The other day an acquaintance approached me for a loan to pay their overdue water bill. They knew that the bill had been due on the 10th of the previous month; instead of paying it then they decided to do some other things with the funds since their water wouldn’t be shut off until the first of this month and the city only charges a five dollar late fee.
I was approached for the money the night before their water was due to be disconnected.
This is a common occurrence in my life. I watch people spend money eating out, buying gadgets, ripping and running from sale to sale only to approach me when their bills are due because I am notorious for living beneath my means.
Seriously, folks–it is time to grow up.
Bills Come FIRST
If you know that you have a bill coming due, reserve the money from your paycheck to cover it. Period. If you don’t have enough money coming in to cover all of your bills, you need to either reduce your expenses or increase your income because if you can’t afford to pay your bills now, borrowing money is going to make it even harder to pay your bills next month and the months after that.
It is simple math. You cannot spend more than you earn. It doesn’t work that way, no matter how you juggle it. It’s not fun to go without when all of your friends are buying like crazy but tough! That’s life. Suck it up and move on. Yelling at the friends who refuse to support your profligacy is not going to help you one bit. We live beneath our means to best provide for ourselves, not to help people who refuse to control their own spending.
As for the person I referred to earlier I have no idea if they sorted the issue. I’m tired of being cussed out by idiots.
Have you ever been attacked because you refused to enable someone’s spendthriftiness? Please share your stories in the comments below.
Shakespeare had it right “Never a borrower or lender be”, but very hard to live that way.
Hi Sam!
I do loan/gift money on occasion depending upon the circumstances. Things happen to all of us and it’s my way of giving back. I used to be more generous but in time I grew tired of watching people who earn more money than I do spend their money on extravagances and then approach me for loans or financial gifts once their paycheck ran out. Now, if someone asks to borrow money from me when I’ve seen them bragging about a new purchase that perhaps should have been postponed until their bills were paid, or who never paid back a previous loan, I refuse automatically. The rest are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
I TOTALLY agree! Here is the rest of the my thinking as I just read this post. Yes, I will be “wrong” but then again I usually am but… I just see this as two sides , that are both just parts of the what I call “plantation” nation. You are doing Your “job” master assigned, working, bill paying , saving, investing, reproducing more slaves . The “other” or an another side would be the “irresponsible, non working, non, or late bill paying, non saving, non investing , but yet still reproducing, yet more slaves and consuming for the “plantation” .Both sides think the other is dull witted, “evil” , etc. I worse of all, think both sides are incorrect at best and want nothing to do with “plantation nation ” period. I was a “productive , worker, saver, investor, bill payer, and like You ended up with what most do, zilch! Everyone I know works, so I think that most in the world do. What has that gotten them? Pork rinds? Mountain dew? Kardashians? i think that if people could understand their “slavery” and then do something about it , life could be better, or at least might be nice to have tried.