I really wanted it to not come to this, but it looks like it has.

TL;DR: I need help. I’m stuck living with my a family member who views my money as their own, so while theirs goes to shopping and vacations, I’m manipulated into paying bills that are 1.5x what I make in a month.

For those of you who don’t know me well, hi, I’m Victoria. In May 2024, I graduated law school and took an articling student job with an admittedly pretty pathetic salary. But it was in a firm I loved with people I liked working with and allowed me to dive into the area of law I wanted to be in, so I ran some numbers, figured it would cover my monthly expenses with a little left over, and decided it was worth another year of watching what I spent a little more closely.

Plus, some family members said I could move back in with them, rent-free, to “pay down debt.”

In the past year, said family members borrowed over eight thousand dollars from me, taking an average of seven months to pay me back.

I’m constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Every time someone tries to talk to me, I tense, waiting for the inevitable “well, I just don’t know what else to do.”

In the past year, I’ve maxed out the line of credit that I was supposed to be paying back, thanks to this situation, and I’ve gone from having a comfortable few months worth of expenses in my savings to less than $100. Most of what I've been paid back has gone to interest and overdraft fees.

I’ve tried nearly everything I can think of to make up the difference. Part time jobs are scarce in my area and don’t bother calling back if all you can offer is evenings and weekends because you already have a 9-5. DoorDash and Instacart are saturated and I’m lucky if I can get one order a week.

To be frank, I can’t keep this up. I can’t take the manipulation and the guilt trips anymore.

$3000 is the amount I'm currently owed. $4500 would be a good portion of rent and utilities for an apartment until the end of the year, when I’m hopefully getting a bonus at work that will cover my expenses for the next several months at least.

I don’t like having to do this, but something has to give somewhere, before my finances and my mental health are irreparably damaged by this.