Doesn’t it suck when it seems like all of the debt strategies out there assume you HAVE money to fix the problem? Like, you’re just not organized enough to figure out how to make it work? Even I posted a blog last week about debt payoff where I claimed to have a solution that worked for ‘any’ debt.

If you read that you were probably thinking ‘well, that’s not for me. I’m barely keeping my head above water. Today, we’re going to face that head on. I’m going to teach you HOW you actually work on paying off your debt even if you’re working with a low income.

*If you haven’t watched the post I uploaded last week, it’s here: https://www.readysetlifecoach.com/blog/how-to-pay-off-debt-quickly That’s the post that’s going to tell you the formula I’m basing all of this information on.

Where we’re really going to be looking today, is the second step. This step is called “Making A Plan”.

If you remember, this is the step where we’re going to take a look at our expenses, and match it with our income. But if you have a low income, often times this doesn’t align no matter how we play around with it. It can be pretty frustrating.

There are a few extra tips that I like to give people when they’re in a low income situation:

Get a Higher Income

The first, is get a higher income. And before you stop reading I want you to know that I UNDERSTAND.

This is 1000% Much easier said than done, obviously because otherwise you would have just been making that money in the first place! However, the fact is, in this situation, there’s not really another option.

If you really can’t squeeze anything else out of your expenses, the only other option is to increase your income.

Looking at your Job / Career:

Take a look at your job. Are you in a position to ask for a raise? Could you get a promotion? Could you pick up more hours or overtime shifts? Especially if you’re working on debt payoff, these little changes can make a huge difference.

The term ‘Low Income’ is different for everyone, but just for an example, let’s take a look at Minimum wage.

This can vary from place to place, but it generally ranges from $7-14 an hour in Canada or the US.

Let’s take $10 as an average. If you were making $10 an hour, and you picked up just one extra 8 hour shift a week, that’s an extra $320 a month.

(I mean, there’s obviously taxes and such on top of that, but you can see how much of a HUGE difference that could make!)

Selling Items:

Another way to increase your income is to sell things. No, it’s not a sustainable solution, but ANYTHING helps in these situations.

Take a look at all of your items, don’t worry about if YOU think they have value or not, just do some decluttering. Is there anything you’re no longer using, or anything you haven’t used in a while?

Even if there’s something lying around that you bought because you THOUGHT you were going to use it but never did, anything like this, put in a big pile. Go through, and figure out what things you could get some extra cash by selling.

My advice is to post everything because you never know what people are looking for! Facebook Marketplace is great, or Kijiji, take lots of pictures of the item, and research if there are other items like it so you can get a good price range.

There are also creative ways that you can go about this. Even if you don’t think you would get money for a certain thing, there are lots of trading communities out there like the BUNZ trading zone on facebook where you can exchange items.

So, if you had like a crapton of old shopping bags (like, literally plastic shopping bags) post them on there and say you’re looking for just normal stuff like toilet paper or dish soap, and maybe some crafter out there is looking for a crapton of plastic bags and is totally willing to buy you some dish soap in exchange for them!

Then you cut your household items bill in half, and basically gave away your garbage for it! (I mention this, because this is the types of things I’ve seen traded. Seriously you can trade anything away!)

Starting a Side Hustle:

Another tip I like to give out is to pick up side hustles. And, I’m not talking about starting a whole business on the side, I mean, if you want to do that, then by all means please do, but I feel like when people talk about side hustles that’s always what the first thought is and that can be really overwhelming!

That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about your neighbour paying you to walk their dog. Or shoveling driveways.

Any type of small task that you can think of to just pick up something extra.

Pick something you’re really good at and try and think how you could monetize that.

And again, it really doesn’t have to be anything large or complicated.

If you are a really great reader, maybe you can reach out to a busy entrepreneur to read all of their email and manage a crazy inbox for them, or there are children in the neighbourhood you could read a chapter book to, be creative with your skills!

Get a new Job:

This one, is the one I’m going to mention last, because it’s kind of the scariest.

Especially if you’re on a low income, it can be reeeally daunting to leave the comfort of the only thing that’s keeping you afloat. But, I’m just going to challenge you to look.

You don’t have to take any action if you don’t want to, but just see what’s out there. A lot of times we get so busy with life and we’re so stressed with our money that we get attached to these jobs that aren’t serving us anymore.

Maybe your skills have developed further than they were when you got your job, and now you COULD apply for a higher paying one. Or, maybe there are things that are coming up now that weren’t actually available when you were job searching.

Just, start looking at what’s available in whatever field you work in. Even if it’s just a fast food job, maybe there’s no growth for you at the job you’re in now, but there’s a higher position that comes up for a different chain somewhere else.

Just keep an eye out for those types of things, and I bet once you see one, and start dreaming how your life could change, you’ll get the courage to apply. The worst they can say is no!

Alright that is all I have for today! Hopefully these tips have helped you out in some way! If you liked this post, leave a comment down below! What’s the weirdest thing that you’ve ever seen for sale? I’d love to know!