*May Update*

A huge thank you to everyone who helped keep the lights on through April! I've updated the fundraising goal for May to cover what I can't, we have $2000 to raise now to get through what will hopefully be my last month needing help. Fingers crossed!! Thank you all so much again, y'all make all the difference for me and my little family and it means the world to me.

Here we go again on the layoff rollercoaster, employment's worst thrill ride!

Since my second layoff in 2025, (three now in less than a year!) I haven't stopped looking and applying for jobs, even after I got hired for this last one. Figured better safe than sorry! Well, out of over a hundred applications in the last couple months, I've gotten ten responses, all declines. Now I'm a hopeful person by nature (and sheer willpower at this point) but goodness y'all.

If you've known me for awhile now you know I'm a single mom with one kid just venturing out into adulthood and my youngest still years and years away from that milestone. I spent all of my childhood and most of my adulthood in one abusive household after another with a brief respite from that specific type of abuse while I was homeless as a very young adult, a cycle I just broke free from eight years ago. I've worked since I was fourteen except while medically incapable during pregnancy and childbirth and during brief periods after being laid off, and for all that time even when working 50-60 hours a week it was a real luxury to hit a paycheck-to-paycheck level of income. Mostly it's been paycheck-to-week-before-next-paycheck type of living.

Unfortunately, as it has been for so many of us, every time I started to earn a little more the cost of living outpaced me.

My rent is already on the low end for our area, and I don't have the means to move, and I don't know where we could move that would improve our financial circumstances without sacrificing our safety even if I did. I know how to budget and stretch a dollar, but even the cost of reduced-for-quick-sale groceries is roughly the cost standard groceries were a year ago. Utility costs have increased, rent increased, groceries and gas and everything but income is increasing daily. We also have medical needs and prescriptions I need to somehow stay on top of.

I know y'all know all this about the current state of our economy. I'm just explaining to myownself really, why it makes sense that I might feel a little less hope and a little more despair right now.

I'm asking for help again to get through this latest struggle. The goal I have set initially will bridge the gap for the rest of this month and next and hopefully I can close it by then. I'm going to focus on finding more work, of course, but the reality is that even if I find something quickly there's a good chance it'll be low paying and part time, and not enough to cover the bills. I'll adjust the goal up or down as needed as we go along.

Thank you for taking the time to read all this, and for any help you can give. It means a whole lot to my little family!