Getting help with bills

People who are drowning in debt sometimes need help with bill. Utilities, rent and other major expenses come due whether you have a job or not. Being in a bad financial position can happen for lots of reasons. Every email I get confirms that bad debts can happen to good people. Illness, the economy, fire, natural disaster or an accident can each put a family in jeopardy.

When you are in a crisis, it can be tough to find help. Almost every community has places that can help with some bills. The key to getting the help is to know where to start looking.

I am writing this article from the perspective of a nonprofit director who has helped people who were in crisis. Every community has a slightly different system and every agency requires different qualifications. This article is a general starting point for people who need help with bills.

If you are looking for help with bills, there are a couple of things to know.

Forget about asking for help with credit card payments or other types of revolving credit. Organizations that offer bill assistance will only help with emergency funding for necessities as funds are available. That credit card bill may be high on your list but it won't make the cut for their list.

Workers usually want to help but funds may not be available.

You may need to have proof of income, rent receipts and identification for every person living in the household and identification for yourself. The paperwork varies so calling an agency ahead of time can save you time and frustration. 

Utility assistance
Call your utility company to see what they will do. They may have programs that can help with bills. If not, the workers can usually suggest places that are in your community where you can look.

United Way
This organization does not typically provide assistance. However; they can be a good referral source and can often direct you to the right agency.

Help agencies
General help agencies in your community may be able to help with bills. A pantry may be able to provide you with a box of food. Obviously, this won't directly help with rent or utilities. What a food box can do is free up funds that can be used in other areas.

Churches
If you go to church, then start there. Talk with your pastor about your situation and see if your church can help. At the very least, your pastor can support you through the process and may be able to make referrals or fax agencies that can help.

Toys
Getting help with the bills at Christmas can mean that you need toys. There are people who can help. Your child's guidance counselor, pastor, day care or agency may be able to get you on an Angel Tree list. Be reasonable with your expectations. Families who are adopted from these trees are typically adopted by a small group of people like you and me. Leave the iPads, iPods and Xbox off of your child's Christmas list.

Think outside the box
Agencies run out of money too. Don't wait until you are in crisis to start getting help with bills. Being proactive can help you make a few dollars here and there. Taking cookies to work and asking for donations, eBay, holding a yard sale, collecting aluminum cans, raking leaves or shoveling snow off of driveways can help. It may not solve all of your problems but it may help buy some time.

Modest Needs
This organization may be able to help with small grants. They are not an emergency funding source and they do ask for documentation. If you are getting help with bills from any source, you almost always have to provide information.

After Christmas sales rack up bargains

After Christmas sales rack up the bargains. I hit Wal-mart and some other stores to sift through the clearance tables. This is my favorite time of year for bargain hunting. I can pick up items that help me save money all year round. With practice, it is not hard to spot items for weddings and birthdays.

Remember, spending money on something that isn't needed or won't be used doesn't save money. After Christmas sales hold a special temptation to splurge. All these tempting items are just begging to jump into my shopping card. Lists help keep me on budget and away from getting out of debt suicide.

Wedding gifts and birthday presents are two items that I like to grab on the after Christmas sales. The large bath baskets work for best friends and new brides. I also like buying fragrance kits and kitchen sets to use as gifts. There's nothing like buying them at half price or less during the after Christmas sales.

Holiday purchasing is great. I'm not just talking about Christmas here.  Red is great for Valentine's Day and the 4th of July. How about green for St. Patrick's or Earth Day. Silver and gold are perfect for anniversaries.

The list could go on forever but you get the idea. There is a lot that you can find on after Christmas sales to help save money the rest of the year. A little shopping now can save money that I can use to get out of debt. For me, that's probably the best reason to hit those bargain bins. Want to join me?

We did Christmas without going into debt

I may have to pinch myself. We did Christmas without going into debt. The car repair was a challenge but after the home of our daughter was burglarized our finances were touch and go for a few days. There were several extra expenses involved with helping her but she is worth every penny.

Making it through Christmas without going into debt took some creativity. It helps to take advantage of sales throughout the year. Bargain shopping, using coupons and online deals also helped make for a debt free Christmas.

We gave gifts to the children at church. The candy was purchased a few days after Halloween in November when it was half price. Then, we downloaded free printable coloring sheets and put them into coloring books. The kids got a kick out of receiving them. Extra candy bags were given to the adults at church. It's safe to say that they enjoyed the gifts too.

