My name is Jennifer. I was raised by a single momma (she was the best). As the second oldest, I helped raise my younger sisters. At one point, we were nearly homeless due to some shady dealings by our landlord at the time. My older sister and I were able to be approved to buy a home so it never came to that, but it was close.
Fast forward a few years and I met my husband. We ended up moving out of that house to start our life. I am still on the mortgage, but make no payments or have any claim in that property. Everything was going great. I got a big promotion. I bought a modest, new (to me) vehicle, my credit cards were empty, I even cosigned a loan for my sister to buy a car when a tree fell and smashed hers(she’s never missed a payment).
Then covid hit. I realized for the first time how miserable I was at my job at the time. We were in an okay financial situation, so my husband let me take some time off from working so I could find myself in August of 2021. That’s when my life started to crumble.
I only took a couple of months off before I started working again. One day, while at work, I had intense pain in my ankle. I went to a walk in clinic, they threw some pills at me and sent me on my way. Two months later the pain was so bad, I could barely walk, so I went to the ER the day after Thanksgiving 2021. They sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. Luckily we caught what was actually wrong before I lost my foot. The doctor told me that I was going to have to be in a cast, starting 2 days before Christmas. I hated the idea but what choice did I have. Unfortunately my life crashed harder before I even got to that point. My wonderful, loving momma passed away a week before Christmas. It was so unexpected, I cried for days, just heart broken. I went into a deep depression, unable to do much. My husband had to force me to eat. I had insomnia so bad I would barely sleep for days. On top of all that, I got covid. December and January were some of the lowest points for me.
In February I started working from home for Carvana. I finally found something I enjoyed, or so I thought. In May, they had a massive layoff, and I was let go unexpectedly. I took out some personal loans to get us by, as I had accumulated some medical debt and my husband was the only one paying bills. I went 6 weeks without a paycheck, using our credit cards to survive.
I am back to work now, and it is going well, but I’m struggling to catch up. My husband is trying the best he can, but doesn’t qualify as a cosigner for me and we still have regular bills to pay as well. I’ve tried to get approved for several debt consolidation loans, and I don’t even need much in the grand scheme of things. I only really need about $6000. I’ve been told my DTI is too high, even though I do not pay on the mortgage or my sister’s car. No one will look past those things to help me out, even though consolidating the debt would lower my monthly payment exponentially. My sister is not in a place where she can refinance to take me off of those things. I do everything I can for everyone without anything in return and I try not to ask for help, but I am desperately trying not to drown. I could really use a life preserver at this point. I appreciate anyone reading this and anyone who considers helping. It would mean more than I can explain. I will always try to pay it forward.