Sinking Into a Recession, What Can You Do

The news gets more and more depressing each day, it started off with the US Housing sub-prime slump issue and the aftermath effect is still waining. What can we as regular people do to soften the blow and impacts of this huge mess? Here are a few ways which I can think of and hope it helps in any ways if this slump is affecting your life now. Also, please don’t think of investing should you are not in a good comfortable financial situation.

When you’re not in a good position, it’s not investing, but gambling.

photo credit: falkernburg2034. Look! There’s Bernanke!

Sign Up for Affiliate Programs and Start Working on a List

It might be weird to ask you to do that, but I find it exceptionally helpful although it’s not much. Some generous advertisers can pay you up to $25 - 35 per sale or per sign up, or even $1 to $2 per lead introduced to them for completing simple surveys.

Working on a list doesn’t simply means spamming, if you have friends or relatives and find any of the affiliate programs that offer freebies which might be beneficial to them, it’s a good place to start. A little of something is better than nothing.

neverblueAds is a good place to start.

You can look at NeverblueAds, AzoogleAds, Chitika for a start.

Try Writing and Place Some Ads

Who knows you might be a person who has interesting things to share. You can sign up for Google Adsense, Bidvertiser and/ or even Kontera for text/image ads. Depending on the articles you write and the niche that you have, advertisers can pay a measly $0.02 to clicks as high as $5.00 (which is rarely seen these days though) per click. All these money adds up to a hundred or two a month if you have a decent small traffic for Google Adsense.

It’s not hard to even start a blog or a website even, try it. You’ll get addicted I’m sure, and that will cast your worries aside for the moment to stay positive. And if you need help in starting, mail me

Try Google Adsense (leader of the pack), Bidvertiser, Kontera.

Buying Essential Items in Bulks at Hypermarts

Every cent counts, and everyone knows. If there are things that you can survive with, these are the things that you can’t possibly survive without. Try buying your provisions such as rice, pastas, essential items, canned foods especially in bulks where generally most hypermarts like Walmart, Carrefour offer discounts.

Do take note on the expiry dates of the items that you buy though.

Sharing is a Virtue

Some of the things mentioned here might sound unorthodox but I’ll suggest anyway. If you can share your local newspapers, your magazines, or even any of those monthly items that requires subscription, you’re saving a little already.

If you do not require much of internet service, which could be a chore to pay on a monthly basis, try working something out with a couple of neighbors to split the cost. Broad band connections are fast nowadays.

Not a heavy user who downloads of softwares and videos? Having an access point with a router and sharing your internet connection with the neighbors (who of course already agreed to split with you) by having simple login/password access could be done locally on your own. The speed is still decent for surfing depending on the wifi broadcast strength of your router and the wifi receivers which are relatively cheap nowadays.

Recycling

I have this habit, doing a bit of for the environment and saving new paper which you’ll use for your work (the trees and your money). My bills which tend to be blanks behind the numbers, documents which are useless from work (I’m sorry, but there are tonnes of those), and any possible printed paper which are no longer useful and are clean behind can be split into 4 parts and tied up with a rubber band for writing notes.

Apply your creativity on recycling, you can save up used boxes to store things rather than buying new ones from IKEA, plastic containers from food you buy outside could be washed up and reused to store grains instead of buying new tupperwares.

Play with your creativity.

Doing Your Own Maintenance

photo credit: RayDS. Yes,maintenance, something like that.

There are many items which could be maintained on your own at home. Do that before you’ll have to pay for repair fee when an item breaks down. Some things that can be maintained on your own include air con servicing, like washing the filters, simple cleaning up of even your computer even on data and installation of free anti virus programs, and makes sure that your computer gets shut down properly to ensure the longer life of your computer.

Plumbing can be done on your own too if you have the strength, the exact fitting and the correct wrenches. If you have a car, the regular car maintenance like dripping your oil and changing filters must be done to ensure a healthy lifespan before it succumbs to an engine failure.

Many online videos can be found on MetaCafe or Youtube on tips that you can use. There’s even a video on how to fix car dents with a simple hair dryer and Carbon dioxide spray. Try googling any sort of maintenance to see if there’s any guides written or videos that you can use before engaging a contractor to do it for you.

Reading Financial Blogs

Read some of the good ones in this niche. Here are some of the ones that I have added in my RSS reader and they do have quality tips almost ALL the time to teach you how to save and make some money. Some are inspiring enough for you to restructure your whole finance situation on identifying your own needs and wants. Here are the nominees:

- Clever Dude
- Fortune Watch
- Free Money Finance
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money Smart Life
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- Personal Finance Blog by MoneyNing

Simple to follow, interesting reads.

So it’s some ways to make a little money for groceries, save some for rainy days and advices from experts in this field. Hope this could be helpful to you.

Share This