Posted on March 24, 2008 at 3:14 pm Over the winter months I am falling behind on my bills due to very high heating costs.  I know I will be able to catch up in the summer and hopefully plan better for next year.  In the meantime, I am wondering which bills can I get away with setting aside for a couple of months? So far, I am paying my mortgages and minimum payments on credit cards. I do not have car payments but I do have these other bills: house insurance, car insurance, real estate taxes, water bills, gas, electric, oil, phone, minor dr bills.

Posted on April 10, 2008 at 11:52 pm I'm not sure what these comapnies shut off dates are. What you might want to try is figuring out how much you can pay on each, even if it's only a little. Call each company and explain your situation and ask if they will accept a partial payment until you are able to start paying them in full again. They would much rather you work with them than not. There may also be hardship programs that you might qualify for.Look at each bill and expense that comes into your household and see if there's a way to trim back on the usage or switch to a cheaper plan. Shorter showers, dial down the thermostat, cheaper phone plan, look at your car insurance for more competative rates, eliminate unecessary driving, consolidate shopping trips, cut coupons, watch and purchase food from the sale ads. Later on you might also want to consider looking into another heat source, maybe a wood burner. It's my understanding oil is the highest cost fuel to heat a home.In the state of Michigan it takes three years of being deliquent on a particular tax year before the state forecloses.

Posted on April 11, 2008 at 10:29 pm I was in a similar situation to you last winter. I looked into a wood burner and it really did cut my heating bill down quite a lot (and I learned to compact newspapers from family & neighbors down into long-burning wood-replacement too) The other things I did were similar to what tmostuff suggested - tried to find other ways to cut down expenses so the other bills aren't left behind. Think about what you do spend now and consider what you could cut down on if you had to. Did you know just shutting off the TV/Video/DVD/Computer at the wall could save you quite a bit in electric bills each year?

Posted on April 25, 2008 at 10:15 am why do you have car insurance ,when you have no car? i say pay these first: water bills, gas, electric, and phone

Posted on September 23, 2008 at 11:26 am I would call these companies and see if you can set up some kind of payment plan with them.  Explaining that you can pay more in the warmer months- Maybe next year you can get ahead and you won't run into this problem. I would not pay my house insurance late- if something was to happen to your home- you are out. Be careful with this type of thing.  Also yes pay the mortgage.

Posted on September 24, 2008 at 12:28 pm Cut back on anything you possibly can and contact the companies for help. Some will be there to help but others just don't care.

Posted on September 24, 2008 at 5:36 pm Utilities might have programs for low income customers.This won't help, however, if you are making a lot of  money and just have too many debts!

Posted on October 7, 2008 at 7:02 pm Hi,I am a certified financial counselor and what I usually recommend to clients in your situation is to pay your basic needs first - food, shelter (mortgage), power, heating, and water.  If you are behind on those bills, call each place and let them know you are going through a difficult time.  See if they will work out a payment plan for the amount you are behind and bring your accocunt current.  There is nothing worse than having your power or water cut off in the midst of financial problems.  You then want to pay the car insurance.  Do credit cards last.  The thing with credit cards, after you are 30 days past due, it will affect your credit score.  If you are not too concerned about that and receiving collection calls, you can weather that for 2-3 months.  Another thing I would suggest is actually calling a non-profit credit counseling agency that is liscensed in your area.  They can help you lower your payments, bring accounts current, stop collection calls, and lower interest rates.    Check your local yellow pages for listings.  Also, I am currently working on a course to help people get out of debt.  I enlisting the help of those reading this.  What are you biggest questions or obstacles regarding paying off your debt.  If you go to this web site below and ask your question, I will send you a free copy of the product when it is finished in about two weeks.  Something free that can help you for just asking a question..sounds like a pretty good deal.  Let me know your questions...

Posted on October 8, 2008 at 2:42 am Yep I agree with artfulfrog, -- why do you have car insurance ,when you have no car? i say pay these first: water bills, gas, electric, and phone

Posted on October 9, 2008 at 10:09 am I've found someone who has a program to shield all my personal liability. Has anyone heard of John Gliha? He has a fresh start program and does mentoring as well. Can't find anything negative about him so far, but wanted to put the word out here to see if anyone has had success with his mentoring program.