Let's face it. A lot of us have experienced this “can't pay bills” situation. It's no fun at all. Believe it or not, you can learn how to pay bills and set yourself for good.
The reality is:
Whether you live in an apartment or you own your house, you will always have to pay the bills. That's the fact of life.
From utility bills to your Netflix subscription, you will have to pay for such services each and every month.
In the event that you face with these unforeseen situations and you don't have enough money, chances are you may not be able to pay all your bills on time.
When that happens, what are you going to do?
The answers will shock you. Why?
Because they're not that hard to do.
3 Steps To Follow When You Can’t Pay Bills (a.k.a. How To Pay Bills)
Believe it or not, there are simple and actionable things you can do to better or even get out of that bad situation. Read on to find out?
In this post, you'll learn the three phases of how to pay your bills when you simply can't pay them:
- Stage One: Target The Essentials
- Stage Two: Prepare Yourself To Tackle The Bills
- Stage Three: Look Out For These Opportunities
If you're ready to learn how to start paying your bills when money is tight, read on!
1. Prioritize all of your bills
Before you do anything, you have to protect what's important. I'm talking about things like house, utilities, and even transportation to help you get from point A to point B (e.g., work).
Now, you might have a lot of bills that you need to pay in a given month, but there is only a handful of them that you truly need to survive.
Create a list of every subscription and every service that bills you on a monthly basis.
Put all of them on paper so that you will know what you’re paying for.
Prioritize only the essentials – the bills that you really need to pay in order to get by.
If you’re really tight on the money, maybe it is time to ditch those secondary bills like your Netflix or Hulu subscriptions, at least, for now.
Learning how to pay bills when money is tight is a skill, but there are basic foundations to make it easy for you to learn that.
Priority One Bills: Essentials
These are bills you can't live without. Period.
- Food. Bills happen, and when money is tight and bills keep knocking, you still need to feed yourself and your family. That's a must.
- Housing. Your shelter is always essential. A roof over your head is a must. Period.
- Utilities. Can't pay bills but looking for those essentials that must be paid first? That's utilities. You can have food and housing, but without utilities, you and your family will have a hard time on just anything you do. That said, all these three essentials go hand in hand.
Priority Two: Others
Pay attention to these bills, or you'll find yourself in big trouble. I'm not kidding. These bills are still as important as the essential ones, and you don't want to neglect them.
- Taxes. Aside from the essentials, you need to pay attention to taxes because if you don't, your wages, properties, and other investments could be subjected to a levy.
- Car payment. How can you get to point A to point B without your car or if it gets repossessed? Sure, you could use a bike or some other transportation.
- Credit cards. Keep up with the minimums if you can.
- Student loans. Not paying these bills means more interest payments and penalties.
- Child support. Any government-mandated bills should be dealt with the highest importance or you could land into some big problems regardless if you can pay your bills or not.
- Insurance. Never let your insurances for the big-ticketed items lapse. Whether it is for your car or house, always make sure these bills are paid.
2. Be prepared to get these ways into action when you need help paying your bills.
So, now you know what bills are most important and which aren't now. The next question is, what can you do to get these bills paid when you don't have a lot of money, to begin with.
In this section, you'll learn the following:
- Take control of your debt
- Earn money with a little bit of ease
- Negotiate your bills (automatically)
- Budget, budget, and budget
- Cut down, where appropriate
- Live frugally
- Get ready for new spending plan habits
If you're ready, then, read on! When you can't pay bills, these are the things you need to do.
Take control of your credit card debt.
There are the interest, penalty, annual fees, and others that come with credit card debt. #mountainofdebt
If you want to get ahead of your financial problems, you need to take control of and tackle your debt situation head-on.
Talk to your creditors and explain your situation and get on a payment plan. They will work with you if you work with them. No creditors want their customers to file bankruptcy because they won't get a dime. They rather work with you and get little at a time than none at all.
You could also turn to low-interest debt consolidator companies like Tally. These companies will lend you money for a very low interest. This way, you can consolidate your debt, and pay less interest.
Tally is the world's first automated debt manager that helps you save money, manages your cards, and pays down balances faster.
It analyzes your credit cards and credit history (without affecting your credit score) to ensure Tally is right for you. You'll get a Tally line of credit to be used to pay off your cards with high APR balances – potentially saving you thousands.
It'll do the hard work for you by minimizing interest costs and fees by making the right pay to the right card at the right time. Tally sounds simple to use because it is.
Click here to start using Tally for FREE.
