Standing Tall Despite Being Short on the Rent
Welcome back honey!Think back. Waaayyy back. Back to a time when you still lived with your parents. Remember how you used to have your own room? Your own bed? Maybe even your own cuddly stuffed farm animal named Professor Pig? Now think really hard; do you remember when those things didn’t to cost you a dime?
If you can still remember a time when rent wasn’t taken care of by a higher power, then chances are you haven’t lived on your own very long. After you leave the warm embrace of Mom and Dad’s house, you often wind up in the bitter cold of the real world. And in the real world you have to pay rent so that you, your bed and your pig can all have somewhere safe to live.
Rent is not cheap. Now I realize that may come as a shock to many of you who have not yet moved out of your parents mansion. To put it in perspective, if you’re bringing home a bi-weekly paycheck you can expect to see 1/3rd of that money (after taxes) fly right out the door to cover rent. Rent is usually the single largest recurring expense most people have and some months you just might not have enough to pay for it.
But there’s no need duck behind the couch every time you think you hear the landlord coming. I have been living on my own for quite a few years and there have been plenty of times when I haven’t had all the rent turned in on the first of the month. If you are a few (hundred) dollars short, I can help you. As with so many things in life, the trick to surviving a “pay rent or quit” notice is A Good Excuse. Here are some great things to tell your landlord next time you don’t quite have all the rent money for the month.
Mommy Dearest: My Mom is in the hospital and I have to pay $15 for parking each time I visit her. I’ve been checking on her every day for almost 2 weeks now, so I’m about $200 short.
Sucker Site: I was buying some school supplies on a website that turned out to be a scam site. They stole my bank account info and took $300 out of my account. I talked to my bank and they’re going to cover the loss, but it’s going to take 10 working days.
Rat Attack: My dog/cat caught a rat the other day which turned out to have some kind of rat disease that infected my dog. I had to take him to the vet and he charged me $200 for the visit and vaccine.
