Hello folks.

As many of you are aware, we have had an atrocious last couple of years. Medical issues; forced to move at just about the worst possible time of year, and with only 30 days' notice; hours getting cut at the same time we lost SNAP and Medicaid; people stealing all the money in our account twice; more medical issues; getting hours cut yet again; and then finally getting laid off in the same week that my Social Security got cut in half because I made “too much money” last year.

We are now down to the only viable choice. In January, we will be moving to Virginia to live with my mother while we try to put our lives back together. We are waiting until January because we have to give the apartment complex 60 days’ notice.

Obviously, moving is expensive, regardless of the circumstances. We have an offer of help, but it would be nice if that expense were not falling all on one person. Because we are taking the cats, the plan is to load up into a moving truck whatever we are taking with us, load up the cats in large-ish pet carriers and caravan from here to Virginia. There’s probably a lot of stuff involved that we haven’t even thought about yet.

So one last time, we could use some help.

Some expenses we do know about:

1) We will have to pay November, December, and whatever the pro-rated amount will be for January for rent. This is probably about $4500.

2) There is a lease-break fee of two times the base rent. That will be about $3200.

3) We will be using a moving service. This looks like possibly being between $2000 and $3000

4) We will be driving across country with animals, so we will need to be able to rent hotel rooms, buy meals and buy gas. Not sure what that will cost.

5) We will have to rent a storage unit at the other end. Probably around $200

6) We need to be able to eat and cover bills between now and when we get to Virginia.

We do have our Social Security (Gil’s whole one and half of mine) and I have been getting unemployment (which isn’t much). We do not qualify for SNAP or Medicaid. I have no real hope that we will qualify for housing or utilities help either. We might try hitting a couple of nearby food banks to see what we can get, but of course, you frequently have to qualify for those as well.

We will be selling some of our stuff, including our van. We will be giving some stuff away. We will hang onto whatever we can in the hopes that someday we will be able to be out on our own again.

UPDATE: We have paid the rent for November so I am adjusting the amount we still need for the move and for just getting by in the meantime.

UPDATE #2:

Update on the move and the financial situation:

We have started the packing and have just about reached the point where boxes are in the way of boxing anything else. There are things we can’t even get to until some of this furniture and stuff that we are going to get rid of is out of the way.

Back in late October/early November, when I reported to the unemployment office that I had lost my job, I was “rewarded” with losing my unemployment insurance as well. Apparently I had to submit a new claim. I had been receiving partial payments because of my low hours, and that was a bit of a help, but when I lost my job, I needed at least that. Instead, I now get nothing. I have not been able to find out what the problem is or what to do to fix it. So that’s $307/week that I was counting on but have not been receiving. If this ever gets resolved, I will probably get back payments, but that doesn’t help us now.

Gilead has a bunch of drawings on newsprint (some free, some $5 and some $10) that he wants to get rid of. He is keeping loads more than he is getting rid of, but these are ones that are unfinished, have served their purpose, or he otherwise has no desire to keep. We have invited people to come by if they want any. However, with regards to the packing situation, if they are not gone by this coming Friday (12/5) he will be disposing of them to get them out of the way.

We will also have some furniture that we will try to sell, but right now we can’t get a clear enough photo of anything to post anywhere. Keep an eye out for those posts if you think we might have anything you want. Anything not taken away before 1/5/2026 will most likely get taken to a thrift store.

So we now have a little over 5 weeks to go until the actual move. Sadly, we do still need help with expenses between now and then, and then we have the expenses along the way to cover. We will likely have to fill up at least twice a day, have meals, and find hotels that will accept pets, all for about 5 days. And, towards the end of our time here, we will have to stop cooking at the apartment and may need to eat out for most meals. I will do my best to mitigate that, but we can’t take a bunch of leftover food with us.

So if you can help, we would appreciate it more than we could ever express. Sharing the link would also help as it would give us more reach.