NEW DAY CLEVELAND SEGMENT: QUARANTINE BUDGET
- Whitaker Myers
- Sep 29, 2020
- 2 min read

I recently went on New Day Cleveland to share some Quarantine Budget Tips and I wanted to share them here as well.
This pandemic has impacted all of us in one way or another and as we know, money touches all areas of our lives, so here are a few tips that might help you when it comes to your life and money right now.
Emergency Fund – We all know that we should have an emergency fund but when things are going well, it doesn’t always seem urgent or important to save. Unfortunately, I think this pandemic made us all realize how quickly an emergency can happen. If you found yourself without an emergency fund during this time, give yourself grace – that has happened to all of us, but use this as motivation to start the habit of saving every month, even when things are going well…. Especially when things are going well. Emergencies happen and building in this habit of saving will allow you to have a cushion between you and life the next time something happens.
Continue and/or Start Meal Plan/Prep – Meal planning and prepping is a common money saving tip because it helps reduce the amount of money you spend going out to eat. I bring this up here because since many people are home more often it might seem less important to plan and prep dinner, but the reality is you are likely still working, doing virtual school, etc and dinner time can sneak up on you before you know it and if you don’t have plan, you might spend more grabbing take-out.
Use Amazon Smile to donate to your favorite charities when you shop! - This tip won’t help you save money but will help your dollar go further when you are shopping with Amazon. You can go to smile.amazon.com and select the charity you would like to support and then every time you make a purchase with Amazon, they will donate a portion to that charity. It doesn’t cost you anymore do to this either!
Use online cash-back and coupon programs such a Rakuten (Ebates) and Honey. - A lot of us are shopping online more often and a good way to save money is to use the cash back and coupon apps/programs. Rakuten (used to be Ebates) is a cash back program. The way to use it is by going to the Rakuten website or app first and then navigating to the website you want to shop with. If that website participates in the Rakuten program, you will earn a percentage back and that comes in the form of a check paid out quarterly by Rakuten. Honey is a program that searches for coupon codes when you go to checkout with a website. You can add it as an extension on your browser and then when you get to the checkout screen, Honey will search for active coupon codes for you to use.
Hopefully some of these tips help you with saving some money during this time!
If you have any questions or want to discuss your specific financial situation, please feel free to reach out to one of us. You can meet our team of advisors here.