Strive to earn an extra buck
Since you’re in a tight financial situation, maybe it is time for you to earn some extra cash. There are plenty of ways you can do this.
Take an inventory of the things that you have. There might be some things that you do not use anymore that you can sell.
Furthermore, you can take on an additional job or some odd jobs. Freelancing has become a nice way to earn extra money on the side while you’re working on your main job.
If you can't work outside, you can answer work at home and earn good money. Here are a couple of ways to make money online:
- Sell your services. If you have experience or skills in something, you can sell your products and services like Fiverr.
- Sell your belongings online. Whether it's on Amazon, Craigslist, and/or Ebay, you can sell your unwanted belongings for profit. Better yet, you can do retail arbitrage to earn extra cash. Read the story of someone who makes millions from doing just that.
- Take online surveys. When you have time to spare, take some online surveys for cash. It's not going to make rich, but it can help pay bills. Some of my favorites are Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, and Survey Club.
- Blog online. If you're looking for long-term solutions, a good one to consider is creating a blog and monetizing it. For example, I started blogging a few years ago and was not making anything at all. Now, I make over $30K per month doing this blogging gig for just 5-10 hours/month. Not bad at all. The best part, you can start with one for just $2.95/mo. There's a little to lose but a lot to gain if you ask me.
With these gigs, you can't say you can't pay bills because you have other options to make money on the side.
Negotiate your bills
One of the best ways to pay your bills is to negotiate them.
Believe it or not:
Companies are willing to negotiate to get their money. While it's preferable to do it personally, there are other ways to negotiate your bills without you having to talk to them.
On good option is to use bill negotiate apps like Charlie, Trim, and Cushion.
These apps will help you deal with your bills automatically. They will help you cut your monthly bills and save you money so you can pay other bills.
Time to budget
If the reason why you do not have money to pay your bills is that of your lack of budgeting skills, then, you might need to learn it.
Budgeting is easy and that it addresses a critical issue – knowing where your money is headed. You see, time and time again, we spend money on things that we might not need in the first place.
When you budget, make sure to include all of your essentials like monthly bills, food, and something extra for your emergency fund.
Of course, a budget should also be a bit flexible so that you can include some leisurely expenses as well – just make sure it doesn’t take up a huge chunk of your monthly income.
Click here to learn how to create a comprehensive (but a simple one) like a pro.
Do not live beyond your means
I get it, some people just want to live their lives as lavishly as they could.
Although there isn’t anything wrong with the idea, it only becomes wrong when you cannot pay for it and that you cannot sustain the lifestyle.
If your lifestyle involves so much cash that you run out before the month is over, I suggest you start going back to the basics and meet your needs and not the wants.
Be thrifty
Being thrifty and saving some cash can truly change how you use money.
When you’re so accustomed to spending money without any limit, you’re psychologically priming yourself to lose money as fast as you earn it.
Saving some money and delaying gratification teach you the fact that money is precious and that you should only spend it on things that you actually need.
Develop better spending habits
And lastly, develop better spending habits. I’ve outlined and said it a couple of times in this article, but it couldn’t be stated enough.
Learning to be thrifty, saving more money, and even earning some more in the process help become a money manager of yourself. Therefore, you’re going to be more responsible in the future.
Look Out For These Opportunities
It's stressful when you need help paying bills. Let these opportunities help with that burden. You don't need to run away from your creditors in the hopes that they will stop bothering you.
The important part is that you rise to your situation and take action. This is how to pay bills for good.
Talk and negotiate
If you took a cash advance or other type of loans before and there’s an instance that you’re unable to pay them at this time, it is best that you let your creditors know.
Money is essential as it is a tool for trade and creditors know that people can have a huge financial burden from time to time.
Let them know exactly the situation you’re in at the moment and promise them that you will pay in time.
The sooner you tell them your situation, the sooner they'd be able to find a solution or arrangement that can benefit you tremendously.
Time to Educate Yourself
When you do not know how to handle some cash, you will always find yourself in need of some more even if you do not have the means to pay.
Financial literacy is often an overlooked subject, but it is something that should be taught to everyone.
If you constantly find yourself losing money more than you earn, then you might need to take some financial literacy courses.
Being able to manage your finances and making the most out of it is a skill and it takes practice. The more you learn about it, the better you'd become at handling your finances. Period.
Final Thoughts When You Need Money To Pay Bill Now:
We all have bills that we need to pay for in any given month. Can't pay bills?
In the event that you are unable to pay them because of sudden emergencies, do not worry, there are plenty of options you can do to help you get by.
The lists above could and would make a big difference in how you solve your bill problems.
