I had owed $380 in backdated phone bill payments which they had graced for some months now. The customer service rep on the other end told me that my poor bill payment history (not paying on time + partial payments) had contributed to them almost cutting off my line, save for a final reminder to pay up by Aug 10.
It is Aug 7 and I had just made my $380 bill payment. I had received my paycheck the previous day and had already budgeted by the 50/30/20 rule, so this bill payment had thrown my entire budget plan off course. I did not touch the emergency fund that I have saved up to pay the bill.
I am beating myself up really hard because I really feel like a failure now, being unable to manage basic things like paying up on bills. I suppose it's a hard lesson and a wake up call for me to watch my data usage and to be really prudent.
Did I mess up by not making use of the emergency fund? How do I rebudget in the wake of this? Am I a complete failure? I'm just upset...
August 07, 2018 at 08:40AM
