Regular Bills

We all have regular bills that we have to pay each month, quarter or year. These include things like mobile phone, television services, landline phone, electricity, water and gas. These are services that most of us use and want to keep using. The problem is that we do have to find the money to pay for them and sometimes it can be a struggle. Even if we are working and have a good income, it can be that these bills get hard to pay and we may find that we start slipping behind a bit in our payments. It can start to build up a bit and can be a cause of stress for us or we can be in the situation where we are being threatened of being cut off due to not paying them. If this happens we can get very worried and stressed and this does not help as we can tend to end up panicking and not thinking through the options carefully. It is worth trying to stay as calm as you can and working through things methodically.

Problems

Firstly see whether you can identify the cause of the problem. Think about whether your income is lower for some reason or if you have been spending money elsewhere or whether it is just an increase in prices that has meant that you have not been able to afford things. It is useful to identify the cause as it will help you to work on the problem.

Making Contact

The next step could be to contact the companies where you are behind in payments. If you have not spoken to them about it then it is wise to do so. Explain why you have been unable to pay and they may be able to help you by reducing your payments for a while. By talking to them, they will know that you are aware of the problem and trying to do something about it and this will help them to be more sympathetic towards you and your problems and they will be less likely to take harsh action.

The Problem

It can be wise to approach the problem from a number of different directions. If you can think of ways to earn more money as well as ways to spend less on other things, then you are more likley to be successful. Trying to get a lump sum right now can be good too as that will allow you to pay off the debt and start again.

Sell Things

A good way to get a lump sum of money is to sell things. If you have things which you no longer need or want or that are worth lots of money then it could be worth trying to raise some money from them. There are lots of paces, online and offline where you can sell things but it is worth thinking about which would be right for you. Highly valuable antiques should be sold in a specialist auction, but old clothes and toys could be sold online on social media sale pages or at a car boot sale. These things could raise some cash which you could put towards paying off some or all of the money that is owed. This will help you out, but it is not something that you can do often as once you have sold things, you will not have anything left to sell, so you will need to think about more long term solutions as well.

Earn More Money

It is worth starting by thinking about how you could earn more money. It might be that you could try to get more money in the job that you are in, perhaps by asking for a pay rise, trying for a promotion or working extra hours. This is not always possible though and so it may be that you will have to think of other ways to get income. This could be by finding a second job, doing some freelance work, starting a business or earning some money online. There are lots of different options and it is just a case of finding one which suits your, your skills and your lifestyle. It could be wise to find something that you enjoy as you will be doing it on top of your usual work and do not want to end up getting stressed by it. It can be worth scrutinising what you are buying as well. It may be that you are buying things which are unnecessary and these purchases mean that you do not have enough money left for your essentials. It could be that you are paying more than necessary for items as well and it could be worth comparing prices to check. You may also benefit from noting down everything that you buy, which will not only make you think more about your purchases, but allow you to see where your money is going.