Gifts to our kids were not extravagant. Each daughter received a larger item that they really wanted. Then, we filled in with smaller gifts. Hubby and I did the same thing for each other.

Celebrating Christmas without going into debt meant keeping meal expenses in check. We put our Thanksgiving plan to use and were able to have our holiday meal for about the same price! Coupon shopping and watching sales really came into play there.

It's work but it gives me hope. If we managed to celebrate without going into debt this year, we can do it next  year too.

Thank you for taking our debt free journey with us. From my house to yours, have a Merry Christmas and a financially healthy 2012.

Scary Christmas spending

I just read what the average family spends on Christmas. Forget Halloween and the boogeyman in the closet. This has to be the scariest article ever written. Why? Because it talks about how much the average family spends over the holiday season.

According to the article the average family spends about $800 annually on Christmas gifts. This doesn't count potluck dinners, parties and all those extra little curve balls that the season throws at us. Can you imagine how much the Christmas spending becomes when the extra costs are included? I can and that's where the spending gets even scarier.

Reigning the costs of the holidays is a big deal for us. Not only are we still repairing the car (and trying to get out of debt) but we can't afford an extra $800 for Christmas gifts. We've never gone overboard on gifts and plan to spend about one-third of that amount on all the Christmas expenses.

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. It that I love them enough to teach them the same money handling habits that I'm just now learning. These lessons should last longer than the electronic gadgets that some people are buying.

More budget Christmas decorating ideas

Frugal Christmas tree decorations
Here are a few more budget Christmas decorating ideas. These are perfect for people who are trying to be frugal.

I put my daughters to work making ornaments out of salt clay. The clay was rolled out and cut with cookie cutters. After the ornaments dried in the oven we painted them with budget craft paint. On top of this we used a mixture of glue thinned with water and added some glitter. A ribbon or ornament hook was all they needed.

Heart shaped ornaments
These cute Christmas ornaments were easily made by using fabric that I already owned. We made several for our Christmas tree and made some more out of the budget holiday material I picked up for the tree skirt. The gave the tree a folksy country look that looked good and fit our nonexistent budget.

Decorating with pine cones
These rank right up there with muslin when it comes to frugal Christmas decorating ideas.  Don't make my mistake. We almost forgot to let them dry overnight. The loose seeds and pine needles reminded us to let them dry.

Shake out any loose seeds or pine needles over newspaper before working with them.

Pine cones can be painted on the tips, made into a wreath or placed in a basket. They are frugal and can be made into Christmas ornaments by running a string between the petals and securing it with a dot of glue. We made a few of each decoration and had good results.

Cookies and snowflakes
Two other frugal Christmas decorating ideas are worth mentioning. Cut paper snowflakes can be placed anywhere and made for nothing. Reuse computer paper, envelopes or junk mail. Almost anything goes.

Another idea is to bake cookies for the Christmas tree. I like to wrap these in plastic wrap and tie securely before placing them on the branches away from the lights. Cookies are synonymous with the holiday season. The wrapped cookies were a frugal Christmas tree decoration and made great budget gifts.

Frugal Christmas decorating ideas for tight budgets

There have been two instances when I have had to put these frugal Christmas decorating ideas to use. Both times involved basement flooding that ruined the decorations. Both times we realized the extent of the problem only a few weeks before Christmas.

Christmas wreath on a
stained glass window.

My worst time was our first Christmas in northeastern North Carolina. We were broke, in debt from moving there and frustrated. Seeing our beautiful decorations were in shambles was a humbling experience. With few resources I hunted down the frugal Christmas decorating ideas that are reading about now.

We made it through without breaking the budget. The kids and Hubby pitched in on the frugal Christmas decorating. It wasn't a holiday that I would want to repeat but we did end up by having a good time.


Muslin Tablecloth
Muslin is a budget cloth that works well for frugal Christmas decorating. I measured the table and bought a couple of extra yards from Wal-Mart. It's inexpensive, easy to paint or color and lends itself to many uses. It took just a few yards of the material to make our tablecloth. I took the extra and cut the rest into strips for another project.

We didn't own a sewing machine then so I used school glue to go along the edge of the material. This kept it from unraveling. The glue washed out later but the budget tablecloth worked perfectly that Christmas. Later on, I was able to hem it appropriately.

Another frugal Christmas decorating idea were our candy canes and muslin strips.