a credit card? Or could you say: “We're alright for now. We have some time to work out what comes next.” That's the question I want us to answer as we begin Ready for Tomorrow — The Cheapskates Way. And if yours is already a one-income household, simply change the question: What would happen if our household income suddenly dropped? The exercise is exactly the same. This isn't about worrying that someone is going to lose their job. It's about understanding how our household works while everything is going well, so that we can gradually make it stronger.
Why Start With Income?
There are all sorts of things we could prepare for. Food prices might rise. Petrol might jump again. There could be a storm, flood, bushfire or prolonged blackout. A strike or supply problem might make something difficult to get. An appliance might suddenly need replacing. But one of the simplest ways to test how flexible a household really is is to ask: Could we manage for a while on less money? Because if we can, we're already better placed to cope with many other changes too. A household that needs every single dollar of its normal income just to get through the month has very little room to move. A household that has some food stored, some money put aside, manageable bills and expenses that can be reduced has options. And options buy us time.
We're Not Trying to Find the Lowest Possible Number
This is not a competition to see how miserably we could live. I don't want you deciding that everyone can survive on porridge three times a day while sitting in the dark. That's not the Cheapskates way. We're trying to discover what it would cost to keep the household safe, fed and functioning reasonably well during a temporary period of lower income. Think of it as putting the household into a low-cost setting. Normal life continues. We're simply temporarily taking our foot off the spending accelerator.
Step 1: Find Your Normal Monthly Spending
The first number we need is what it actually costs to run your household during an ordinary month. Not what you think it should cost. Not what a budgeting expert says it should cost. What your household really spends. Look at:
And don't judge the final figure. This is a snapshot. We're gathering information, not handing out marks. Write down: Our Normal Monthly Spending: $____________
Step 2: Find Your Minimum Household Spending
Now let's imagine that one income has temporarily disappeared. What would actually need to keep being paid? Start with the essentials. Perhaps:
Some expenses could be reduced. Some could be paused. Some might disappear altogether for a while. Perhaps we would:
“We can never have these things again.” We're saying: “If we needed breathing room, these expenses could wait.” Now calculate: Our Minimum Monthly Household Spending: $____________
Look at the Difference
This number can be surprisingly encouraging. Let's say a household normally spends: $5,200 a month but could temporarily run quite comfortably on: $3,850 a month. That's a difference of: $1,350 a month. The household hasn't earned another cent. It hasn't won Lotto. It hasn't sold anything. But it has discovered $1,350 worth of flexibility. That's valuable information. Write down: Normal Monthly Spending: $____________ Minimum Monthly Spending: $____________ Difference: $____________ That difference represents choices you may already have.
Step 3: How Much Cash Is Already Available?
Now look at money that could genuinely support the household during a temporary income interruption. This could include:
A credit-card limit isn't a household buffer. It's debt waiting to happen. The question is: How much of our own money could we use if income suddenly dropped? Write down: Cash Buffer Available: $____________ Now compare that amount with your minimum household spending. If your minimum household number is $4,000 a month and you have $1,000 available, you've already bought roughly a week of breathing room. If you have $2,000, you've bought roughly two weeks. If you have a full month's minimum expenses available, you've bought approximately a month. We'll work on strengthening this later. Today we simply want to know where we stand.
Step 4: Don't Forget the Food You've Already Paid For
Cash isn't the only household buffer. Go and look in your pantry. Then the fridge. Then the freezer. This food has already been paid for. If circumstances changed tomorrow, you wouldn't necessarily need to maintain your usual grocery spending. Perhaps you already have enough breakfasts for three weeks. Enough ingredients for 18 dinners. A freezer full of meat. Flour, yeast and milk powder to make bread. Rice, pasta, beans, canned tomatoes and other staples that can become meals. This is why I keep saying: Your pantry is money you've already spent on tomorrow. Don't count tins. Count meals. Ask: How many breakfasts could we make? How many lunches? How many dinners? Then estimate: Our Pantry Could Feed Us for Approximately: __________ weeks Don't worry if the answer is only a few days. That's useful information. It tells us exactly where we need to work.
Step 5: What Bills Could We Reduce?
Now look at your regular bills. Don't start by trying to squeeze another $10 from the grocery budget if you're paying hundreds of dollars unnecessarily somewhere else. Look at the big bills first. Ask:
For now write down the possibilities. Bills We Could Reduce:
Step 6: What Could We Pause Completely?
