Small Vent

B

bays

New member
My car insurance was due this month. No big. It's $360, so I figured since mom and dad were paying the bill up front, I'd just work my tail off and write them a check when I came home for spring break. No such luck. There have been a lot of unexpected bills this month and mom asked me to pay off my credit card. Well, between $200 for an emergency root canal (that's just the expected amount btw. The whole procedure was over $800), medicine for treatment of the infection and pain killers, and my $100 a month budget that I blew threw, the credit card bill ended up being over $400.

I already made a payment, but I just feel bogged down. I could have paid it off by now if those medical expenses weren't on there. *sigh* Like I say, this is only a small vent. I racked up the charges, so I should have to pay them off. It was just unexpected. And my parents pretty much pay for everything, so it's not like they don't need a month off. Bah. I'm just a little frustrated because I wish I could have paid the bill off in whole.
 
I know the feeling. Well life is most of the time full of unexpected things. I gues you can still wait for next time.
And you know when you'll have enough money you can start paying your own bills ^^

If it makes you feel better paid them a restorant or invite them some place nice.
 
I know what you're going through and more but don't worry about it you will get your bills paid off, just not when you wanted to. Stressing about bills is pointless when you think about it, because shit just comes up out of the blue that always sets you back that's life.
 
Wow, for some reason when I clicked this link I could have sworn I was gonna read some rant about a "small vent" malfunctioning and not putting out enough air or some shit, lol.

Well, don't feel bad Mags. I know EXACTLY how you feel. I used to get over-bogged with bullshit that required money for things that came out of "nowhere". I did learn a nice little technique from my dad though that did help me learn how to control my finances.

First off: Get rid of the plastic. Yes, having a credit card or two is nice... but it causes us to get into the habit of using it on little things, along with winding up buying that one big thing to where our finances are so tight that all we're really able to pay on the credit card is the monthly minimum interest payment. Which barely keeps us in the clear, but never really pays it off. The best thing to do is to pay off what you need to pay off now and then drop the card altogether for the time being.

Second: Put yourself on an allowance. Considering that I haven't worked a job at minimum wage since I was about 19, this was a little easier for me... but it can be done none-the-less. (Do this before spending ANY other cash during the pay period!!!!) After putting in your gas for the week (or bi-week like most of us do), and paying off what things you need to pay off... it's usually wise to divide what's left into 14 daily increments. And at the end of the 14 day period, sock whatever you have remaining away. Sure, buying CD's or DVD's is nice... but we need to look at our current situation and ask ourselves if buying the new GodSmack 10 year anniversary disc or if that beef rump roast is more important than trying to bring ourselves above our current station in life. By doing this you'll learn how to budget yourself rather well. And by learning to live for ourselves on a lower budget, we can actually wind up (as I did), learning how to SAVE money! Which in this land, we all know being able to save money is one of the key stepping stones towards wealth.

These are just a couple of things that we can do to make life a little easier on ourselves. Plus, with that money that you can (hopefully), be able to sock away... you'll hopefully have that cash when you need it to be able to pay for that unexpected route canal, or that ugly phone bill in which your kid called up them "1-900 talk dirty numbers".

You don't need to follow my advice (hardly anyone like to live like a penny pinching miser). But just as an example, I lived by this program for a long time. And it took a couple of years, but after a couple years of doing this... I was able to go out and purchase a mostly new car. All by cash. No need of any finance plans or any shit like that. If you're interested, give it a try for a few weeks. Although, I do advise you do the paying off and dropping the credit card before doing the allowance part... otherwise, it may just be a little too hard to manage.
 
beef_roller: It sounded to me as if most of the expenses on the credit card were medical expenses, which probably needed to be paid, and of course there was no available cash for. However, I know other times people have advised setting up a payment plan to pay off medical bills.

mags: Sorry to hear about this. It does suck when suddenly bills get racked up, and there's no way to keep up with them. Honestly, though...I wish my credit card was all I had to worry about.

Best of luck, mags!
 
i have to agree with toad on this one. don't worry about bills it really is pretty pointless. you're always going to have crap to pay for at random. just wait for a month when you've got a little more cash than you expected and throw it on your balance. eat the minimum payment for a few.
 
Think of it this way...if you keep making regular payments on your card, it will actually look good on your credit report.

They aren't interested in you being able to pay large sums of money all at once. They are interested in you being able to make smaller payments over time. It doesn't have to be a lot, just that you make them regularly, before they become late. I work in a bank and have to explain to people that just because you have a credit card doesn't mean you have good credit.

It will take a long time, but as long as you make sure that's your only credit card, and you keep making small regular payments on it, your credit score will go up. Not by a lot, but people who check your credit will see that you can make regular payments with no problem, and thus be more willing to loan you money or increase your credit limit.
 
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