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Budget Leftovers
By Terry J. Rigg Sr., Fri Dec 9th
It is extremely difficult to setup a budget, especially when youare behind on some of your bills. Even if you can make yourregular bills and expenses fit neatly into your budget, what canyou do if you don't have the money to catch up? I have listed several methods and circumstances below that mayhelp manage setting up your budget and begin to pay thoseoverdue bills. Since there are as many different budgets asthere are people that try to set them up, this list may not beall inclusive. It may, however, give you some ideas that willfit your individual problem. Unless you don't have any income at all, there are a couple ofthings that should never be late. Your rent or house payment andutilities should be paid first, even at the expense of otherbills. This is simply a matter of survival.
The first thing you need to do when setting up a budget is todetermine how much actual take home income you have. Thendetermine the amount of your normal bills and expenses. TheComplete Budget and Bill Organizerhttp://www.homemoneyhelp.com/BBOonline.html explains this ingreater detail and provides forms to put it on paper. The below methods assume that you have enough money to coveryour normal bills and expenses but have some bills that have anamount that is overdue: When you are setting up your budget and have overdue bills youneed to cut your expenses to the bare bones. This doesn't meangoing without food. However, there are many ways to cut back onexpenses. You can find hundreds of them by visiting my BudgetStretcher Partner sites listed at http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. You should always make the initial contact to the company
anytime you aren't able to pay a bill on time. Once you have yourbudget setup, see if there is any money left over to startpaying the amount that is behind. If you do have some money leftover, when you contact the company, find out if they will acceptpaying a little extra each month, without penalty, until theoverdue amount is paid in full. Contact a your local Consumer Credit Counseling Service. You canfind them in your phone book. They can assist you by contactingyour creditors and establishing a payment schedule that will fityour budget. If your overdue bills are credit cards, consider transferringyour balances to either a credit card you already have or canobtain. This will do a couple of things. It will normally loweryour monthly payment and it will eliminate your overdue status.Be extremely careful doing this. The credit card companies youpaid off will be using every means they have to get you to usetheir credit cards again. Cut them up and notify the company toclose the account. Look for ways to get extra money just for the purpose of payingyour overdue bills. This can be either a temporary part time jobor selling something that you can do without. If you own your home and have equity in your property, you maywant to consider a bill consolidation loan. While this seemslike an easy out, many people start obtaining more debt afterthey receive the loan since they have some disposable income.There are pros and cons to bill consolidation loans and youwould be wise to investigate it thoroughly. If you have exhausted all of the above options, you may have toconsider one of the below options. You must remember that filingbankruptcy can stay on your credit history for up to 10 yearsand can have a devastating effect on your future financial plans. In extreme circumstances, and always as a last resort, considerfiling Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection. This allows anindividual to setup a repayment plan of between 3 to 5 years topay off all or part of their debts. You must have sufficientincome to permit a portion of it to be used toward yourrepayment schedule. Another option is Chapter 7 bankruptcy which is the mostcommonly filed chapter since it can completely eliminate all ofyour debt except the ones you choose to continue paying. Thereare exceptions to debts that can be discharged and to whatproperty is exempt from being taken by your creditors. Youshould discuss any bankruptcy actions with a competentbankruptcy attorney. Only individual's may file for chapter 7 orchapter 13 bankruptcy. Just because you are behind on your bills doesn't mean that yourbill collectors can do what ever they want to collect theirdebt. You have rights under the Fair Debt Collection PracticesAct. It would be a good idea to visit The Federal TradeCommission's web sitehttp://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fdc.htm to find outwhat your legal rights are. About the author:Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The EasyWay http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor ofThe FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher website http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of experiencecounseling individuals and families concerning their personalfinances. Use this email link to get a list of all of Terry'sarticles by autoresponder at:mailto:articlelist@budgetstretcherpremium.com
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