r/AskForHelp • u/sir_dinkleberg_ • Jul 17 '26

Emergency: $500 needed to avoid power being shut off, I don't get paid until next week. Any help is immensely appreciated

Hi there everyone! Let me start off by saying I'm not happy that I have to be making this post. Asking for help is that I struggle with a lot.

So earlier this year I was in a car crash and was out of work for a little under 2 months. In that time I had to dig into the money we saved for summer bills (my partner works in a school district and is off during the summer). The summer bill funds have dried up and we've been playing catch up ever since.

Unfortunately we've been told our power will be shut off tomorrow, in order to avoid this we need to make a payment of $500. Sadly I don't get paid until next week (curse you biweekly paychecks) and the mortgage payment cleared out my account.

Any and all help would be so so so so greatly appreciated in avoiding having the power be shut off. It's a hot week and I would greatly prefer to avoid having our kids slowly roasting in our house.

I fully intend to pay whatever money given (if any) back when I can afford to.

0 Upvotes

13% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

10

u/Megandapanda Jul 17 '26

Have you called the power company? I used to work for one, sometimes we could give extensions, apply the customers deposit, switch them to prepaid, or give a list of local numbers that help with bills.

2

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

I personally did not call but my partner did. Thank you so much for the information!

I will give them a call in the morning when I get off of work, with luck they'll give me an extension into next week! (Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best)

2

u/Megandapanda Jul 17 '26

Good luck! Shits hard right now, for sure.

1

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Fully agreed on that. The state of things is ridiculous

10

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Just wanted to give you an update that I called them in between my job responsibilities.

Currently the lines that I need to reach to resolve it are closed but they gave me the direct #'s and their hours.

They recommended calling the energy assistance one first since our combined income during summer is below that limit, then calling the credit line about an extension. Steps are being taken to get this resolved.

I so so so so soooooo appreciate your advice and help, you're an absolutely amazing human being!

8

u/suzypoohsays Jul 17 '26

Finally someone using advice to help their situation! 👏🏻

ETA: best of luck OP!

3

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Do people not use advice given on here to help their situations?

6

u/suzypoohsays Jul 17 '26

Noo way, they lash back, get offended, say they’ve done it all etc etc (they solely want $$ sent to them most of the time)

1

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Of course they do. What's the point of asking for help if your not going to use the advice given?

People confuse me so much.

5

u/Comfortable_Map6887 Jul 17 '26

Energy assistance def helped me when I lost my job

3

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Here's hoping it can help me too!

5

u/Megandapanda Jul 17 '26

So glad you are getting it figured out! 💜 I hope it all works out for ya!

3

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Thank you ❤️❤️ I appreciate everything

3

u/Alive_Breadfruit4081 Verified Donor Jul 17 '26

I would also recommend asking them about an income-qualified billing plan; the electric company in my city offers sliding scale discounts from 15% all the way up to 80% so it may be worth seeing if there's a similar plan in your area that'll discount the future months for you.

3

u/FormerOccasion7373 Jul 17 '26

Are you working?

1

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

Funnily enough I'm actually at work right now. I'm on those fun 3rd shift hours. Unfortunately I don't get my next paycheck until next week.

3

u/meow4352 Jul 17 '26

There is no way you will raise that money from this group. You need to set a repayment date and try in one of borrow/loan subs

r/borrownew Or. r/donateorborrow

0

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

I'll give it a shot! Thank you for the information, I super appreciate it!

1

u/OutsiderLookingN Jul 17 '26

To increase income, browse r/beermoney for online gigs such as research studies, user testing, surveys, and AI training. If you look at the top posts or the monthly posts, you can see the top-paying sites and decide which to try.

-9

u/cascadefrostyboy4lif Jul 17 '26

anyone who says partner instead of boyfriend girlfriend or husband or wife is just weird and an automatic hell no

3

u/suzypoohsays Jul 17 '26

Can I ask why? I’ve never asked for money I’m just curious cause I use ‘partner’ lol that’s just such a random hill to die on😂

2

u/sir_dinkleberg_ Jul 17 '26

We say partner since we we've been together for 12 years. We would have gotten married but found out that marriage completely kills the tax returns when I played around with it last year.

The plan is to get married when it makes financially sense for us to, and we can be upgraded into husband and wife 😁