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How to Pay Bills Without Credit Cards
By plrprousers | February 19, 2010
Too many bills on 1/2 the income
A TV commercial for a debt consolidation company aired recently where one woman told us that her work hours got cut in half, but she cannot pay half her bills. If your income gets cut in half, how are you going to pay your bills? That was the question from the commercial. Paying your bills on time can be a good thing, but if you go into debt doing it, you need to re-evaluate your budget. If you pay your bills with credit cards, you will end up going further and further into debt until you cannot get out. Debt consolidation can help you lower your expenses by working with your creditors, but better results can be achieved by reducing your variable expenses.
Cut costs
To pay your bills without credit cards, the first thing you need to look at is how much money you are spending every month. Honesty is the best way to get out of debt! Don’t forget about your entertainment and restaurant costs. Also take a look at how much extra money you are spending on the little things that add up. A large house, fancy car, and all the amenities may cost too much for your current income. Budgeting often requires you to make hard choices on what to pay for and what to let go of. To avoid foreclosure, you need to look at selling your house with the high mortgage in favor of finding a lower mortgage payment. If you can only realistically pay less than $ 200 per month for a car, your $ 400 per month car payment will bring you further into debt very quickly.
Housing, food and transportation costs are the biggest expenses in your budget, and should be planned for accordingly. A budget on paper does not equal action. You must take action on the budget you have created for it to work. If you take the appropriate steps, you will be able to lower your bills.
Debt Repayment Plan
With the massive credit card hikes that have been charged to many people lately, it is imperative that you pay off your credit card debt as soon as possible. You will lose more money to your debt in the long term if you do not pay off your balance now. Debts do not go away on their own, so create a plan to pay them back as soon as possible. Debt repayment really depends on not creating new debts, so cut up your credit cards now. Credit cards are really not needed to create a credit history, in spite of what certain experts say. If you create a sensible budget, you can live within your means. Many people seem to think that you need a credit card to handle any emergency that may come up. Experts advise you to save at least eight months’ worth of income should you lose your job. If it is still another week until your next payday, you may want to apply for an emergency cash loan.
Increase your money
No budget worth its salt is complete without a plan to increase your monthly income. Taking a large cut in pay can wreak havoc for many people. How will you cope. Recession-proof businesses exist because others still are buying goods and services they cannot make or do themselves. What do you do that others would want to pay you to do for them. If you have extra time on your hands due to a layoff, you may try babysitting, organizing, or even planning parties to earn extra money. There is money to be earned if you can explain difficult concepts with your writing. Take a general inventory of your skills and talents. Replacing your entire income may be tough, but if you look hard enough, you will be able to find something.
Easy going
After creating and implementing your sensible budget, you will wonder how you ever lived with credit card debt in the first place! Living within a budget is not easy, and it means that you will have to work at it. For a budget that works well in the future, plan for every possible contingency, including emergency cash loans!
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