Dustin and Michelle have been working full time since arriving in Los Angeles, while the cost of living has increased and their wages have not risen substantially enough to offset those escalating costs. Dustin’s workplace has cut OT with zero notice for the fifth time in the last calendar year, and since he’s already living paycheck to paycheck, these unpredictable reductions of his hours makes it impossible to budget appropriately or even save anything. Michelle works multiple jobs as a personal trainer, yoga instructor, standardized patient, and intimacy coordinator, the latter two yielding work much more sporadically than hoped for. Dustin works a full-time job that hasn’t given its employees any merit-based pay raises since before the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, and is frequently submitting for composing work to supplement his income with little success.

In the last few months, thanks to the current administration’s war against the poor/working class, they’ve lost the monthly pittance of SNAP benefits they were receiving, and Michelle has had to join Dustin’s work health insurance, resulting in a higher monthly premium and higher co-pays for necessary costs. Dustin has also recently been diagnosed with sciatica, which has meant more medical expenses/co-pays for prescriptions and physical therapy, as well as a drastic overhaul of his diet, which means groceries are more expensive because healthy food isn’t cheap.

Dustin and Michelle are trying to get a leg up on their debts, car expenses, and living expenses, and any funds raised will go towards those costs in the hopes of allowing them to do a little more than just surviving and keeping their heads above water.