If there is one thing I despise more than anything, it is asking for help. My pride and ego get in the way as it makes me feel like a failure and a burden. We are not in the worst situation yet, BUT, it won’t take much to put us directly in the path of no return.

We need a hand up, not a hand out.

Other bills have to keep being pushed to the next month just to get a little reprieve but of course they still have to paid. We really have no way to catch up so it is a waiting game to see how long it will be until we lose access to those things (electricity, internet, phones, etc) and we are at most a few weeks away of having things shut off.

Groceries are a luxury that we can barely afford. While the food bank is helpful, it’s nowhere near enough to sustain us.

 We have had to pay rent late 6 times this year, which meant paying an extra $100 each time that we definitely did not have and rent already takes the majority of our paychecks as it is.

Our older kids have been trying to get jobs, but no one wants to give them a chance as they have no experience and they can’t drive (that seems to be a major sticking point even though they don’t go for a job that requires driving).

We are going to apply to any program that we might qualify for, but that takes time. However, considering the current climate, who knows if those will even be an option. We are unfortunately stuck in that gray area and we cannot budget our way out of that, no matter what we cut.