Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
How not to be poor after a No-Deal Brexit
Jasmine Birtles
12th Aug 2019
There are dire warnings about a No-Deal Brexit. Even ardent Brexiters admit that there will be hardships of some sort if we crash out of the EU. But no one really knows what will happen. All we can be certain of is that it will be tough – partly because of the uncertainty.
- Get out of debt
- Use and re-use what you have
- Cut the fat
- Don’t touch your savings
- Share with friends and neighbours
- Make extra cash where possible
- Create a vegetable patch
Get out of debt
‘Ha!” you might say…”easier said than done!”
True, but it’s essential. We need to make ourselves less vulnerable to financial shocks and, believe me, a No-Deal Brexit will be a big financial shock.
Do what you can to pay off debts. If you’re in the happy position of not having loans and credit cards outstanding then work at paying off your mortgage before anything else.
Now is the time to examine your bank statements, bills and more. See if you can switch your debts to a 0% credit card or get a low lifetime loan to cover it all. Whatever you can do to reduce the cost of your debt or – better – to reduce your debt overall will help.
Use and re-use what you have
We are a horribly throwaway society now and we are wasting our national resources as well as our personal ones.
Let’s reverse that habit now (because we may soon have to) and copy our parents and grandparents in their frugality.
Look at our article about great ways to use up leftover food; re-use paper where possible; look at our article about upcycling to re-use furniture, pots, jars, tins and more. Recycling and upcycling means you don’t have to waste money on new stuff and you hep the planet at the same time!
Cut the fat
In other words, cut down on unnecessary spending.
Yes, we’re like cracked records! We (and others) keep saying this, but it’s getting even more essential to cut down on unnecessary spending.
- Cut the gym membership if you don’t use it every week – go walking and cycling instead
- Cut the cleaner if you can manage it and get some exercise cleaning your own home instead
- Cut the extra holiday each year, or get into house-swapping (ideally with people in the UK so that you don’t have to pay much for travel). See how to do house-swapping here
- Cut down on takeaways and pre-prepared food – it’s healthier to cook from raw anyway.
Don’t touch your savings
We all need a savings safety net (as you can see here) but it’s even more important when the financial situation in the country is very uncertain.
If at all possible, don’t dip into your savings. If you can, build up your savings, as the more of a cushion you and your family have, the more secure you will be.
Share with friends and neighbours
This is really important.
When the going gets tough, the tough go out and share.
Really, it’s often the only way we can manage in difficult times. If we share food, share childcare, share tools, share transport then we can all benefit. If we keep to ourselves, though, we all end up poorer.
Make extra cash where possible
This is really important as there’s only so much you can save when prices of day-to-day products and services go up.
As you know, we have LOADS of ideas for making money on the side. Check out our Make Money section here for a host of ideas.
As a rule of thumb, though, the way to think about making money on the side is this:
- What have you already got? For example, do you have space that you could rent out? Could you make space by moving out of a bedroom, sleeping in the lounge and letting out the room? Seriously, when times are tight it’s important to do what you can. Do you have a garage or driveway you could rent out? Could you rent out the whole place on Airbnb to tourists or rent out a room occasionally to foreign students? Look around at what you have there.
- What have you got that you can sell? This is a great way to pull in some quick cash. Follow our Clear Your Clutter Campaign to see how to de-clutter and make money from your junk. Do car boot sales to sell your stuff quickly for cash; put more valuable items on eBay, Gumtree, Amazon etc. Keep going through your shelves, cupboards and drawers to see what more you could make money out of.
- What can you offer to make money? Are you a great baker? Make more to sell at car boot sales or even at the school gates.
Create a vegetable patch
Seriously, I’m not kidding.
When you have the former heads of major supermarket chains such as Sainsbury’s saying that a No-Deal Brexit would mean that we would not have much food on the shelves, we have to take notice.
Watch from 12 minutes on to see former Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Justin King warn about food shortages
If you have a garden – or even if you just have a patio or balcony – use some or all of it to grow vegetables. We have some articles on how to save money and get better food by growing your own vegetables and fruit. Planting fruit trees is a great way to get free food, although it can take a couple of years for the fruit finally to grow.
If you have the space it’s also worth keeping chickens. We have an article here about keeping chickens. Make money by selling the eggs you don’t use yourself.
These tips could be used all round, regardless of where we stand in Europe
What on earth has this got to do with Brexit? Great tips regardless. Project fear indeed.
Just ignore the project fear scaremongerers.