Martha Drapeau

An Unexpected Gift

I sat staring at the list of monthly bills, wondering what more I could do. I needed another $300 to pay that last utility bill, and I didn’t know where I was going to get it. Not being a stranger to financial difficulties, I had become pretty adept at “stretching every dollar”. I knew a lot of tricks, like putting off one bill to pay a more urgent one, or waiting until the last possible minute to pay a bill before there would be consequences, such as a late charge or the power being shut off. But I had run out of tricks this time, and that $300 utility bill had to be paid.