If the days before your pay arrives are a constant source of agony for you then you are probably used to writing your shopping lists carefully and avoiding doing anything which costs money.
Making a small amount of money stretch out over a week or more is an art form and you have possibly found a way to do it which suits you. However, wouldn't it be better to use cash advances now and then to be able to buy everything you need or want? If you don’t think so then here are some decisions to be made in tough financial times.
Toilet Paper or Do it at Work
The disadvantages to not buying toilet paper are fairly clear and going into them in great detail isn't really necessary I don’t think. However, if your wages haven’t arrived and cash is in extremely short supply will you walk past this aisle and simply hope for the best until you get paid? Saving up your toilet visits for when you are at work could be a solution, although you could find that your boss notices a drop in your productivity due to this.
Old Food or Weird Mixtures
It is a little easier to scrimp on our food but the results can still be quite unpleasant. If you end up looking for food which is about to go out of date then you might find a bargain but you also run the risk of letting it pass the date without noticing. Another possible idea is to buy the cheapest things in the supermarket and then try to fabricate a meal out of them. This sometimes works out well but at other times you could find yourself staring at a cupboard containing nothing more than salt, pasta and some form of unidentified tinned meat come meal time. It is a lot healthier and far more interesting to look into cash advances and buy something which you really want. Besides you then may need the toilet paper too if all does not go well.
Walk to Work or Phone in Sick
A few years ago I worked in an office which was about an hour’s walk from my house. In the weeks in which my funds were embarrassingly low I had to walk the whole way there and back because I couldn't afford the bus fare. This was fine some days but when it was raining or really cold I would be in a bad mood all day because of this. I tried getting on and paying a kid’s fare a couple of times but I think my suit and mustache kind of gave the game away. Of course, when it came to winter time I always ended up with a horrible cold from having to spend so much time out in the elements. This wasn't helped by the lovely people who would drive close to the kerb in their cars in order to deliberately splash me with water from the puddles. Because of this I often arrived at work looking like a creature which just crawled from a swamp and feeling like a fool. Still, it made it easier to phone in sick.
A Night Out or the Bill Again
Why is it that birthday bashes and other exciting sounding events always happen so close to pay day? I have lost count of the number of times I have had to make up excuses because I simply can’t afford to go out in the days running up to pay day. In the days before Internet cash advances there was no real alternative to staying in and watching repeats of The Bill again but these days it is possible to borrow some money and go out and enjoy yourself. The most frustrating aspect of work nights out I don’t go to is that they always sound like they were the best hours which the people who went have spent in their whole lives. They will spend weeks sitting sifting through wacky photos and telling hilarious tales about how Joe ate 5 kebabs on the way home or how Christine danced like John Travolta all night long. Yet the nights out I go out are always really tame affairs which involve relatively few kebabs and virtually no Saturday Night Fever at all. It seems as though it pays to be able to choose which events to go to rather than simply miss the ones you can’t afford.
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