Let’s paint a quick picture. Money is tight because it’s after the holidays, and you’ve just paid your property taxes. You had less resources than you would have liked to have available, so you ended up tapping into your savings account.

Your thought process was that you could easily put the money back into the savings account over time, and taking the money out of what’s supposed to be a rainy day fund was still a legitimate need, so it was completely justified.

What you didn’t expect was that your vehicle needed a $1,500.00 repair, and you’ve all but wiped out your rainy day fund. The only thing that you can think to do in order to get your vehicle back on the road again is to find some room on a credit card, so you begrudgingly use the card to pay for this expensive repair.

Not only have you pretty much eliminated your rainy day fund, but now you’ve also increased your debt liability by another $1,500.00 when you’ve worked so hard to pay that down. It’s a setback for sure, and not one that you’re proud to admit.

Does this sound familiar? Have you experienced a similar scenario? I know I have. It’s not fun at all. You feel defeated, and this negative feeling seems to have a way of affecting other areas. If only you could hit the reset button and do things differently.

Since none of us have the ability to time travel, our closest option is to simply learn from our mistakes and do better next time. With that being said, I’m going to propose something that we should all set out to do, especially when times get tough.

For this exercise, we’re going to put on our thinking caps at the same time that we look at the problem from a different angle. Rather than asking yourself about the resources that you have available in the here and now to fight off a temporary money crunch, ask yourself if there are reinforcements that can be made available to you in the form of additional income to get yourself out of the current situation.

Use your imagination and see if you can figure out ways to earn your way out of the mess rather than borrowing your way out or robbing your own rainy day fund for something that you could resolve in a completely different manner.

In our example, we needed an unexpected vehicle repair after we’ve already drained our rainy day fund to make up for things that we simply didn’t prepare well for, and I’m referring to buying Christmas gifts and paying taxes. We all know that these things will be there every year, so we really should have been better prepared.

There’s no point in beating ourselves up, though. Instead, we learn from this and will be better prepared next time. However, we need to somehow make up for our actions and fix what has been temporarily broken.

The credit card was already used to repair the vehicle in this example, so now it’s time to put that vehicle to use and earn more cash.

While I haven’t done this personally, I understand that Uber Eats and similar delivery programs can help folks to earn anywhere from $10.00 to $20.00 per hour. Working 20 hours a week part time for less than a month, and you’ve paid back the $1,500.00 you had to pay using the credit card. After a couple of more months, you’ve likely restored your rainy day fund. If you decide to keep going, you’ve just found yourself a new method to help you to get out of debt that much faster.

See the difference between thinking in terms of only using the resources right in front of us versus thinking in terms of adding resources as reinforcements? It’s a huge difference, and thinking outside of the box will serve you well.

What do you do when times get tough? Do you pray as a last resort, or do you pray to seek God’s wisdom and discernment in everything? Prayer should be the first response rather than the last resort. Praise Jesus, and seek His will in your life in not only personal finance but in all things. God bless.