Can you help us get out of a temporary hole?
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Here's how someone gets into a temporary hole they can't get out of without a helping hand. If there were other options we hadn't already done, we wouldn't be here. First off, any donation will help a great deal, as it all adds up. Thank you for all generous donations we've received that allowed us to accomplish a few things that I've removed from the page since doing. We understand that few have money to share, so it's not easy to share a personal story like this - but here we are. Maybe you'll pass it forward like we used to & not judge us, and we hope you'll never get into a situation like ours.
I became officially disabled in 1997 after years of seeking a diagnosis. I got four, basically all associated, causing chronic pain & other symptoms that I won't go into here. I can't be cured but have done a lot of physical therapy, biofeedback, etc, and tried many natural alternative reliefs w/little results. Most are expensive & insurance doesn't cover anyway. I had a career that I loved & lost when I could no longer function well enough to work, which naturally caused a snowball of difficulties.
This paragraph is an update as of 2-25-19: we'll have to move by sometime between Oct 1st & the end of Dec, if we can make it here that long. We've lived here 5 yrs but now our rent is increasing in two increments: $25/mth in April, and $25/mth in Oct., changing our rent from $650/mth to $700/mth. Then, in Jan '20, it goes up to $800/mth. Any increase would've been difficult since $650 had us maxed out. We can't afford to pay more, nor can we afford to move. It's so expensive, between renting a truck... just transferring utilities is very costly. Decent affordable rental homes are very hard to find & rental rates have gone up tremendously. At this time we have no idea what to do, but we're having a big yard sale in April to get down to minimal 'stuff' we don't absolutely need. Hopefully that will help pay for the extra rent in for at least April.
We're currently at a point where we can only afford enough food for maybe three weeks of the month, altho we do get $59/mth of EBT state food assistance. We eat 2 small meals/day, find food bargains & support small local farms, don't eat out & cook from scratch to avoid unhealthy processed fake 'food'. It's physically hard for me to do since my mobility is limited, but chemicals are bad for everyone's health, so it's worth it. It's frustrating & aggravating to move so slow, but I'm hard headed & push myself. Food pantries are empty in our rural community & in this part of the state they only provide for people in their immediate area. If they had food they could give 2-3 days worth. Many Americans who once had really good lives now know real hunger.
Our vehicle is 20 yrs & is beyond repairing. It has no air conditioning, a shattered taped up back side window, a badly cracked windshield, an oil leak, and needs tires, an oil change & a tune up to possibly stop the skipping. The seats are wearing out & it's simply past it's time. We feel it's not worth putting all that money into it at this point when we could buy a cheap used vehicle for less. We'd like to buy a small truck or something for around 2.5K. There is no public transportation here.
My husband will be retiring in 1 1/2 yrs, so things will be getting somewhat better for us. He's 63 &is waiting for the 2nd age requirement to get a far better monthly benefit. He is making money meanwhile but not full time, since he's helping his elderly mother a lot right now. He needs a cornea transplant that is causing slow blindness that will become total if he doesn't get the transplant. He has no current insurance but was on Obamacare 'Affordable Healthcare". I say affordable laughingly, since he had it for the 1st two years, then the premiums & deductibles went up so much that he had to drop it.
We're hoping to find a Surgeon's For Sight, or similar program, to help with his cornea surgery but no luck so far. The problem was discovered during cataract surgery seven yrs ago where he was fortunately in an eye surgery assistance program. He's had poor vision all of his life. We're looking into an alternative procedure but it's considered experimental. Hopefully Medicare, when he gets it, will help with this but not sure it will cover experimental. His vision is getting worse so we hope it will hold out till he gets Medicare. He's the only one of us who drives & he does the grocery shopping. Muscle spasms & the inability to turn my neck well prevents me from driving & getting around in stores well so he'd rather just do it faster alone.
Our past financial difficulties include the loss of our home when I was going through the long disability process, and we'd had to change from two incomes to one. We still had four young teens living at home then. I'll never get over that, but you can't go back. You can't save for a down payment on anything to own after that, as credit gets ruined when loan holders repeatedly buy & resell a loan for years. Each new loan holder put the debt back on our credit report, so we've had to rent since since then. We have good credit now but it's impossible to save at this point. We live very frugally & work on managing the necessities, having no credit debt or any other kind of debt.
