I Can't Pay My Bills

[Loony BoB]

The problem with handing out tips like this and "just budget your money" and so forth is that while they are sound for most people they are not sound for people who have been in situations where they suddenly find themselves sick/unemployed/disabled/etc. and are unable to budget because they are not making enough money to budget. I know because I have been there. I've had people telling me "just make a budget" when I'm coming up hundreds of dollars short every month just from paying necessary bills, and I've had people telling me "just get a job at Wal-Mart lolol" when I'm sending out dozens of applications to everywhere, Wal-Mart included, every day.

I'm not saying your guys' advice isn't sound. I'm just saying I've been in situations where none of this works.

I completely understand this kind of a situation, but to leave it alone and do nothing is just going to exaggerate the issue. Eventually, inevitably, something will need to change, and that is what budgeting and accounting are all about. If your outgoings are higher than your incomings, it is an impossible situation and will have to change sooner rather than later. Something will have to go. Even people who are on jobseeker's allowance can still survive (and it's been shown that many do so for a living), so even if it means moving in with a large group of people so you have a lower share of the rent, something has to change. This is just the way things are. Moving in with your parents, renting with your friends, cancelling your internet... something. Anything! Whatever makes things work.

I'm not saying this because I'm showing off and I'm not saying this because the person wants help and I'm not saying this because I've been there before nor am I saying this because I have it easy. I am saying this purely for one reason: I believe people need to solve these kind of problems. It is a neccessity for their sake to make things work, or their problems will get worse until they are homeless. Why would I not want to stop this happening to someone that I know?!

[Clo]

I agree with Pike. And this thread is getting a little serious.

[Loony BoB]

If your outgoings are more than your incomings, then it's a serious problem and deserves serious advice.

[Bubba]

You're right, Clo. How about a joke?

Why did the dwarf enjoy playing soccer?

Because the grass tickled his testicles.

[Clo]

If your outgoings are more than your incomings, then it's a serious problem and deserves serious advice.

Well, since some things are just not options, I guess I just have to deal. Also, I should probably clarify, I do pay my bills, just not on time, and sometimes I'm eating pasta for two weeks and staying in.

My life is still good, and I will probably get out of this slump once I get my trout together and the beginning of the school year is over.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy some light-hearted bitching on the Internet. It's not like I have a kid and I'm on food stamps.

And ha. I thought of Tyrion, Bubba.

[Christmas]

Final fantasy forum discussing real life money. Lol.

Edit: Continue please.

[Loony BoB]

If your outgoings are more than your incomings, then it's a serious problem and deserves serious advice.

Well, since some things are just not options, I guess I just have to deal. Also, I should probably clarify, I do pay my bills, just not on time, and sometimes I'm eating pasta for two weeks and staying in.

My life is still good, and I will probably get out of this slump once I get my trout together and the beginning of the school year is over.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy some light-hearted bitching on the Internet. It's not like I have a kid and I'm on food stamps.

And ha. I thought of Tyrion, Bubba.

Ranting on the internet about problems will always result in people suggesting solutions to problems. That's the internet for ya.

[Jiro]

Some good advice in this thread. I now know how PG is a rich canazn.

[Madame Adequate]

ITT people who believe income actually matches necessary outgoings for many people. BoB especially has no clue what he is talking about and especially when he says people on JSA somehow "make it their living" or whatever that mindless nonsense was.

The reason you have no money is simple. You're getting smurfed coming and going, at work, with your rent, and at the bank. You're not getting paid enough, you're funding your landlord's rentier life, your bank is using your money to give the CEOs huge bonuses.

[Clo]

And that's when Hux became my new best friend.

[NorthernChaosGod]

So is this when PG comes in a suggests something anti-government?

[Pike]

So is this when PG comes in a suggests something anti-government?

Of course! I've already got popcorn in the microwave

[Clo]

I'm pretty much ready to print Hux's post and frame it in my foyer to be the first thing I see when I come home from work.

[Iceglow]

I've got an unusual situation for myself at the moment, having spent the last 10 years living with monthly wages, monthly expenditures I'm finally going to have money every week. This is because my current job has taken the unusual approach to paying us weekly (I suppose because it's a call center and weekly payments means easier to terminate contracts and so forth with how high turnover could become) Though I like the fact that it's contractual that each year with cost of living increase my wages will always go up to match it (some sly fox put that in the contract to the client organization) Weekly wages means I have now a difficult position for me; I have to somehow begin managing my money far better so that when my wages clear I do not wind up spending too much and having nothing to pay my monthly lump sum of rent in the first week of the month. Roll on the overtime though because if I do some extra hours (which whilst ridiculous amounts are ill-advised overtime is freely available on a regular basis) it's extra income for when I needs it.

[Psychotic]

Just want to say I've advised dozens of people on finances who have even less money than any of you. Well, unless you're homeless but then I'd question what you're doing on a Final Fantasy forum if that was the case. Budgeting is the first step. No it's not a cure all, of course it isn't. It's a way of making what little you do have stretch as far as it can.

So much stuff is out of your control and unfair when it comes to money. This is one thing you can control. It won't solve it, but it'll make a dent. And let me tell you, being able to finally control something about their finances, however small, has meant so much to a lot of desperate people.