I have found myself in a seemingly impossible situation that I never saw coming. My partner of many years recently developed a gambling addiction that escalated quickly as he kept spending to win back what he had lost & prevent a financial disaster. Obviously, that makes little sense and he just lost a lot more. Over the past 2-3 weeks he drained my savings: Money I put away each semester to pay most of my portion of our bills for that stretch of time. This money has allowed me to stay home with our 10-month-old son as much as possible and allowed me to leave the management job I’d had for 11yrs so I could transfer from community college to my dream school, UT, full time. After 7 years of school (I could only go very part-time up until I transferred) I finally am set to graduate next summer, class of 22’, with my degree in Government…Or At least that’s what I’m hoping that will still be possible…
along with the gambling problem my partner also developed anger issues, I’m sure stemming from losing and shame, and this coupled with the struggle that comes with new fatherhood was not meshing well for any of us. As I struggled with how to both get by financially with or without him and what decision was best for everyone emotionally, he lost his job probably because of his attitude stemming from his problem, and he decided to up and leave without a day’s notice. He left town without all of rent paid that was due on the 3rd, the day before my 30th birthday, and knowing I had $0 to my name and no time or way to make a substantial amount of money to come up with it on my own for either the current balance ($350 and growing daily thanks to late fees) or next months rent or any of our other bills as I don’t receive more aid until mid/late August.
With the addition of our son this past year, I was already concerned that the financial strain from me not working would put me finishing school in jeopardy so after being offered a great WFH job doing apartment locating services I also spent the last 6 months working on obtaining my real estate license, which I just received 2 weeks ago. I am set to begin training next week but I don’t expect to begin making any commission realistically until august as well. Between being a mommy with no help whatsoever (I have no family outside of my disabled mother), my 4 accelerated summer classes, and training for my new job somehow without his support to watch our child, I have more to tackle than there are hours in a day. I don’t expect to have much if any, time to work in the next week with the first summer session coming to an end, not unless I risk failing as I already fell behind dealing with all of this. And even if I dropped my second session courses and worked my gig jobs full time for the next month, baby in tow, I probably still would fall quite a bit short. To make matters work, I’ve also been renting out my car on weekends on Turo since we had his too, and that will likely stop unless I’m able to stay at home for the entire rental duration (I live at the intersection of 2 highways in the suburbs, not much to speak of for public transport or safe areas to walk in.)
I feel like I’m doomed, there’s no way I’m going to save my son and me from losing our apartment and staying in school. After 7 years of college going part-time, losing it when my graduation is finally insight would be beyond devastating. I grew up in poverty and have faced homelessness before and couch surfed/stayed in motels at an earlier point in life – but now that I have my son, that’s just not an option. I don’t even know how I’d move all my stuff on my own if it came to that! 😭 I’m also absolutely heartbroken, and I feel like everything I envisioned for my life is quickly slipping away. At a minimum, I must pay my past due rent immediately, and then I’ll have to figure out everything for the next month quickly thereafter. I’ve never sought help before and it makes me so upset that I have to, but I have to put my pride aside for my sons well being. If someone was willing to back me out of this bind I would be so insanely grateful. In not sure how it’s possible to pull off on my own. And even if you can’t offer any help, thanks for reading it sob story and I could use some good vibes sent my way!