First, thank you so, so much for taking the time to read. I initially tried to make this more succinct, but once I started, I couldn’t trim it down because everything feels important to clarify. I’ve never had to ask for money like this before, so getting past the shame has been difficult.
It started back in 2020, like I’m sure it did with a lot of people. I was in a decent place financially, and then the pandemic hit. At the time, I was working under an extremely toxic boss who resisted all calls for quarantine and work-from-home. We (my department) finally managed to work out a schedule of alternating half of us working from home one day while the others were in the office and swapping every day. But my/our boss’ ambivalence and the global situation eventually lead to my having a series of panic attacks ending in a mental breakdown on top of contracting COVID myself. This landed me in the emergency room one morning, and that left me with a $2000 medical bill. This was just the start.
A few months afterwards, once that bill came into repayment, I had another medical crisis. I started noticing discharge and strangeness in my breasts, and through the rest of the year, I went to different doctors, had all sorts of other tests done, and by December 2020, I was down two breasts from a double mastectomy and another $10,000 in medical bills. This is all part of the 20% my insurance wouldn’t cover.
2021 and 2022 didn’t go much better. In addition to needing to repay all of this, I have an old car (2011 – 130k miles) which needed a lot of work. The auxiliary battery went out ($300), the windshield needed to be replaced ($350), the tires needed to be replaced ($500), the alignment needed to be fixed, etc. Plus regular maintenance. By 2022, my “relatively safe” financial situation had been decimated.
2023 – more medical bills. COVID again. A diabetes diagnosis. A Long COVID diagnosis. Vet bills – I have an 11-year-old cat who, while relatively healthy for now, needs medicine and special food. My car needed new brakes. My mortgage went up. My utilities went up. Gas went up. Groceries went up. Yard maintenance went up (I have to pay someone to mow my yard because I’m physically incapable of doing it myself, and I’ll get fined by my HOA if it isn’t mowed). Inflation. And more and more and more.
In 2023, I had to take out a home equity line of credit on my house with an exorbitant interest fee just to consolidate some of the bills I was struggling to keep up with. Now, in 2024, I’ve had to negotiate with a credit counseling firm to get my medical bill-maxed credit card down to a reasonable interest rate so I can maybe pay it down one day. I’ve been applying to better paying jobs for four years with no results.
My total monthly bills (before “luxuries” like groceries, gas, and cat food) come to around $2200. Which is exactly what I make after taxes on my paycheck per month, so there’s literally nothing to spare for the above “luxuries”. I’m constantly in the red now. I’ve been living off of baked potatoes and cereal for almost two years. As of writing, my bank account is –$405 (yes, that’s a negative), soon to be worse once they add in the $35 overdraft fee (again). My house payment is $850 and due next week.
If I can just get a couple thousand to act as a cushion between paychecks, that would help tremendously. Just not having to worry about overdraft fees on top of everything else would make it easier to sleep. Having a cushion I could go to the next time my cat needs to go to the vet or I have a follow-up doctors appointment or my car needs an oil change – there aren’t enough words to describe how much that would help.
Again, thank you so, so much for taking the time to read my plea, even if you can’t donate. I appreciate your kindness and understanding more than I can say.
My PayPal.me is paypal.me/nkfloofiepoof and CashApp is $nkfloofiepoof