Hello, I am a 21 year old who’s realized how serious my shopping addiction really is. I know this may sound like the same ole same ole sob story but let me tell you why it’s not, Ill keep it as short and simply as I can.

I was homeschooled by a very mentally ill mother who was battling a pill addiction most of my childhood. The only thing I ever learned from her was what not to be. My dad is closeted meaning he spent most of his time at “work”. When I turned 11 my dad realized just how severe my moms pill addiction was and put me and my two other siblings into public school. We all struggled because we had only ever learned about the education equivalent of a 3rd grader. I pushed threw 5th-8th grade. But my mom had relapsed the summer before starting high school for me and my twin brother, and left without and word.  My older sister had just graduated high school and got the hell out of our childhood home.  I got a job at a local boutique to help my dad out, and I did half days to work and finish my high school career.  My twin and I made it threw high school and graduated. Like clock work my  mom contacted my dad and wanted to get a divorce and to reconnect to my twin and I. She moved back into to settle things. Hurt by my dad accepting her back so easily I left and to Miami with my High school boyfriend. About 5 months into a fresh start in Miami, my boyfriend grew to be extremely abusive. The finally straw for me was he broke my car window with my phone in a public setting, ofc a bystander called the police and I realized I needed to move on from the relationship. I couldn’t afford rent without him so I had to call it quits 7 months into Miami. I called my dad told him my circumstances, and that id be coming home. To end my lease I paid my 5 months of rent I had left and rented a moving truck which cost me my saving, 5,120 in total. So we are now in the year 2019, it’s may, I’m helping my dad settle stuff for the divorce and working on my relationship with my mom. I started down the dark path of an alcohol addiction. I hit rock bottom very quickly in October when I was raped at a frat party due to me being blackout drunk, someone took me to the hospital when I was found and I went into to surgery due to excessive bleeding and to restore some of my fallopian tubes. Recovery was about a month down, luckily my job kept me on. However I kept my shopping addiction alive when I couldn’t keep my alcohol addiction alive.

The pandemic hits, Im forced to start reflecting.

This is were I ran my course, I didn’t ever realize how traumatic my childhood was because I was a caretaker for the most of it, and trying to survive. My mom slept in my room growing up, I took care of her, and when she left, I took her role and took care of my dad and brother. I had never had nice things growing up and didn’t yet want to face my childhood, my shopping addiction starts. I burned through my money left and right, I was still working at the boutique I previously worked in high school when the peak of covid-19 hit. I was out of work due to lockdown. I ran through more money, my parents were ready to be settled in the divorce by September.  I was told I needed to find a place to live. I was set to move in with my best friend in September. I wasn’t saving, just shopping and trying to stay away from relapse with any sort of distraction. My mom decides to open up to me before we all went our separate ways. She tells me my dad is closeted and was having affairs and every time she was relapsing it had a lot to do with my father. See he had been giving her std, and refused to come out due to his parents judgement. We were only homeschooled because his parents feared one of us would also stray from the church, and should only be near the church. End of it all her leaving in my year 9 was bc he had giving her another std and it had done permanent damage to her body.

I couldn’t relapse but the news shattered the very small idea of why my childhood was like and I fell into more shopping. I grew 3,400 dollars in debt and haven’t been able to pay it off due to having rent and other bills come first. I am in therapy and learning a healthy healing distance from my parents, and working on both of my addictions day by day. I pay all my bills, food, rent, health and car insurance. I unfortunately lost my job to covid and took about a month to find a new one, i recently started at  to help pay my way. But the debt has caused my credit score  to drop so low I fear i’ll never be able to purchase a car or one day a home.  I don’t have much guidance and generally don’t know how to fix my problem or where to turn anymore. I don’t and never have had an adult figure in my life and would even appreciate just advice on what I can due to relieve debt.

I have a very old car and will be needing a new one soon. I AM NOT in the position to purchase a new one, on top of other bills. I would just like to be able to get myself out of debt and work towards saving for college and bills, and hopefully a car.

ANYTHING helps, I appreciate it if you took the time to read and even just have a word of advice for me.

