Most of us have lost your job because of COVID-19 and although our government is doing their best to support its citizens financially, the amount we are getting from Employment Insurance is definitely not enough. In this article, I will show you How to Live Comfortably While on E.I.
COVID 19 changed how we live our lives. Unfortunately, many have been infected or have lost someone. For most of us who’ve been blessed to be healthy amid the pandemic, celebrating might be too early for a financial crisis that might be on its way.
Some of us might be experiencing it already, while others are just a few days away from it.
Hopefully, this article will help you mitigate the negative financial impact of COVID-19 and help you live comfortably while on E.I.
Overview: How to Live Comfortably While on E.I.
- Stop Spending Until You Figure out Your New Budget
- Itemize All of Your Expenses and Find its Total
- Subtract Expenses from Income
- Categorize your Expenses into Essential and Non-Essential
- Figure out Which of the Non-Essential Expenses Can Be Removed, Reduced or Replaced
Bonus: Find Online Side-Hustle to Boost Your Income
Affiliate Disclosure – I am an Affiliate of many products promoted on this website and may earn a commission if you purchase something.
How to Live Comfortably While on E.I
Before I get into details, let me share to you some good news first.
Yes, your income is greatly impacted and reduced.
Yes, employment insurance is most likely not enough.
But, you need to also acknowledge that your spending is also greatly reduced and that is a piece of good news!
Remember, although your income is greatly reduced, you can’t deny that you will be able to save money because of the following:
- You will fee up your eating-out, movie dates, date, etc. expense
- You don’t need to spend on out-of-town vacations for a while
- No need to spend on baptisms, weddings, birthdays since most of them are canceled.
Alright, so hopefully this good news encouraged you. Now let me show you how to live comfortably while on E.I.
1. Stop Spending Until You Figure out Your New Budget
The first step on our “Living Comfortably While on E.I.” is to stop spending until you have a grasp of your new budget.
Why?
The reason is plain and simple.
You are now receiving less than you used to get, therefore you should not spend more than you should.
If you are in Canada, you will most likely be going to get about CA$2k per month. While our American neighbors will receive approximately US$1200 a month. Though it seems these packages are plenty, the reality is it is significantly below everyone’s regular income.
That said, if you lost your job or temporarily got laid off, then immediate changes must be done to your spending habits. So, if you have not to figure out your new budget, then you must resist spending.
Like what I’ve said earlier, the good news is most of your non-essential expenses are already taken care of mandatory lockdown. Now, you just need to make sure you still have enough to pay for your essential expenses.
2. Itemize All of Your Expenses and Find its Total
The next step is a pretty straight forward step.
Here’s how to itemize all of your expenses:
- Grab a paper or open up a spreadsheet program and create two columns.
- Title the first column “Expenses” and the column next to it “Expenses”.
- Retrieve your credit card and bank statement.
- List down all the things you spend on in the first column then write down the total amount per month you spend on these things on the next column.
- Finally, find your total expenses by finding the sum of the “Expense” column
Note: To make this step more accurate, consider doing this step the month of January, February and March.
3. Subtract Expenses from Income
The 3rd step of How to Live Comfortably While on an E.I. is figuring out how deep you are in the red or, prayerfully, how well your financial situation is.
You can determine this by subtracting your expenses from income to see how much money is left, or how short you are for the month.
This is an important step because it will give you a concrete idea of how much of your regular spending must be stopped to survive this financial crisis.
4. Categorize your Expenses into Essential and Non-Essential
If you find out that you are in the red, then your first priority is to eliminate as many expenses as you can.
To do this, the most practical way is to look at your expense list and identify which ones are essential expenses and which ones are the non-essentials.
Examples of essential expenses are mortgages/rent, loan repayments, electricity, etc. while non-essential expenses include take-outs, premium home/internet/phone packages, subscriptions such as streaming services, gym membership, etc.
Remember! At this time of COVID-19 pandemic, most non-essential services are already canceled, so make sure if companies indeed stopped billing you.
Optional Step: Repeat Step 3 on Essential Expense
You can do this step to figure out if you have money left after paying all of your essential bills.
I really do hope that you will have money left after subtracting essential expenses from Income.
If you do, then that is money that you can use to spoil yourself and your family.
If not, hopefully, you have an emergency fund that you can tap on occasions like this. Another option is to find an alternative source of income.
5. Figure out Which of the Non-Essential Expenses Can Be Removed, Reduced or Replaced
The last step that will allow you to live comfortably on E.I. is to go back to your Non-Essential Expenses and further categorize it into “Remove”, “Reduced”, or “Replace”.
This step is actually for those who have money left after subtracting their essential expenses from income or for those who have an emergency fund that can be tapped during this time of financial emergency. If you don’t, please cancel all of your non-essential expenses now.
Okay, so what do I mean by remove, reduced, and replace.
Remove
Basically, what I want you to do is to go over your non-essential expenses and see which of it can be removed or in simple terms, just don’t spend on it.
Maybe you have 3 streaming services. Just choose one and cancel the rest.
Maybe you are paying a monthly subscription fee to receive a package of new clothes, makeup, etc. Cancel it.
Maybe you are paying for PS Now or Xbox Game Pass. Cancel it.
Stop buying coffee or fast-food.
I hope you got the point. If you think you can live without these expenses then remove it from your expenses.
Reduce
Reduce means consuming a product or service less so you don’t have to pay full price.
Maybe instead of buying 3 coffee a day, you just buy once.
Maybe instead of paying for a subscription, opt into a la carte instead.
Or you could buy less food, so after a few weeks of quarantine, your friends will be amazed at how to fit you become.
Instead of having the top-tier phone plan, home internet, and landline, why not subscribe to a mid-tier plan?
The point is, just consume less so you spend less.
Replaced
This one is probably the easiest of the three.
Instead of removing something from your expenses or reducing its consumption, why not replace it with a cheaper brand.
Basically, look at the brands you are using and research whether there is a cheaper yet comparable quality brand then temporarily use that brand.
Be creative about this one.
Your main goal is to receive the same quality of service but pay less.
Summary: How to Live Comfortably While on E.I
- Stop Spending Until You Figure out Your New Budget
- Itemize All of Your Expenses and Find its Total
- Subtract Expenses from Income
- Categorize your Expenses into Essential and Non-Essential
- Figure out Which of the Non-Essential Expenses Can Be Removed, Reduced or Replaced
So do you agree with the 5 steps to help you live comfortably while on E.I.? Do you think you can do it?
What do you think is the hardest or most problematic step?
Do you have alternative tips or solutions?
Let us know in the comment section below!
Bonus: Find Online Side-Hustle to Boost Your Income
If we are just gonna be honest with each other, we know that this pandemic problem will last weeks.
Now let me ask you this.
Are you really okay to hope for the best and rely on the employment insurance your government gives or will you take action today and figure out how to create an additional or alternative source of income?
You know what, I really think you should at least try and create an online business while you still have the time and opportunity. It is not very often that you get to stay home and get supported by the government.
I know a lot of people use this opportunity to binge-watch their show, complain that they have nothing to do, or play video games all day long.
There was a time when I ask myself why there is only 1%. Now I know that is because only a few will choose to work their bum bum off especially when they have the freedom not to do so.
Now, will you be the 1% or are you gonna join the 99%
If you want to change your financial life then I want you to start researching how to make money online! Trust me, there are lots out there, but be careful since there are lots of scams out there.
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