Plasencia family stay afloat

Hello, my name is Orlando Plasencia. I would not be doing this if I had any other options to help my family and I stay afloat. Like many families during and after the peak of the pandemic, we struggled quite a bit and decided to start new by moving to Winter Garden, FL with new jobs at Universal Studios Orlando, held by myself, my wife and my oldest. My youngest would work there too via their amazing school/work program but he's only 14. Has to wait until he's 16.

We acclimated to our new surroundings and new jobs with much joy but did not see what was coming ahead. I.E. rising rent, rising costs of many household products and food, rising costs of gasoline.

As time went on we had to dip into whatever savings we had including our credit cards to help stay afloat until one day we were pretty much out of savings as well as maxed out our cards.

Then, very much like a snowball, the problems continued to roll bigger and bigger into a boulder size problem. We spent the better part of a year trying to diagnose a problem with our only vehicle that gets us to work. Several trips to one particular mechanic, pep boys, and finally to a local firestone nearby and hundreds of dollars gone into work and replacing parts, we finally figured out the issue. But recently, there is now a new problem. Something with a sensor that handles the traction of the vehicle. Again, dipping into money we barely have.

Tragedy struck our little family as we lost our family pet, Ryder, first one we adopted as a family, after over 10 years ago. After weeks of trying to figure out through vet vists, home remedies, and final vet visit, we were set back quite a bit.

About a month ago, I lost my job at Universal Orlando over a huge misunderstanding and luckily, I was able to appeal and get my job back after a month of not working. Suffice it to say, that also set us back quite back.

Yes, we are much happier up here compared to Miami as life got ridiculously expensive but life keeps hitting us in short intervals. Many times we are able to get similar schedules so we don't have to make multiple trips to and from work but there are times we have to make those additional trips on the daily since three of us work there.

Our lease is up at the end of June and not sure if we'll be allowed to stay or not and if yes, then, like most, our rent will probably go up again.

Overall, it has not been an easy time with everything going on. Everything has been constant between vehicle repairs, vet visits, rising costs of....pretty much everything necessary and not enough pay raises. Although I'm told we at Universal Studios will be getting pay bumps later in the year to help with rising costs of everything one deals with but until then, we are desperate and in need of any help people can give.