Owed Money - How to Ask for It?

When something is awkward I find it best to let the recipient know I feel awkward asking for xyz. Say something like "Hey Girls, I feel awkward asking for the money but can you please let me know when I can count on receiving this".

Kristina's approach is good too.

Email? Personally, I would just say money is tight right now and you are trying to collect from everyone, because its a bit of money.

Send a text or email saying "Hey guys, I found the recepit for xyz item and I realized I have not gotten reimbursed the portion each is $$ can you please forward asap for my records? Thank You!"

Easy peasy!

Ugh. Don't ya hate the people that are all jumping on the group gift bandwagon UNTIL it's time to pony up their share? LOL
I agree with the email idea. Something like:

Kate, Sheila, Mary, Spud and Winky,
I recently came across the receipt for ABC;s xyz, can you please send me your portion ($XX)?
Thanks!"

***ETA** YOU shouldn't feel awkward, they should!

I agree with Kristina. Something simple. Blame it on yourself for forgetting to ask about it. Or on your husband for 'nagging you' about money. "Hey y'all. Just wanted to email real quick. Husband Joe and I were balancing the checkbook and I realized that some of you haven't paid for the group gift to Sally's Baby Shower. If you could please send me a check this next week so I can do my budget it would be greatly appreciated."

I agree w/ the others. I would just send an email but I do feel a bit funny about pointing out those that haven't paid to the others so I would either email the WHOLE group and say something like "I am so happy that Suzy loved the gift we gave her. Since we know we won't be returning it, can those of you that still owe the $xxx get it to me within the next week?" OR email those that still owe the money but make it a BCC to all of them that way they all only see their own name...basically the same wording but maybe more of "Hey guys, I'm sure it's just an oversight but I am still awaiting your portion of the gift ($xxx) we gave Suzy. Will you be able to get it to me sometime this week?"

The reason I specified a time frame is because when I have left it openended in the past, it remains openended to this day!

I agree with JessinTexas ... I blame DH for this kind of thing ... usually, it is because he's asked and I forgot about it. Now, if this is close friends (like my BFFs or family), then our policy is if we loan it, we don't expect it back. If we get it back, great! If not, it's not worth ruining a family or long friendship. We've paid for plane tickets with a promise of pay back and haven't gotten it ... just had to let it go. It's not worth it to us and so, next time, we won't offer to pay. We've chalked it up as a gift to the person. Good luck!

I would say: "Cindy, a reminder just popped up in Outlook telling me to make sure I had collected all the money from our group gift. I had totally forgotten. Could you please drop that off at my desk when you have a chance. Thanks."
Badda boom.

I agree with the email. Perhaps you can scan the receipt and attach it to the email and say something like, wow, time flies!

"Thanks to the three of you who have paid your $10 portion, I still need to collect $10 from the other four people. If you need my address, let me know!

This is a great question....
How about this for a play it forward story. And, ironically, I just was thinking about it again today....

I had to ask the group gift gals for the $$ too a few years ago. Because life gets busy and it had fallen off their radar. They were all very apologetic and gave me checks. Ugh. One more errand for me to run. So I put the checks into an envelope to deposit. The envelop slipped down in between my driver seat and center console in my car, and I found it one day before selling the car about 2 years later. Not one of those gals ever asked me why I had not cashed their checks. Honestly, just today, sitting in church, that amount of lost $$ popped up in my thoughts, which was near $100 about 5 years ago. We've moved, and clearly it's not worth pursuing.

My 2 cents - ask for cash.

"Hey guys! I just wanted to remind you that I haven't received repayment yet from you for Emily's gift. You still owe $___ and I need to have the money by __/__. Thanks so much for understanding!"

Make no apologies. They're the ones who owe you one.

Thanks for asking this question! Hubby & I are SOOO bad at collecting money owed to us, but honestly, I don't see why WE should feel bad when THEY are the ones who didn't hold up their part of the bargain! :( One thing I have learned is that the longer you put it off, the harder it is to collect. All the other Mamas gave great advice. Whichever one you choose, do it soon! Good luck!!

Hello, Do you have all of their email addresses? Perhaps you could just send out a "group" email reminding all of them that some people may have forgotten to pay.
Good luck.
K. K.

We have a group of Moms that regularly work on projects together. When we owe money to one another we just send out an email saying. Just to remind you..... Would you be able to send me a check for such and such. When I have forgot, I feel awful. I don't like leaving people unpaid. I would want someone to remind me.

Don't apologize. Just matter of factly state, "Hey, can you get me the money for the group gift that you me, by Friday?"

I wouldn't e-mail, since if they haven't paid you, maybe someone will say they didn't get the e-mail.

Mindy:

Simple. Don't feel awkward. They agreed. They owe.

Drop them an e-mail or a call them. If you see them - say - "hey - I just wanted to touch base regarding the group gift we got for Jane. Can you get your portion of the money to me?"

In the future, don't offer to buy it without the contributions in hand. Or you can do it the way I do it. Don't loan money you can't afford to lose. I know this wasn't a loan - like a traditional loan - but it was. You fronted the money for those who wanted to go in.

Call them, talk to them or e-mail them. Don't feel awkward.

Maybe you could approach just one of them, whomever you're closest with, and ask her for the money and explain how awkward you feel about it. Then ask if you can enlist her to ask the others for their share b/c asking for money sounds fine coming from someone who also owes it, but not so much from the the person who is owed. She can say "Hey you guys, we still owe Mindy that money from January. I told her I would remind you all. Can you make sure you get it to her? I think she's starting to wonder what happened..."

I would send a quick email as a reminder that they have not paid up their "part" toward the gift, or if they are poeple that you see in person and do not have the email addresses of, simply ask them. Just say to them, Oh hey, remember when we all chipped in for that gift for so and so? Well, there were quiet a few people who have not paid me back yet, and you are one of them. I am sure that you just forgot, so could I get that from you today? I could really use it and with so many of you it adds up. Then I would NOT be the one to purchase the gift next time, but just chip in your part. I cannot tell you how many times my teenagers and I have been "stiffed" on gifts like this! It happened a LOT while they were in high school and doing theatre. I finally stopped doing the "group gifts" and basically only bought a gift for the teacher/ director if I wanted to and could afford to buy the whole thing. I let my daughters add any names to it they wanted, and if anyone else decided to put money toward the present it was a little bonus. (the teacher did finally figure out that these were mostly coming from just one or 2 kids, so it was made a no no to do anymore) Good luck! I hope that you have an easy time collecting!

"Hey, can I get that $20 bucks from you from X's gift".

call them, text them send them an email, which ever way you feel more comfortable about. Don't let them owing you make you feel awkward, confront them, they should be the ones feeling awkward.