We've been happily married for almost 27 years, so that part of life is great for us. We spend no money on cable tv or a cell phone. We don't shop or buy gifts, tho we have grandchildren. We've taught them that time spent together is a better & more wonderful gift. We hope to get our life into a better place. If we can get past even part of this current heavy & stressful burden, we'll manage w/continued frugal living & careful budgeting. Thank you for reading this Anything you help us with is greatly appreciated & means more than you know.
I became officially disabled in 1997 after years of seeking a diagnosis. I got four, basically all associated, causing chronic pain & other symptoms that I won't go into here. I can't be cured but have done a lot of physical therapy, biofeedback, etc, and tried many natural alternative reliefs w/little results. Most are expensive & insurance doesn't cover anyway. I had a career that I loved & lost when I could no longer function well enough to work, which naturally caused a snowball of difficulties.
This paragraph is an update as of 2-25-19: we'll have to move by sometime between Oct 1st & the end of Dec, if we can make it here that long. We've lived here 5 yrs but now our rent is increasing in two increments: $25/mth in April, and $25/mth in Oct., changing our rent from $650/mth to $700/mth. Then, in Jan '20, it goes up to $800/mth. Any increase would've been difficult since $650 had us maxed out. We can't afford to pay more, nor can we afford to move. It's so expensive, between renting a truck... just transferring utilities is very costly. Decent affordable rental homes are very hard to find & rental rates have gone up tremendously. At this time we have no idea what to do, but we're having a big yard sale in April to get down to minimal 'stuff' we don't absolutely need. Hopefully that will help pay for the extra rent in for at least April.
We're currently at a point where we can only afford enough food for maybe three weeks of the month, altho we do get $59/mth of EBT state food assistance. We eat 2 small meals/day, find food bargains & support small local farms, don't eat out & cook from scratch to avoid unhealthy processed fake 'food'. It's physically hard for me to do since my mobility is limited, but chemicals are bad for everyone's health, so it's worth it. It's frustrating & aggravating to move so slow, but I'm hard headed & push myself. Food pantries are empty in our rural community & in this part of the state they only provide for people in their immediate area. If they had food they could give 2-3 days worth. Many Americans who once had really good lives now know real hunger.
Our vehicle is 20 yrs & is beyond repairing. It has no air conditioning, a shattered taped up back side window, a badly cracked windshield, an oil leak, and needs tires, an oil change & a tune up to possibly stop the skipping. The seats are wearing out & it's simply past it's time. We feel it's not worth putting all that money into it at this point when we could buy a cheap used vehicle for less. We'd like to buy a small truck or something for around 2.5K. There is no public transportation here.
My husband will be retiring in 1 1/2 yrs, so things will be getting somewhat better for us. He's 63 &is waiting for the 2nd age requirement to get a far better monthly benefit. He is making money meanwhile but not full time, since he's helping his elderly mother a lot right now. He needs a cornea transplant that is causing slow blindness that will become total if he doesn't get the transplant. He has no current insurance but was on Obamacare 'Affordable Healthcare". I say affordable laughingly, since he had it for the 1st two years, then the premiums & deductibles went up so much that he had to drop it.
We're hoping to find a Surgeon's For Sight, or similar program, to help with his cornea surgery but no luck so far. The problem was discovered during cataract surgery seven yrs ago where he was fortunately in an eye surgery assistance program. He's had poor vision all of his life. We're looking into an alternative procedure but it's considered experimental. Hopefully Medicare, when he gets it, will help with this but not sure it will cover experimental. His vision is getting worse so we hope it will hold out till he gets Medicare. He's the only one of us who drives & he does the grocery shopping. Muscle spasms & the inability to turn my neck well prevents me from driving & getting around in stores well so he'd rather just do it faster alone.
Our past financial difficulties include the loss of our home when I was going through the long disability process, and we'd had to change from two incomes to one. We still had four young teens living at home then. I'll never get over that, but you can't go back. You can't save for a down payment on anything to own after that, as credit gets ruined when loan holders repeatedly buy & resell a loan for years. Each new loan holder put the debt back on our credit report, so we've had to rent since since then. We have good credit now but it's impossible to save at this point. We live very frugally & work on managing the necessities, having no credit debt or any other kind of debt.
We've been happily married for almost 27 years, so that part of life is great for us. We spend no money on cable tv or a cell phone. We don't shop or buy gifts, tho we have grandchildren. We've taught them that time spent together is a better & more wonderful gift. We hope to get our life into a better place. If we can get past even part of this current heavy & stressful burden, we'll manage w/continued frugal living & careful budgeting. Thank you for reading this Anything you help us with is greatly appreciated & means more than you know.
Organizer
Susan Nash
Organizer
Greenville, SC