When the money runs out

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• An offer that sounds too good? Is this a scam?
• Can’t pay for heat, or the heat is off? When it’s dangerously cold.
• Everything feels too big to start? One step at a time.
• Might not have signal? Save our tools on your phone.
• All our free tools and Get help now.

Other guides on this site that go with this page

Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.

• When a medical bill is too much: what to check before you pay, the financial help nonprofit hospitals must offer, surprise bills, and debt collectors.
• Taxes: free help, and what to do if you can’t pay: whether you need to file, the credits many people miss, where a return is done for free, and what to do when you owe.
• When you’ve lost your job: filing for unemployment in your state, keeping health coverage, your last paycheck, and free help finding work.
• When you need a lawyer and can’t pay: where free legal aid is, and what to do with court papers before the date on them. General information, not legal advice.
• Applying for disability benefits: the two federal programs (SSDI and SSI), how to apply, and the appeals if you are denied.
• When gambling is the problem: the helpline that answers at any hour, getting through an urge, blocking and self-exclusion, and the debts.
• When a debt collector calls: a debt collector: court papers, the first call, disputing a debt, making the calls stop, old debts, and what they can and can’t take.
• When the power or heat might be shut off: a shutoff notice: calling the company, a payment plan you can keep, energy assistance (LIHEAP), your state’s shutoff rules, and help with a phone or internet bill.
• When you can’t pay the mortgage: a missed mortgage payment or a foreclosure notice: calling your servicer, a free HUD-approved housing counselor, ways to stay or to leave, and the “rescue” that is a scam.
• When you might be evicted: rent you can’t pay, an eviction notice or court papers: help with rent, free legal aid, talking with your landlord, and what a landlord cannot do.
• When something is wrong at work: unpaid wages, unsafe work, harassment or retaliation: which federal office takes which problem, the phone numbers, and how long you have.
• When you need child care: child care: finding it, help paying for it, what a license means, and where to report a problem.
• Bankruptcy: what it is, what it costs, and where to start: bankruptcy: what to try first, Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, the steps, the court fees, and what it does not erase.
• Payday loans, title loans, and when the car might be taken: payday loans, title loans and repossession: what they cost, what to try first, and what to ask before and after the car is taken.
• Your credit report: getting it free, reading it, and fixing mistakes: your credit report: getting it free, what to check, disputing a mistake, how long things stay, and credit repair scams.
• A bank account: opening one, being turned down, and second chances: a bank account: what to bring to open one, being turned down, your checking account report, second chance accounts, and credit unions.
• Student loans: when you can’t pay, default, and what to ask: student loans: federal or private, a lower payment, what a pause costs, the ways out of default, forgiveness, and the signs of a scam.
• Working while you get disability benefits: the SSDI trial work period, how earnings change SSI, keeping Medicare and Medicaid, reporting your work, and getting benefits back: working while you get SSDI or SSI: the trial work period, how SSI counts earnings, how long Medicare and Medicaid can continue, what to report, an overpayment letter, and how benefits start again if the job does not last.

Tools on this site that go with this page

Free, and what you type stays in your browser. We chose these ourselves; no clinician did. They were written with AI and not reviewed by a clinician, and none of them is treatment.

• Your state’s offices: pick your state or territory and get its official offices (benefits, health, driver’s licenses, voting, consumer protection and more), as USAGov lists them. It saves nothing.
• Bills this month: what comes in, what is due, and what is left.
• Money plan: weekly pay, monthly rent and yearly bills turned into one month, and added up.
• Shopping list: the total of the list before the register, and the cart added up as you go.
• Paper trail: write down every call, letter and visit, with the date and who you spoke to.
• Call script: know what you will say before you dial.
• Dates to keep: every deadline and appointment on one list.
• Letters to your landlord: five short letters with blanks to fill in: a repair, a rent repayment plan, a statement of your account, your deposit.
• Debt payoff planner: each debt counted month by month: how long it takes, and what the interest adds up to.
• Unit price: two sizes or two brands, each priced for the same amount.
• Split the cost: shared costs divided evenly, and who pays whom.
• Income per month: hourly, weekly or two-week pay turned into a month and a year.
• Percent: a percent of an amount, how much something went up or down, and one amount as a part of another.
• Save up for it: how many paydays it takes to save up for something, or how much to put aside each time.
• How long will it last: how many days what you have lasts, the date of the last day, and how many packs to get.
• Gas for a trip: what the gas for a trip costs, how far the gas money goes, and miles a gallon from a fill-up.
• An amount in words: dollars and cents written out for a check, a receipt or a form, in English or Spanish.
• Make a flyer with tear-off strips: for a room, a thing for sale, or work you do.
• Make an invoice, a receipt or an estimate: for work you did or a thing you sold; the page adds it up.
• Make a QR code: for a link, a phone number or a few words, to put on a flyer or a card.
• All the free tools.