My husband of 2 years, best friend of 5, is writing a book.  For as long as I’ve known the man, he works harder than most, is more honest than GENEROUS than anyone I’ve ever met, and seems to have the worst financial trouble of anyone that I know.  He wasn’t always, but now is a church-going, God-fearing man.  He started his own carpentry business a few years before he married his first wife, and it has kept him afloat for the last 16 years.  But just barely.  Fighting overdraft fees, not getting paid when or what he was promised, and other obstacles have most definitely hindered his success.  I remember him telling me a story of how he sub contracted for a larger framing business here in town. When the project was finished he was offered an amount at just 25% of what he was promised.  His options at that point were to take the money, or take them to court.  He couldn’t afford to do the latter, and was forced to take a major paycut. another one.  and it didn’t even come close to covering the bills.

He also couldn’t afford the luxuries his wife required. so she eventually left him, and took most of what finances he didn’t have already.

Before my son and I came along, my husband was living only with his two daughters. He gets them for part of every week, and the rest of the time they spend at mom’s. The girls share a room upstairs, while hubby has been trying so hard to get the basement done to give them each their own space. They’re teenagers now.  My son who is turning 8, is sleeping on the couch in the living room.  The girls have a bunkbed, one of which just broke.  Finding time to fix it hopefully this weekend while the girls are at their moms.

Meanwhile. the rest of the home is falling apart.  We are currently battling a shower leak that drips into the downstairs and is also seeping into the master bedroom. With only one fan available, we have to choose which one is worse that day and put the fan on it, leaving a rotton-mildewy smell in our bedroom.

We married two years ago, and hoping to cash in on a break from real life almost a year later, we planned to FINALLY honeymoon using flyer miles given to us by his parents.  we had money saved from wedding gifts for hotel, we had our flights booked and we were ready to go.  Then covid hit.  like i said, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Hubby’s book he was writing was based on how you can manage everything in this world on your own.  However, since we have been together, he has learned (and painfully so) that it is near impossible to navigate the waters alone.   Although he has sought help, both from his peers and from above, things are still falling apart.  He works long and strenuous 15-hour days, weekends at times, all just to catch up.  in what spare time he does have, he spends it coaching his daughter’s sports so he is making sure to have quality time and life spent with them.  It’s hard to find any spare time, but he does when he can, for us.  We don’t go on fancy dates, we watch a half a movie here and there while he does his business paperwork. (we can’t afford to hire anyone else.) And I help where I can.  We’ve snuck out for a few successful 30 minute meals since we’ve been married. Whatever we need, though stretched incredibly thin, he finds a way to make it work.

What I’d like to do the most is support my husband’s book writing, which he has no time to do.  At all. If I had the money (I work 50-65 hours a week myself) I would pay for him to work on our home, and give him time to write his book.  Where it used to be about doing everything on your own, I believe a generous donation from strangers could help him ease his mind as well as give his book an entirely new perspective on what life is really about.

TOGETHER, we want to be able to spend quality time with our family. We want to go on mission trips to help others who are less fortunate. I have a dream to help addicts in recovery and abused women and children.  He has a dream to build and to help others succeed in life. Together, and with the help of added finances, I know we can accomplish so much.

If everyone who read our story donated the minimum, and shared about us, it could easily change so many lives, just like that.  Thank you and God-Bless

My name is chance. I’ve never been the one to ask for help. I lived an extremely fast life. Age 9 my mother fled the state of S.C. with me. Bounced home to home and street to street from Virginia to Louisiana (every state in between). Missed school from 3rd grade to 9th due to this. Got into foster care age 15. My education of course was shot. I struggled. Dropped out. Worked restaurants. I never thought my life would be like this. An addict mother, fatherless childhood. No sense of security or home. Abused. I’m grown now. In my 20s. Watching my days go by. Getting older. My future seems doomed. I’ve tried to become something. Worked hard. Stayed out of  trouble. Not even a speeding ticket. In alot of ways I persevered. Except for security financially and emotionally. I don’t own anything except for a car. Which is 20yrs old. Last leg so to speak. I clock in/out daily as the years go by. I’ve yet to see any success. I see the “bad guys” achieve more far more quickly. I’ve always kept my nose clean. Wanted something different for my story/life. I’m scared to death that once my youth is gone and I can’t work no more that I’ll have work my life away with nothing to show for. I’m not asking for a handout. I’m asking for a blessing. Just once in my life. Where I come out on top. Maybe I’m not even asking for that. Maybe this is more of a vent. Where I can just say everything for complete strangers to see and not fear judgement. I honestly don’t know. I just want help. This is why the title says honestly. This is my PayPal link. Just set it up.

https://paypal.me/ChanceDorn?locale.x=en_US

I am a junior in high school and I was accepted into an exchange program to be able to go to Kosovo for my senior year. I will be spending my whole 2021-2022 school year there and will be able to experience all kinds of new things. My grandparents are from Kosovo and I want to be able to connect to our culture and visit distant relatives, I would love to walk the streets of Prishtina and take in the air, connect to my heritage, taste the food and hear the music of Kosovo.

