How To React to an Unexpected Bill - A Lesson in Perspective

Bills - the most common responses are to bury your head in the sand, or get almighty stressed. What are the other alternatives that you could consider?

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Here is the scenario...

You are already 20K in debt. Credit card bills have been piling up, the mortgage needs paying, car payments are due... Every time you think how am I going to pay all this, you feel really heavy hearted. It feels like that you will never be debt free, never escape from this monstrous growing mountain of owed money. And today you have just received an unexpected bill of $2,000 for something you didn't pay off a year ago. You didn't receive the bill and somehow forgot about it, so now you have to pay it and with interest too for a financial error that wasn't even your fault. You are really feeling the pinch and now you have this extra money burden.

What Do You Do...

Here are some options that could be the response to this dilemma. The amount of options is really infinite, so it is a good idea to think of a few extra ones, after reading through these, to stretch the mind to problem solve more frequently on dilemmas like this.

Option 1: Suffocate

It's goes a little like this, "not another bill, how on earth am I going to pay this?"

You feel even more stressed and under pressure almost strangled by money worries as you wonder what to do.

The weight of the world is on your shoulders.

This will ruin your day, your week as you realize that you will never get out of this hole. You are a hamster in a wheel going nowhere.

You will have to work until the day that you die and never be able to retire. It's awful.

You begin to get angry at the people who sent you the bill, it's their cock up - why should you pay it?

This is going to weigh heavily on your mind for ages and this makes sad, stressed and overwhelmed.

Anyone who is near you will see and feel the stress you are under and this bad bill moment will turn in a bad day, bad week or even bad month for you and everyone else in your family too.

Option 2: Borrow with Bliss

You can decide to ask someone you know to borrow money in a way that feels good for the pair of you. This might mean you borrow money and pay it back in a plan, with interest, or you could use skills that you have to enhance someone else's life.

Perhaps you can barter with what you do professionally.

Or you might be good at photography and you offer to trade headshots, or event photography.

You might like to cook, how about becoming a personal chef for a friend, or devise healthy eating plans for them and use that as part payment against the borrowed money.

This way of earning and paying back money becomes fun and eases the stress and it feels good to both you and your friend, so both of you can radiate some extra happiness to everyone around you.

So instead of letting that bill make it a bad day for you, you can resourcefully and creatively think of win-win solutions.

Option 3 – Shrug it off

You could decide to yourself that the debt is not that much of a deal.

You could say to yourself "as long as I am paying the minimum card amounts, my credit score won't be affected and I choose not to stress out paying this quickly. It is not a big deal. There are thousands (possibly millions) of people in debt" and get on with your day.

This will not make your day any worse and as long as you are not bottling up feelings, it avoids that downward spiral.

Option 4- Make it a game.

Another interesting way of dealing with this unexpected bill could be to make its fun game. Hear me out.

You can make a "how will I pay this bill" game, as remember the mind loves find a solution.

So instead of getting stressed about it, you could invite your friends to play and get some creative thinking in the house.

So invite 5 friends over, grab a pizza. I suppose in this this day and age it could also be done via technological means, but if you are able friends over and a pizza, this is a good combination.

You can have a blast brainstorming. You might ideas like lemonade stalls, selling things off, renting things you don't use, or making a board game a fun community event. Anything goes, its a brainstorming party.

This helps stop you from letting the stress take you on a downward spiral,as you got to bond with friends, have fun, feel like kids again and invoked good feelings in everyone. You took what could have been a bad day starter for you and turned it into a good day for not just you, but a few people.

Option 5 – Realize this is what you’ve been wanting…

The unexpected bill is a sign. It is now the time to start that business that you have been longing to start since forever.

You have always found plenty of reason not do it - not enough time, the responsibility of kids, you need money to get started. Whatever the reasons, you have decided now is the time.

This bill is the push you have been waiting for. It is your sign.

You say to yourself "There is a gift in this bill. The financial situation I am in right now is not working. I have wanted to do this business for a very long time. I can see why this is happening and everything happens for a reason. This is the push I need to start my business"

From today, you hustle and take control of your life's direction.

CONCLUSION

There are tons of ways that you can deal with any one situation and in this case one choice could make you feel so stressed it wrecks your whole month, or another completely change your life as you start your own business.

I hope this helps anyone feeling the pressure of debt.

With Love

Hope Huggs

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