Because I can't. I made personal commitments to them that we had the money to pay them, due to my faulty financial numbers of course. I feel particularly bad to break my personal promises...
Are you being serious? IF you can't afford the developer you HAVE TO lay them off, give them an extra week's severance pay or whatever, but give them and yourself a chance to move forward
Sure if I absolutely can't pay them, that's what I have to do. But I'm just trying to make it work. I'm trying to squeeze all possibilities in the final month or so to make it work for everyone.
I definitely learned a lesson though.