My grandparents left Kosovo in the 1960’s when it was still part of Yugoslavia, and emigrated first to Germany and then to the United States where they became active in the Kosovar and Albanian communities. They have worked hard and have passed their values to their children and ultimately to their grandchildren. I feel such a connection to the land of my people (including Dua Lipa, Ava Max, the Belushi brothers, Bebe Rexha, Skanderbeg, Valon Behrami and so many others) though I have never had the chance to visit. My grandfather calls me “rrush”, which means grape his native language, I would love to see the vineyards of his youth with my own eyes.

I have not ever been allowed to do anything like this and I think it will be an amazing opportunity. I have long desired to study in a foreign environment and to immerse myself in a new culture and become fully bilingual.

The program that is helping to sponsor me is willing to put up half of the funds needed for me to be able to go on my trip but I still have to put up the other half of the money.

I had come up with great ideas to fund raise such as selling candies, car washes, and asking local institutions which has become impossible due to the current situation with the pandemic. My parents were also in a financial situation in which they would have been much more able to help me before furloughs struck in 2020 and they are now on a much tighter budget, which does not enable them to give me the support they initially were willing to.

I would really appreciate anything towards making this dream of mine come true. This will also look great on my college application as it is a goal of mine to enter diplomacy and continue my activities in model UN. I have a deadline in July 2021 to collect the funds and am adamantly using all resources to collect the funds in a timely manor.

Please help me to pursue this venture and to connect to my roots!

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/kosovo2021

Hey everybody! I am a 24 year old singer/songwriter and my name is Diana. I am currently living on my own, and I have dwindled down to the last of my savings. I have been searching for a full-time job for the last 4 months, since I lost my job back in October. I used to work in a pretty decent paying job, but I received a lot of emotional distress from dealing with racism and sexual harassment for over 2 years there. I always tried to establish my boundaries and made formal complaints to upper management, only to be made to seem like I was a trouble making employee. Through out this time I was working on recording some music to release it, and had been using all my free time and money to put into the project. Music has always been the thing that fuels my life, and makes it easier to get through all the struggles in the day. I was also doing part time pin-up modeling for photographers, which never really paid but I was able to get more views on my social media accounts so that was always a bonus!

A little over 1 1/2 years ago at the age of 22, I got a back injury at my job. This lead to sciatica pain, and I was having to go to physical therapy. The pain would leave me in tears since I had to stand on my feet for 8 hours a day. This was a job that was a 30 minute walk from my house, and since I could no longer do that, I had to start taking an uber or Lyft. The final straw was when I told the doctor that my pain wasn’t getting better, and if I could have restrictions put so I can occasionally sit down to do my job. That was refused. So I dealt with it for a bit, taking my pain meds and would cry later in the day because the pain would get so bad. I ended up getting a lawyer for the incident, and didn’t exactly know how it would turn out. But once the lawyer got involved, I was finally able to get time off and start seeing a chiropractor. It turns out that when I had the back injury, my muscles became inflamed and my body was kind of adjusting my posture to “protect” certain sides that felt more pain. It turns out that the sciatica pain was able to be relieved once I started taking muscle relaxers, going to chirotherapy, and I switched over to taking curcumin because I didn’t want to keep taking pain medication. I started strength training at home with resistant bands and with an indoor cycling bike, and I started to feel better. My pain is still occasionally there, and I don’t think it will ever truly leave but I’m doing my best.

Then came the settlement. In October 2020 I received the news that I would get a settlement of $15,000 but I would have to resign. My lawyer agreed that was the best course of action, so I ended up taking it, having to pay my lawyer about 4k. The money I had was spent on paying rent for the last 6 months, groceries (I shop at the 99cent store), going to the doctor for check ups on my back, and Ubering to job interviews. Some went to recording my music and some was given to my mom for her rent.