Some spending can simply stop for a little while without harming the household. Perhaps:
It's a temporary household setting we already understand before we need it. Expenses We Could Pause: Knowing this now is much calmer than trying to make decisions in a panic later.
Step 7: What Would Become a Problem First?
This may be the most useful question in today's exercise. Imagine the income changed tomorrow. What would worry you first? For one household it might be: Food. “We don't have much in the pantry and we'd need a normal grocery shop next week.” That's your first clue about where to concentrate. For another: Fixed bills. “Even if we stopped spending completely, the mortgage, insurance and utilities take almost all our income.” There's your weak spot. Another may discover: Fuel. “We both need the cars for work and school and there's very little we could cut.” That's something to explore. Or it might be: Cash. “We could reduce our expenses and live from the pantry, but after two weeks we'd need the credit card.” That's useful information too. Perhaps the problem isn't one of those things at all. The point is to identify it. The First Thing That Would Become Difficult for Our Household Is:
So, How Much Time Have We Already Bought?
Now put everything together. Look at: Your minimum household spending. Your available cash. Your food on hand. The bills you could reduce. The spending you could pause. And ask the central question for this first Ready for Tomorrow exercise: How much time has our household already bought? Perhaps the answer is three days. Perhaps it's two weeks. Perhaps it's six months. Whatever the answer, that's simply where we're starting. There is no pass or fail. We're creating a baseline.
Think in Time, Not Stuff
Preparedness is often measured by what people own. How many tins? How much rice? How many litres of water? How much money? But through Ready for Tomorrow I want us to start measuring something else. Time. If one income disappeared tomorrow: How long before you had to use credit? How long before you needed a major grocery shop? How long before a bill became difficult? How long before you needed outside help? Every meal already in the pantry buys time. Every dollar in the household buffer buys time. Every bill we permanently reduce buys time. Every debt we clear buys time. Every useful household skill buys time. And every week we can comfortably cover gives us more opportunity to make sensible decisions rather than rushed ones.
Different Households Will Find Different Gaps
This is why Ready for Tomorrow isn't going to give everyone exactly the same shopping list. If today's exercise shows that you have plenty of savings but almost no food at home, one of your priorities will be the three-month pantry. If the pantry is excellent but your fixed expenses are swallowing almost every dollar, we'll need to look closely at household costs. If your expenses are low and the pantry is healthy but you don't have accessible savings, building your Buying Time buffer becomes important. If transport is the problem, we'll tackle that too. You don't need to strengthen everything at once. We find the weakest point and work on it calmly. Then we find the next one. That's how strong households are built.
Your Ready for Tomorrow Action This Week
Don't rush out and buy anything. Your job this week is simply to know your numbers. Work out: Normal Monthly Spending: $____________ Minimum Household Spending: $____________ Difference: $____________ Cash Currently Available: $____________ Food Already Available: approximately __________ weeks Bills We Could Reduce: ____________________________ Expenses We Could Pause: __________________________ Our First Likely Pressure Point: ____________________ Then answer: If our income changed tomorrow, how much time have we already bought? Our answer: ______________________________ Keep that answer. We're going to come back to it. Because as we work our way through Ready for Tomorrow, our aim is to gradually make that period longer. Not through panic. Not through deprivation. Not by spending a fortune preparing for things that may never happen. But by calmly lowering costs, building useful buffers, keeping food and supplies ahead, learning useful skills and creating alternatives. That's how we become debt free, cashed up and laughing. And it's how we build a household that can say, when life unexpectedly changes: “We're alright. We have a plan. We have some time.”
Downloads for Step 1
Use these printable Ready for Tomorrow worksheets with this week's exercise: Household Starting-Point Worksheet Use this sheet to take a calm snapshot of where your household is today. Start with what is already working, notice the gaps, then choose one small step that can save money, time, energy or stress. Normal Spending vs Minimum Household Spending Worksheet Use this to calculate what your household normally spends and what it would cost to temporarily operate in low-cost mode. How Many Weeks Will My Pantry Feed Us? Inventory Use this to get a realistic picture of the food already available at home. My Household Resilience Scorecard Complete your first scorecard now and keep it in your Ready for Tomorrow Binder. We'll use it again later so you can see how much stronger your household has become.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|
