This is a truly difficult thing to write, I read other peoples and their need seems greater than mine but I find myself at a lost of what else I could do.
I am going to start by telling you about my situation I am a married mum of three. I was very young when I had my first child he was not planned and was a complete shock after I was told by Doctors that I could not conceive at a very young age. I had started to imagine my future to be a trendy young businesswoman hopefully growing to become a mentor and someone other women could look up to. However, after a very drunken weekend in Butlins I fell pregnant with my now 18-year-old son. Although my future had shifted, I embraced being a mother whole heartedly and even went on to have two more children. I have worked hard and continued to work hard to provide for my children along with my husband. We both work full time jobs with extra hours for extra income. We volunteer our time where possible to assist though less fortunate and during the covid pandemic we even volunteered Vaccine centres.
We have found ourselves in a situation where we are struggling to stay on top of general household bills and have zero disposable income. Thanks to the covid Pandemic where we both had reduced workload although as essential workers were still working, we found ourselves dipping into our savings until we had no more just to stay out of debt. During the covid pandemic my father became very ill and was hospitalised and unable to work for over 6 months so me and my sister were assisting our mother with his care when we could and providing food packages to keep them afloat. They had to sell our family home and move into assisted living, and they wish they could help us both out, but they have also found themselves with nothing to give. My sister lost her salon business as well due to the pandemic and she is now doing amazing at adapting to mobile working instead. So we are a family of hard workers that pull together in a crisis.
Which brings me to today where I find myself with 3 grown children not yet independent struggling to provide what they need clothes, shoes, travel for school. We are also not able to stay on top of general maintenance for our home or replace essentials like a leaking washing machine, wonky cooker, intermittently working hoover and a fridge that barely keeps our milk fresh. I right now am finding life very difficult I have over the years struggled with depression but always been able to fight through it and I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2015 and this changed my capability to do more myself around the house. We are indeed grateful that we have a home, but it is fast becoming an added stress and financial pressure. All I want to be able to do is provide not just a loving home but a functioning stress-free home as I really do feel that the youth of today are going to struggle to get out there on their own until a much later age, so I want to emotionally be able to support my children until they are ready to flourish on their own.
My children are wonderful they all work hard at school and do regular chores in our home. My eldest son has a small part time job whilst studying at college and pays for all his own clothes.
Having children so young and having gone through one recession already, now heading into another after the covid crisis I really don’t know what to do to get us back on an even track for a third time. For the first time in my life, I had to use a food bank last month which just seems crazy to me as both myself and my husband have well paid jobs and have our bills at a bare minimum with no luxuries, we haven’t been on holiday since 2015 as this is simply a luxury we can’t afford.
We have a long list that keeps stacking up of urgent fixes and although I have been selling stuff and trying to use swap sites where I can I just can’t seem to get our heads above water, and I fear it is only going to get worse. My health is worsening and that is going to eventually mean I must take time off work which I really can’t afford to do with no savings. As an example I currently need to buy my son some new school shoes and my daughter her new school uniform for September, so I sold a load of old clothes and shoes made enough money and then we got a flat tyre, so everything went on fixing the tyre as we need the car for work. I was so emotional that day and I feel like I am failing as a mother, a wife and letting myself down. We are really all working very hard, and it just seems it is not enough, and I have no more to give!
Sorry for the long and depressing explanation. If you can help in anyway at all I and my family would appreciate it! Any donations will go towards kids clothing needs, house maintenance and replacement of essential items in the hope that once we are on top of the long list, we can start to build our savings again! And continue to support our family and local community.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story
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