Life presents many challenges, some of which are within your control and others are not. One of these out-of-your-control events in life may be that an employer owes you money and you are waiting to collect it. During this period of time, if you don’t have savings to fall back on, it might put you in a difficult spot of trying to figure out how you are going to meet your monthly expenses. The good news is that there are ways to acquire money to carry you over until you receive the owed funds.

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Borrow from Family or Friends

If you are short on cash for a month or so and have the money owed to you, you can contact a family member or a friend and ask to borrow the money. Since it will only be for a short period of time this may be an excellent way to go. By borrowing the money this way you should avoid any additional fees that you would incur with taking out a loan, helping to make the repayment easy. It really all depends on the amount you need. If it’s a thousand or so and a family member has it, it should be something you can do. However, if the amount you need to borrow to make all your bills, buy food and cover other living expenses then you may need to find another way to come up with the money.

Take Out a Personal Loan

While you may not want to add any more debt to your monthly bills, applying for a personal loan can get you the money you need rather quickly. There are criteria that you need to meet in order to get an approval from a bank. But, if you own a home and your credit is in good standing, taking out a personal loan will get you through this rough time and also keep your financial crisis private. Also, if the money is due to come your way within a month or two, you can pay the loan back faster and avoid adding more debt to your monthly budget.

Online loans

If you have a few late payments reported to the credit bureaus, chances are that your credit score is less than desirable to a traditional lender. Luckily, there are other types of loans that you can acquire. Online lenders generally don’t require that you have excellent credit. For many of them, you simply need a steady job, a checking account and a social security number. The amount that you can borrow won’t be as much as with a personal loan from a bank, but it will give you enough to hold you over until you receive the back monies. These companies also offer affordable monthly payments, so that even if you have a delay in receiving the money owed, you’ll be able to make the payment on time.

Holding a Garage Sale

If you’d prefer not to borrow money, there is still another way to get some cash to hold you over until you get paid. If you’ve lived in your residence for several years you probably have a lot of things stored away in your basement, garage, and attic. Now is a great time to get organized and go through all of these places to see what you have that you either don’t want or need. Once you have a list of your unwanted items contact your local newspaper and host a garage sale. Household items, clothing, furniture, and tools are items that people usually want. If you plan it for a weekend that’s sunny, you can attract more volume. You can stand to make a few hundred dollars and even more if you have large pieces of furniture in good condition.

Cut back and Learn to Live Frugally

Nobody anticipates a life altering situation headed in their direction. In order to avoid having this happen again in the future, it’s important to learn to live frugally. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy an occasional dinner out or treat yourself to something fancy once in a while. It simply means that you need to plan for the unexpected and not spend every extra penny you make. When you shop for anything, look for the best prices, this includes food, clothing, and furniture.