I would love to not be on your back about this, but you put me in the situation of having to watch what happens very carefully. In the end it is your responsibility to pay your rent and power / internet. If you feel you can't meet this responsibility, it might be worth moving in with parents or something until you can sort out your finances and afford a flat. I shouldn't have to watch what happens week to week and keep a list of how much you owe: this is not normal flat behavior.

There is a reality of paying bills in a flat situation and you need to treat it as your first priority by carefully budgeting around what you need to pay each week.

You *do* need to be paying $95 to prevent falling further behind, I can't stress this enough. WINZ will be able to help you if you let them know your current situation and that you need to be paying a least $100 just to keep up with rent/power. (if we include a 5$ repayment each week - it will still take you just under 2 years to repay what you owe at this rate though...)

I'd be happy to help you work out a budget: take your income each week, reduce it by $100, then what remains is the money you have for food and other necessities. You may have to live cheap as I did when I was first starting out and setting up some savings. I would be happy to show you cheap recipes to make like perfect rice, Dahl, pastas, tasty cheap dishes, etc.

In the end I want this flat situation to work, because I like you and you're a good person. But you do need to treat your responsibility to pay rent and bills seriously and do whatever it takes to make WINZ support you when you don't have work. They will always make sure you have enough to survive, even if your rent/power/internet per week is $95 to $100.

I know you want to make this work as well, but at this stage your actions will speak louder than words. We have demonstrated over the past 8 months that just paying rent each week isn't quite enough and that bills get neglected, so I strongly recommend paying the $40 for bills each week as well. a $5 repayment would be nice and I don't mind if you pay back the ~$500 you owe over 2 years (If I was a cunt I would add interest, but I will not), and then just paying back what you can.

The systems exist to help you out: I'm happy to help with budgeting and cheap food recipes, WINZ should cover your bills and still provide you with plenty of money for food and other necessities. But you need to put in the effort as well: organizing WINZ to cover you, making an effort in managing your finances. If you feel you can't put in this effort you might have to think about finding somewhere else to live, and I can tell you there aren't many places cheaper than this flat.

Sorry for the long message, but these are some of the things I've been thinking about over the past few days. I'm not angry, I would love for you to keep living with us, but I need to see some input from you in making this work. Thanks.