Chaudywogbaaga

Paying Bills With Little or No Income
This is perhaps the hardest task of any budget. When you have bills that you simply don’t have the money for. It is possibly also the most stress inducing realization in a budget that the money coming in is not enough to pay for the money going out to even essentials.

There are several common reactions to this situation. One get a second or third job. If there are any to be had. Remember we’re talking about a failing economy, local or otherwise, there may not be more jobs to be had if there are any jobs to be had.

There is almost always the possibility of taking a job and being “under employed". My definition for this would be when someone is employed in a job that does not adequately compensate them for their needs. This would be a job that does not pay enough to cover living expenses. At this point the only reason to hold such a job is to delay the eventual financial crash. Delaying a financial crash may be all that’s needed but a better plan should be formulated as soon as possible.

The second reaction is to try and wait it out. I have to admit that this is my default reaction, that somehow the money will show up later and all I need to do is stretch my bill payments out until the money shows up. This generally just makes your creditors mad at you.

In the best of times, these situations do work. In more troubling times they may make things worse or just be a waste of time. There are several other options that can work in a failing economy and they really should be combined for better effect.

The first option is paying what you can of the bills you can instead of waiting until you can pay the whole amount. This shows your creditors that you do want to pay their bills and that can be important when they decide what to do with you.

The second option is talking to them as soon as you know you are going to have trouble paying a bill. I have the hardest time with this one. It is a smart move to keep the lines of communication open instead of hiding from your creditors.

The third option is to investigate any government programs that you qualify for that will help you pay your bills. These vary depending on where you live. It may be difficult to qualify for these programs and their availability may change from time to time, but trying usually just takes your time and some paperwork.

A questionable fourth option, instead of being employed in a second or third job where you are earning a comparatively low income, it may make sense to try an alternate income stream. This option is a big gamble because it is unproven and if it were cut and dry, then a large company would already be doing it somewhere. Alternate income streams usually consist of either small items you can make and sell quickly or something made once that can be sold over and over again. Crafts and book writing falls in this category. Obviously everyone that makes a craft or writes a book thinks that everyone is going to want one. This is almost always not the case. It is however possible that some people may want what you produce and it makes you some money. There are plenty of online resources that enable people to create and sell products at very little or no cost to themselves. This makes an ideal situation for someone with no money. I have heard stories of people in the Great Depression that would make some item and then walk door to door with them to sell them. Usually this is a very labor intensive effort but it may be worth it.