Staying on top of your financial situation isn’t always easy – and many people before you have gone from healthy to poor finances faster than they’d like to admit. All it takes is a few unexpected expenses, really, a few days of reckless spending, or simply ignoring your bank account for a couple of weeks.

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Luckily, there are ways to keep your finances healthy as long as you’re able to follow these golden rules.

With them on your side, you’ll be able to cover those unexpected expenses without helping yourself to your food budget – and you can continue to save up for those holidays no matter what happens.

#1 Pay yourself first

It is probably the number one financial advice from the experts; pay yourself before you pay for anything else. This means that you need to have a plan, of course, and preferably one that allows you to increase your savings slightly over time.

How much you’d like to set aside is, of course, up to you but it’s a good idea to try to pay yourself as much as possible.

A part of this should go straight into your emergency fund account while the rest can go into your stock savings, regular savings account or that account you keep open to save up for fun stuff. It’s going to feel good, after all, when you can look forward a healthy sum of money in your savings account each month.

#2 Slice your food budget

Except for accommodation, we tend to spend most of our monthly salary on food. It makes sense, however, since we need food in order to survive – but you don’t have to spend so much money on it.

One of the golden rules to keeping as much of your income to yourself as possible is to slice your expenses in half if you’re able to. This is, however, only applicable if you already spend a lot on food and take away – so if you don’t, you certainly don’t have to slice it in half quite yet.

By learning to make affordable food delicious at home, you will save so much money since you’re avoiding those overpriced takeaway options. Make your favourites at home instead and have a look at this article to learn how to cook cheaper meals.

#3 Keep an emergency fund

When you have a full emergency fund, control over your debt, and a healthy food budget to stick to, you’ve almost climbed to the top of the mountain of financial independence. The emergency fund is, undoubtedly, the pinnacle of being secure financially and having what you need to cover your most unexpected expenses – so remember to refill it if you should happen to need it.

Another point to this is that you should try to have an overview of other ways to cover those expenses in case you haven’t got time to refill the emergency fund.

These snappy payday loans, for example, may be able to help you out in case your other options come with a higher interest and you should make sure that you’ve gone through all of them.

Financial independence means that you have everything you need to cover your own back, but it’s not necessarily going to be easy. You might have to live on a stricter food budget, for example, or even postpone that holiday – but it will all be worth it, in the end.

Continue to feed your savings account and try to live for a bit less if your expenses continue to build. That way, you’ll be able to have something to fall back on during those rainy days.