Are your expenses fixed or variable?  Fixed costs are constant and persistent-- like your monthly mortgage.  Variable costs are ones that can be cut temporarily or permanently-- like your morning Starbucks Latte.

A former colleague replaced a paid up car that didn't get the best gas mileage with a costly, brand new hybrid that gets great gas mileage.  Trouble is he came to realize that he traded a high variable cost-- the gas, with a high fixed cost-- the car payment.

He could easily cut the variable costs on the old car, but now he is stuck with a fixed cost that wouldn't go away.

Moral of the story:  Keep your fixed expenses low and your variable costs reasonable and capable of being cut if you get into a cash crunch.

What do your expenses look like?