So, I’ve been working as a freelancer for the past 10 years. And I’ve managed, mostly by working 7 days a week, to mostly keep things paid. I’ve been struggling for a while now. My rent went up by $250 in March. Energy bills are up. Gas is… well, you know. I’ve been barely putting together just enough to survive to the next month for months now, and it’s been getting worse.
I knew I needed to increase my income, so I went looking for more work. And I found it. I actually just accepted a pretty great job. I’ll be a w-4 employee for the first time in 10 years, getting regular 2-week paychecks. Full time. Awesome.
Except I couldn’t continue my freelance work. Fine, I’m plenty busy with a full-time job. But the money I’m used to having come in from that work isn’t now, and I have to wait a while for my first paycheck.
Basically, I’m stuck in a paycheck gap. My first check isn’t going to be until next week, and it’s going to be entirely eaten up by rent. It won’t even cover my entire rent, but that’s not what I’m most concerned about right now. What most concerns me is that, while I’m trying to figure out how to get myself through the next few weeks on barely anything — my car battery died. At first, I figured, OK, I have roadside assistance, I’ll call them. But jumping it doesn’t do the trick. They say I need to replace it. But it’s a weird battery (it sits in the trunk) and expensive. $246, to be precise. Plus $30 to install it. So over $275 just for a car battery. I desperately need a running car. But I don’t have $275, and even when I do, I have to put it all on rent if I want to hope to continue to have a place to live. I won’t have money to deal with this until the check after next, about 3 weeks. Except that may not happen if I can’t drive.
And the thing is, I’ll be able to catch up. I’m so close. I’ve made payment arrangements with a couple of bills. When I’ve been getting regular 40-hour paychecks for a while, I should be fine within a few months. It should actually be better than when I was freelancing, in fact — I should be able to put money away for emergencies. Like a dead battery, for example. But of course, it happened now. Now when I’m already trying to figure out how to feed 4 people on like $50 for about 3 weeks — till the paycheck after next. I was going to be barely hanging on as it was. Now, I don’t know. I need my car to work. I need to feed my kids. I need to pay my rent. I’m not asking for anyone to fix all that. But if I was a couple of hundred dollars up, I could probably figure something out. I was already in a pretty tight spot. But if I can just get out of it, I’ll be OK.
I don’t have anyone to ask. I’m trying so hard. All I can think to do at this point is put it out there and hope someone, anyone, is willing to help. If I could just get the battery replaced, and maybe a little extra grocery money, that would probably be enough. I hate that I have to ask, but I would be so grateful if someone would just help me get over this hump. I’ve been working so hard to keep us stable with uncertain income and prices spiraling out of control. And I’ve finally maybe got a chance. I just need to get past this gap.
Literally, anything at all would help. If I could even get close, maybe I could work something out. Paypal: paypalme/cherylscripts