Left: Jamaica Public Service (JPS) bills - WINSTON SILL   Right: A crowd of shoppers wait outside Kingston Bookshop on King Street, Kingston, to be allowed in to shop during back-to-school shopping on Saturday, September 3, 2005. - Andrew Smith

The financial shock of a huge bill has repercussions for not only the life of the person who has to pay it, but also those around them, as in many cases it will affect spending patterns that involve family.

One of the main large bills that people face regularly is back-to-school expenses, with the frantic scrambling to pay for school supplies and books happening in late August every year.

However, according to social work student Carolyn, who has seen the traumatic effect of the back-to-school period on the poor first-hand in her field work, the shock does not have to be so great.

"It is a lot of money, yes, especially for those who do not have much money to work with in the first place, but the fact is that it is not an unexpected expense. It is a set time period for which the fees are know well ahead of time and can even be estimated from last year's figure," Carolyn said.

Genuine emergencies

And accountant Marie, who is heading into the second level of the ACCA examinations, classified 'shocking' bills as related to serious illness and other such genuine emergencies. "Really, you should have something put aside for illnesses, so it has to be something really major to create that serious dislocation," she said.

She advises that large, regular bills should be planned for in a longer time frame than the regular expenses such as utilities. "We have an idea of what our light bill and water bill will be from month to month and we plan for that. Then there is absolutely no reason why we cannot plan for a major, regular bill," she said.

Marie said it is all a matter of mindset, as when persons are forced to meet bills such as mortgages or face the consequences, they do so. "It is simply a matter of personal discipline in terms of saving money towards a specific goal," she said. "If we have to make a particular deadline and we are constrained by external influences, then we will do it," Marie said.

She advises that persons make at least a six-month schedule of all their regular expenses. "When we have something in mind it is different from seeing it on paper. When it is in black and white it has a different impact; it is very present in front of us and we are constrained by it in our everyday spending," Marie said.

And Carolyn advised: "It is important that the people who will be affected by the expenditure, as well as the savings, understand what is happening. The saying 'no one is an island' is very true."