That music situation didn’t turn out well, because I had spent over $2,000 on studio time only for the producer I was working with to refuse to give me the stems to my music because I refused to be in a romantic/sexual relationship with him. This was someone I knew for over 6 years and I only trusted him with my music because I have dealt with producers in the past trying to “help” me if I “help” them. He claimed he was different and would never ask that of me. It only came up finally when I had asked to have the stems for final mixing and mastering, and he said he couldn’t just “give” me the stems, he wanted to see what we could “figure out” first. And I decided to cut my losses and ties because I refuse to be in a position like that. I admit that when I was younger and more naive I used to think that things were going to be easy once I started living on my own and not living under my emotionally/physically abusive father’s roof, but the harder things get the more it strengthens my resolve. I won’t give up on my dream and I won’t jeopardize my emotional/physical well being to try to get somewhere in the industry.

I have been currently applying for jobs in my field, and there are 2 big companies that have both told me that my background check doesn’t pass. I believe it’s from the worker’s comp case, because I have never had any tickets or arrests or anything that would set off red flags in my background record. At the moment, I’m down to my last $1k which I will use to pay rent, since I don’t need to buy groceries because I still have a box of ramen noodles, and I will have to figure it out from there. But this is honestly my last hope at the moment, until I find a job.

I haven’t been able to go to my family for help because the dynamic in my family was very abusive both physically and mentally. The last time I lived with my parents, I was 19 years old and the physical abuse started again when my father got drunk and began berating my mother who is hard of hearing and wears a hearing aide. I got in the middle of it and told him to leave my mom alone, when he got in my face and started hitting me, leaving bruises on my face, which I had to cover up due to having to work the next day. My mom is a very sweet and caring, 4’9 woman, and she tried to get in between but she couldn’t because he is 5’10 and he easily overpowered both of us. The level of abuse we have had to endure over the years has left my mom, my siblings, and I traumatized. During my childhood, I remember asking her to leave, and the few times she did, he would find us and threaten to kill us all. I have asked her multiple times to come live with me, but she has refused time and time again. I occasionally try to visit but every time I visit he always ends up drunk and accusing me of not loving my family. I have tried to ask him to go to therapy because he can’t come to terms that he has abused all of my family both mentally and physically. I have been receiving therapy because I have struggled with the aftermath of the abuse. My therapy is through a non profit counseling, which helps people who suffer from mental illness that cannot afford therapy. Both of my siblings have been diagnosed with BPD and PTSD. And they are both moving forward into their lives as best as they can, but are in no position to help me at the moment. I have not received any other diagnoses other than depression, anxiety, but my therapist says I have symptoms of CPTSD. My goal in life is to release my music, pay my bills, and to give my mom a better life. Because even though I used to beg her to leave him as a child, and may have resented the life we lived, I know now that he had already traumatized her to the point of thinking it would be safer for us to stay.

Honestly, anything helps and I haven’t been the best at opening up in the past. So this was a lot for me to write out, and I admit I don’t feel good writing about my past. But this is the best I can do for the time being.

My goal is $5,000 but anything helps really. Thank you for taking the time to read this!

paypal.me/dianaDn

Venmo: @Diana-Navarro-27

This is a picture of when I finally got my glasses :)

For many years I have always wanted to be a home owner. Ever since I can remember I have always dreamed about what I would do to a home when I finally get one to make it my own. From rearranging rooms, to what style furniture I would get, and even maybe add a garden to the back yard to save money on groceries. But my dream was dashed away over the last 2 years.

I live with my sister, mom, and grandma and have been saving up for the past 3 years and was getting close to being able to make a down payment on a house i’ve been eying for a while. But things started breaking down one right after another and I had to sacrifice my savings so that they could still live comfortably.  I don’t have a lot, and now I have even less because of the Corona virus. We all work long weeks. My sister and I especially having to work 12 hours Monday through Saturday. Things have been rough for us since mom got divorced and grandpa died nearly 10 years ago. Things were finally starting to look up until just last year. This seems like my final option to achieve what i’ve always dreamed of. I need 200,000 dollars. I implore you to help me please.

I appreciate you reading this far. I’m not normally one to ask for help, but this is something I just can’t do on my own and there is no shame in asking for help when you can not do something.

Again thank you for reading this far. I hope you are having a better time than me right now.

Paypal.com/paypalme/Varnumr?locale.x=en_US