Paycheck Budget #2 (Jan 15 – 30, 2019), and What Do I Do When I Can’t Pay Everyone?

Let’s start this post off with some positives before we get into the second part of the title.

Positive: I paid Silver Lake on time and in full (one of my January goals) – they charge late fees and collection fees, and I did not have the energy to put into that this year. Whoo!

Neutral: I am close to completing my second January goal of paying $135 on CC 3 instead of my budgeted $40 (I’ve paid $120), but this was in part due to

Negative: an unexpected medical bill that did nothing for my extra payment on that card.

What happened?

I’m fortunate enough to have health insurance, and by the end of last year I’d met my deductible and was only having to pay co-insurance costs. Needed to get some blood drawn because I’m allergic to most of life, but I didn’t mind because I was expecting my cost to be about $30. This particular lab swipes your card (CC 3 in this case) for payment, but also has a max amount they will charge your card. In this case, that max amount was $90. (I know you can already see where this is going.)

I’m living my life, doing my thing, and looking forward to the end of the year when one day I see my insurance company has denied payment for one of the tests. Now I am responsible for the full amount (not even the insurance rate, the FULL amount) of $220.

Lawd. Now I’ve got to get my doctor to send over a letter of medical necessity so I can get my coins back. Mind you, if they’d covered it from the outset my cost would be $8.30 and not $220, but I digress. I’m going to save my insurance rant for another time.

Now that you’ve gotten that story, here we are at this paycheck’s budget.

What’s going on here?

1. Income is down. I changed my withholding, and this is not going to work for the near future. I am going to have to adjust it again to get closer to a number I can work with for a couple of months until I get my outside income back up.
2. I didn’t pay my Verizon or CC7 bill out of my last check like I normally do…and I’ve got to work that out. Remember that when you rob Peter to pay Paul, Peter eventually wants his money too.
3. Notice I didn’t even include that medical bill in my budget for this period. I will get around to that later.

 

What Do I Do When I Can’t Pay Everyone?

 

1. Take care of yourself and your house first. You need lights, you need water, you need a roof over your head. Within that, see where you may have some wiggle room. With my gas and electric providers, I know I have at least an additional 30 days to pay. They will charge late fees, but they won’t cut my service off.

Let’s say my usual electricity bill was $65 (with a 2% late fee) and gas bill was $75 (with a 10% late fee), and I only had $100 to put towards these two bills. I would put something on both of them, say $40 on the electric and $60 on the gas. Next month my electric bill would be $90.50 and my gas bill would be $91.50, but the utilities would be on. Worry about one thing at a time.

2. Medicines/Medical – you need your medicine, so get that if you can. If you can pay on a medical bill, do so, even if it is $5. If not, call them and tell them you can’t pay anything and you’ll call them when you can. They’ll bill you. It’s okay.
3. Transportation – you have to be able to get to work. If you are paying a car note, call your lender and see if they can give you an additional grace period (most lenders have a 10 day grace from due date before late fees are charged), or move the payment back and add it to the end of the loan. Worst case scenario, they say no, but they aren’t going to come try to get your car at just 30 days. It’s much more to their benefit for you to pay something than for them to immediately try to repo the car. Breathe, it’ll be okay too.
4. Food – Try a food pantry. If you have negative connotations with a food pantry, try to let them go. Food pantries are generally open to everyone, regardless of circumstance. You need help, therefore you are entitled. Give back when you can. When grocery shopping, pare down and substitute store brands where you can.
5. Everything Else (credit cards, loans, etc.) – Do what you can and try not to stress about it. Call and see what assistance may be available to you. Federal student loans could be eligible for deferment or forbearance – call and talk to them.

 

If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money. Your credit may take a hit the longer the situation continues, but your priority should be on the immediate needs of you and your family. It can happen to anyone; don’t be ashamed to ask for help.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t hustle to improve your income. I’ll speak on that in an upcoming post.