Help Me Keep My Car

Hi there! My name is Erin, and this is embarrassing, but I need your help. I’m a freelance content writer and over the last year work has been…sparse (thanks AI). This has caused me to fall behind on my car payments and now I need to come up with $350 in the next couple of days or my car will be repossessed.

Why Don't You Just Find Another Job?

Trust me, I’m trying. I’m applying to everything I am remotely qualified to do. I am reaching out to past clients, asking for referrals, cold contacting potential new clients, working on expanding my services to include copywriting, photography, and admin tasks. I signed up for Task Rabbit but can’t spare the $25 to actually activate my Tasker profile (I kind of need my car to be a tasker so saving it takes priority). I’d much rather work for the money than just ask for it, I promise.

Dude, Just Donate Plasma!

I know, right? You’d think that would be my first go-to. I looked into it, but it turns out that plasma centers in my area don’t just hand out cash after delivery. They use a debit/reward card system called iGive Rewards. It can take up to a week for donation earnings to become available in the system. I only have three days. Plus, driving to the donation center kind of requires me to have a car (and $$ for gas). I’m going to start donating next week, just to start building a safety net, but in the meantime, I need help.

Can’t You Just Take the Bus/Train?

Friends, I would if I could. If I had accessible public transit, I wouldn’t even have a car to begin with. I live on the rural edge of the Hillsboro/Portland border. For reference, my closest crossroads are Old Cornelius Pass Rd and NW Phillips Rd. If you’re in the area, that’s about where the Rock Creek Tavern is located. Using the Rock Creed Tavern as a starting point (for privacy’s sake) the closest bus stop is a 2.6 mile walk away. There are no sidewalks out here, the speed limit is 40-50 miles an hour. Even in perfect weather, that’s not safe.

Okay, Okay. So, What Are You Asking?

I talked to the company I used to finance my car. The *minimum* I need to keep my car from being repossessed is $300. Since GoFundMe takes a percentage of each donation, I increased my ask to $350 to cover those costs. If I bring in any more than that, I will be donating it. Half of the overflow will go to the Oregon Food Bank. The other half will be divided up among other GoFundMe requests from askers in my local area.

Anything Else? This is Taking Forever

Actually, yes! As I mentioned, I would much rather *earn* this money than ask for a handout. So, if you would like some sort of return for your payment, let me know! You can commission a blog post (500 words for $50), I can write silly haikus (generally I’d charge around $10), doodle something (usually I’d charge around $15 for a 4 x 6 doodle) almost whatever you want as long as I can deliver it digitally!

Honestly, anything you can spare would be very much appreciated. I know times are hard for all of us right now. I’m going to do everything I can to pay the generosity forward as soon as I’m on my feet again.

Thank you for reading all of this!