Car Help For A Single Mom

UPDATE EDIT:  You can see in my updates more details of this, but i wanted to post something in the begining of my story as well - My Van is no longer Fixable, the Transmission blew as of 9-29-2018.. I had it checked over by 2 mechanics and got multiple opinions and pricing on fixing/replacing/rebuilding, and everyone had the same final word to say of No.. it isn't worth it, put your money into getting another car..  So this Campaign is now in motion to try and get me a new vehicle to drive, so that i won't lose my clients and my steady income.

Hi! I am a single mom of 2 little girls and this year has been pretty rough. I have very little family, what family I do have live are on disability, and the only family with a vehicle live 2 hours away.

What my children's father sends in money covers the roof over our heads, but the rest is up to me. I haven't been able to find steady work that works around my kids school schedule, and I cannot afford a baby sitter so I can work nights and weekends. My kid's father's family is unwilling to help as they are to busy in thier own lives and say they can't afford anything extra. They also live 2 hours away so they cannot help with baby sitting.

I DO work any little jobs I can, I sell art and hand crafted items in town, walk dogs, and take care of people's pets while they are out of town (you can find me on rover!) But my Van is in bad bad shape, and dog walking only pays enough to just pay bills and keep food in the fridge.

I have been given an estimate of roughly $6-800 to have a friend do the repair work, or easily $1200+ to have it done by a professional shop. This was back in June.. and was told to get done asap... so there could be more wrong at this point.

With winter approaching I also realized I need new tires, which will run me around $400.

My van is a 2003 Honda Odyessy. In it's current exterior condition, if it did not need repairs, it would only be worth about $2k. It has low mileage for its age, roughly 140,000 miles on the engine, and I have done my best to get oil changes every 3 months. I drive my vehicles very easily and always try to get problems fixed asap.

Right now it needs an O2 sensor. Front struts and new joints in the front as well as they have gone bad. I possibly need new brakes as well, but we haven't gotten that far once they saw, and showed me the bad joints. Because of everything wrong with my Van I am only getting about 15mpg in gas and it is beginning to take a financial toll.

Without a car I cannot work, without work I can't pay my bills or feed my kiddos. I cannot afford a new car payment. So I am trying to get up the money to fix my car.

I have looked into uber and Lyft for extra pay but my van is to old and cosmetically damaged to be approved and even if I could afford a new car payment, leases have policies against using your car for any sort of taxi service (I looked into it and asked as I had thought maybe I could use Lyft/Uber to pay for the car itself.)

  I am in a rock and a hard place and really hope you will be willing to help me out. I appreciate any little bit you can donate.

It means the world to not just me but my children as well!! Thank you so much!