The Lenthall family needs a new (used) car!

It’s finally happened: our family’s 2005 Saturn (our only vehicle) has developed so many problems that it’s unrepairable. We took it yesterday to get inspected and have some glaring issues looked at, and got word back today that not only is it throwing three different error codes that would all prevent it from passing inspection, but they can’t find parts for some of the more routine things. Even if parts could be found, it would likely cost over $3000, and that doesn’t even factor in the problems from the error codes.

So, we need a new (used) car, urgently. We are a family of three (David, Kate, and Ellen, pictured above from left to right with one of our dogs, Gracie, the day we adopted her) with varying levels of disability, and four pets, living on extremely limited fixed income in a rural area, with most doctors and shopping at least half an hour away by car. I’m fully disabled and receive the maximum amount of Supplemental Security Income, while my dad receives Social Security and a couple of pensions. In total, we have about $2900/month, most of which goes towards bills. We’re also on EBT (food stamps), which became insufficient when the pandemic bonus was ended. Most months, we’re lucky if we can give the utility companies more than the bare minimum; many times, my mom has to roll debt around between various cards, or borrow from our home equity line of credit. We have no money saved, because there’s never anything extra TO save.

Anything at all would help us out right now. We’re already scrambling to get a friend of the family to drive me tomorrow to pick up prescriptions and some essential groceries we’re out of, and then to take us to a used car place. We’ll pretty much have to go with whatever the cheapest, most readily available thing is, which is inefficient in the long run but beggars can’t be choosers.

Thank you so much for your consideration. If you donate or even just share this around, we’d be immensely grateful.