How to Survive Financial Problems Today
The widow with the two mites had to depend on her family, community, and the church to survive the burden of being a widow. The norm today are single parents with no job or prospects of a job, no child support, no day care for children, no car to get to a job that does not exist. With banks closing, jobs disappearing and the stock market crashing it takes creativity to try to make ends meet and provide food for the table.
Everyone in today’s society either has faced financial problems or knows someone who is in financial difficulty. There is nothing to be ashamed about being poor is. The important issue is to survive being poor and being financial crisis. It is easy to make a simple rule of don’t spend more than you earn. That is very good advice with one flaw. One cannot own a home, a car, even and education without over spending. People who are suffering the most today are those who have lived beyond their means. That is a great deal of the population.
When the job market, banks and many other financial institutions fail your financial security is also going to fail. The rules that once were the backbone for our financial security do not pertain to the financial problem we find our self in today. Proverbs 21:20 tells us that the wise store up treasures such as supplies of food or drink but a foolish person consumes or squanders everything he has.
The widow with the two mites had to depend on her family, community, and the church to survive the burden of being a widow. The norm today are single parents with no job or prospects of a job, no child support, no day care for children, no car to get to a job that does not exist. It takes creativity to try to make ends meet and provide food for the table.
How to survive becoming poor always begins with looking at what you have. What amount of money do you begin with? What are the expenditures you have to pay like food, housing, utilities, transportation, and everyday expenses? That is how you begin to create a budget. Doing this tells you what you have to work with and what it is going to take to make it from month to month. One big thing to remember is before you buy anything make sure you really need it. You will have to begin to down size and find what is really important and what can go by the way side.
This is the time to begin bargain shopping and cutting coupons. Only buy what you absolutely need. Make a menu for the week and shop accordingly. Compare prices and look for those bargains. Remember that you have to pay for gas to get to the stores so organize your trips. No name brands, or generic brands, are usually cheaper than the national brands. Cut back where ever you can. Bulk buying is usually cheaper if you have a larger family. Cook at home and limit or totally cut out eating out.
The important thing here is that this financial crisis we are facing today is closer to what people faced in the Great Depression of 1929 than it is something you did wrong in your finances. This generation has gotten spoiled and we have forgotten how to do the most elementary of tasks. It has become easier to go for fast food rather than cooking at homes. It is easier to throw away things that only need to be repaired. During the Great
Depression dresses and shirts were made out of cloth flour sacks. We cannot get flour sacks now but dresses can be resized and made over for other children and even given to nieces and nephews. Everyone had gardens even if they were very small. Growing anything can save you from buying it.
Get to know your neighbors and the community you live in. The widow with the two mites had to have help from her family, neighbors and community. People in the Great Depression had to band together and help each other out. The Great Depression left behind survival skills we can all learn today. They cut costs, they had to make do with what they had instead of buying designer clothes or shoes they patched their clothes and made them more stylish. Neighbors used the barter system. If they had two of something they kept one and traded the other for something that was needed. When hard times hit it is imperative to get back to our social connections. Do more as a family unit instead of everyone going their own way. Get to know your neighbors, make your friends lifelong friends. Surviving financial problems might require family to move in with family, or giving a helping hand to a neighbor who needs a babysitter, even a friend who needs a place to stay. Neighbors helping neighbors what a wonderful idea.
It was difficult to find any kind of work during the Great Depression just as it is today. The banks have not closed but it is difficult to get loans. The interest rates on credit card that were really easy to get are now most of the problem that is facing people today. High interest rates are eating into the budget and making it impossible to pay bills. It is in these times that we have to start appreciating the things that we have. It is not necessarily a bad thing to go without “things.” Getting back to a simpler life style is not necessarily a bad thing. Learning to appreciate what we have is a necessity. It is imperative to get back to the basics of learning how to cook for a family, sew, gardening, and it would be beneficial to learn the art of canning.
We need to have a plan and that plan needs to begin today. There is a website found at www.ready.gov that gives several sample disaster plans available. These are disaster preparedness plans that bring attention to the dangers around us. Just keeping extra batteries, bottled water in jugs, firewood, sleeping bags and having a plan for surviving an emergency and after that emergency may help survive a crisis before it arrives.
It is important to stay close to the LORD when times get tougher there will be more people looking for ways to survive the financial crisis we are facing. Stay close to the LORD and kneel in prayer often. Encourage those around you to keep praying. It is possible to survive financial problems and be stronger because of it. Keep depending on the Lord because He has never failed in uplifting you. Remembering what 1 Peter 3:18 says: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” Everyone is going to have to survive financial problems.
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
The times we live in today everyone will have to face some kind of financial problem and have to survive it. Embrace the challenge and know you will never be alone in the crisis. It will require tightening your belt, changing the way you are living now. Learning new skills, like cooking. You will have to find ways of cutting the extra’s that you do not need. You need a good plan and a good relationship with Jesus Christ to endure what is ahead of all of us in these times.
Cite Article Source
MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “How to Survive Financial Problems Today:.” Becker Bible Studies Library Feb 2015.< https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2242,>.
APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015, February) “How to Survive Financial Problems Today:.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2242,.
Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015) “How to Survive Financial Problems Today:.” Becker Bible Studies Library (February), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2242, (accessed).
