Help Me Get Financial Stability!

Hi, I’m Erin and have been struggling financially since the start of the pandemic. I wasn’t going to set this up because I would rather earn my income, but month after month of sliding downwards has me terrified that I won’t get out of it before I’m ruined financially.

It started by being furloughed and having to depend on gig economy work to pay the bills.

In summer of 2020, I started dealing with severe anxiety, so severe that doing normal activities trigger attacks. I had a decent corporate job, but started to have an anxiety attack every time I tried to work. When I had a full blown panic attack in the break room, I had to leave the position.

I had (and still have) two wonderful jobs—academic tutor and virtual assistant—for two amazing bosses, but it has been hard to get a client base for me to get the hours I needed to stay ahead of the bills. As much talk as there is that kids need tutoring, post pandemic, it has not boomed for me, despite the effort. (I also work a 100% commission based sales job, but I don’t know how many unpaid cold calls I’ll need to do to get one sale.)

So I added, again, a gig economy job, but the combination of my anxiety making me fear driving far away and a decrease in orders no longer made it viable.

Finally, I was faced with ending the gig job, and by December, had fallen into a depression, which has gotten so severe that I struggled working the hours I have.

Since the anxiety/depression is triggered by the financial instability, I can’t improve my mental health until I feel more financially secure. This dollar amount, $3000, covers one month of normal bills. FYI, I don’t have cable TV, home internet, and am typing this on an IPhone 8 I bought before the pandemic.

If I’m lucky enough to get additional funds, it will be put towards future bills/debt payment so my monthly expenses can be lowered further. Thank you!