Bring Luke and Caden Home: $7,000 Saved So Far
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We’re fundraising to move our gay selves and our gay cats from Kansas to Massachusetts. This will put us in range of both of our families, allowing for many happy weekends with our loved ones. We have both lived all around MA and adopted Fiske while we lived in Rhode Island before moving to Kansas. After a lovely run of Kansas career building, identity finding, and cat raising, we are feeling the passage of time and are ready to return to our previous home.
Here are a few of our biggest motivators:
- Caden’s littlest sibling is growing up with few queer role models in their life and we want to be there to encourage joyful self exploration in a difficult time to be an LGBTQ teenager.
- Luke’s beloved childhood friends (mostly) live in Massachusetts and he needs his precious boy time as everyone gets settled into their early adult lives. He’s been playing Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering with them over the internet, but the energy is never fully matched to the sensory joy Luke has when meeting up in person.
- The government. Caden is transgender and Luke’s support has helped tremendously with acceptance and pursuing necessary healthcare. However, laws have been more and more restrictive of our freedoms in recent years. Massachusetts tends to be a kinder home in this area of life, and even when the government fails us, employers are much more likely to come through where it matters.
After running the numbers, we are worried that our goal to move this October will prove impossible to reach while also eating any number of groceries. Caden is no stranger to the most severe forms of poverty, so we have been able to cut expenses fairly drastically. We have saved about $7,000 and are still finding ourselves about $3k short of projected moving costs.
So, with the caveat that we will simply keep saving until we can make it, this fund is to help us reach our goal before October so that we can move sooner. We have saved a significant portion already, with enough for a moving truck plus gas and hotels along the way. If we were able to raise an additional $5,000, we would be able to cover first, last, and security at most of our apartment goals (we can't apply until August-September to know what availability will be for October). Beyond that, if we could hire a few strong people to help us move our belongings into the U-Haul on the Kansas end, our move would be so much more pleasant and off to a much less exhausted start.
In the shorter term, this would also allow us to spend our limited income on the things that sustain our lives like cat food, human food, and toilet paper, making our remaining time in Kansas a bit less desperate. Kansas wages are difficult to convert into Mass housing :')
If you can help any amount to pull us back home to be near our families and friends, we will be forever grateful! If not, sharing among your networks is a great way to show your support and means just as much emotionally~
The Budget Details
- Uhaul: $2200 - We have reserved a 15 ft truck. The site suggests one could fit 1-2 bedrooms of items in this size, so we are also downsizing two bedrooms worth of items. This also includes a tow hookup for 1 car, which will be so much cheaper to drag than to drive separately. We will be selling the car we used to move to Kansas in the first place, which is only worth about $300 with its mechanical issues and many miles racked up.
- Gas: early 2025 gas estimates suggest the uhaul would cost $400 to fuel from east Kansas to central-ish Massachusetts. this does not count for the weight of items and towed car, so it is possible this could be double the rate easily. If you know more about that definitely message Caden somewhere - I would love to have a more accurate budget.
- Hotels: $350 total. We have reserved the cheapest places that allow pets (so we can keep our beloved stinky boys) over a 3 day span. With Caden's arthritis, Luke’s wild long legs, our distance and energy per day will be limited. The kitty sanity levels while crate-traveling in our little truck cabin are also a concern.
- Jobless cushion: Of course, we are planning on getting new jobs as soon as possible after moving. Both of us have useful experience that will help us get into new doors. We hope to set aside about $800-1200 to keep us afloat through a season of interviews and applications in a very populated part of the country.
- Move-in costs: Most apartments with a bedroom in the areas we are focused on run $1500-$2000 per month. All of them require first, last, and security to reserve an apartment. Many have fees near $75 for credit checks just to apply. With these factors, we are expecting $6000 to go towards getting keys to an apartment. If we are struggling to find work, monthly rent would also be an issue for a moment, adding thousands to our need. The more cushion we have the less panic we will have.
- Movers - We aren’t fully convinced this will be part of it yet, but if funds allow we would love to hire a local team to help us move our items from the KS apartment to the moving truck in a timely fashion. Parking rules are strict at these campus-adjacent apartments, so we want to be quick to get out of the way if we can help it. Movers cost us about $500 for four hours last time we hired them to move locally. That did include their truck usage, but was also a couple of years ago now so getting a quote will shed some light on the reality of this cost.
This is Jim, who we attempted to name Yardsale Jim when we adopted him from the Lawrence KS cat cafe. It was a mouthful, so he just goes by his original name of Jim.
Organizer
Caden Williams
Organizer
Lawrence, KS