Student loans.
Bills.
Need new glasses - can't afford them.
Need new shoes - can't afford them.
Need new first aid license, new uniform for work - can't afford them because work doesn't pay me enough.
No groceries in the house.
Behind on the rent.
Gotta ask the landlord for an extension--AGAIN.
Gotta ask my parents for a loan--AGAIN--despite the fact that I haven't paid back the last three or four they've given me.
Can't move anywhere cheaper.
No car.
No cable TV.
No money for drugs or health care.
Job market sucks.
Need to make more money.
Can't make more money because of ADD, poor job experience, crappy economy, no drivers license.
Can't get drivers license because of ADD, no money, no car
Only hope to get out of this hell is school.
Can't go to school because I am in this hell.

This isn't poetry. It's just a long stream of facts. And it's gonna get uglier before it gets prettier.

*sigh*

I'm familiar with most of those...

Yeah, I know about all of those. One thing you can do to make it better right away is see about an economic hardship deferment for your student loans. If your student loan payment exceeds 20% of your gross monthly income, you should qualify.

If you can't get a deferment, you can get a federal consolidation, which ought to lower the payments. Either way, call your loan company and ask them. I used to work for a student loan company.

I hear you.........

My basic issue,living pay check to pay check no room for saving money or extra expenses but someone has forgetten to tell the powers that be this.....

Payment for braces.
Rental payment on a $1200.00 saxophone.
+ a high fee for your child participate in the schools music program.
Renewal for my drivers lic. is going up $20.00 more and I already pay $85.00.
School fund raisers.
Picture day at school and the prices go up every year.
school lunch cost $ 2.25 a day ! x 2 kids.
Field trip fees.
and it goes on...................


My husband and I both make good money, just not enough to live in most towns in Massachusetts without living pay check to pay check. I love our area and our kids are getting a very good education here.... So we do figure a way to get by. But it's scary as heck to think in a flash all this could over take us. All it would take is for one of us to get sick or hurt...........

Hope this makes you feel your not alone and alot of us are sailing in the same boat. Maybe I'm on a different side of that boat, but still in the same one ...

It certainly is a scary world we are living in, isn't it? We, too, don't know how we're going to make through the next round and I hear you when it comes to always needing to get help from family, but I try and remind myself that they LOVE us and WANT to help and we're not TRYING to use them or abuse their generosity. I hope that someday I can give to my kids or friends or other family members when they are in need, and until then I have to make sure I give of myself instead.

I'm in the same boat with my glasses, though, and it really s****! What do they cost in the states anyway? Over here I need 500-600 dollars for frames and lenses. Just curious.

I'm right there with ya clam, other than kids to feed, I am in the same rut hun. This SSI Bakpay may be nice but it not going to last....then what little I do have every onth goes to med ands doc bills ..never ending p.i.t.b.

I hear ya too.

Kima, my last pair of glasses, frame + lenses, cost around $350 I think.

Me too - on all of it. Minus the glasses and kids. I am seeing a budget counselor b/c my parents don't believe that I can't make things work on my current salary. I keep trying to tell them there's no money to budget with! Ha ha! Seriously though - I started ANOTHER job last year - started with a salary scraping the bottom of the barrel since I don't have a degree yet. And I've been working my ars off for over a year - getting my first raise this January and hoping it's decent! But I've been doing the paycheck to paycheck routine since I've been in the workforce - almost 13 years now. It's getting old!

This is called life of today people

My wife and I make reasonable money and we also live paycheck to paycheck

Canadian Clam

If you walk into the drugstore or the unemployment office there is a package you can get and once you fill it all out you will be elegible for drug benifits

It has been a while since I looked into it but if you dig hard enough and ask the right people the proper questions you will be surprised how generous the Canadian system really is.

I have put in a call to the unemployment office here in town and left a message for Terry who is the boss there who told me about it in the first place.

this was a couple of years ago so it may take him some time to dig it up again but I will let you know as soon as I find out about it.

I have found in Canada anyway that it is all a game

all you have to do is learn the rules and then you can play the game

hey same here
I also need to buy at least one pair of jeans because in a few months time i have gotta wear jeans everyday for something and i only got 2 pairs due to no money to buy. Then u see i gotta keep washing everyday and it is troublesom. I also need shoes because they were broken but no money. And my mobile bill is still unpaid. I am still a student and no longer take part time job so i am **** broke too. I understand your feelings.

I am a student, so no one notices what I wear...therefore I wear the same pair of jeans everyday because I like them. To be completely honest, I only wash them once every two or three weeks. I should wash them a little more frequently but it's just too much of a hassle.

Unless you're required to wash your jeans every day, don't stress too much if you can't get that done, hamster. Good luck. :)

Lol.. i know why you only wash your jeans once in 2 or 3 weeks, which i think is okay since you are staying in usa but i am in a humid hot country with no winter. It is summer all year round and think of the perspirations! Yucks. It gonna stink.
I heard my cousin was worst than you. She told me because it was winter in usa, she didn't wash her jeans for half a year. Oh my god. And the same pair of jeans. I think perhaps she got 2 pairs or 3. I don't want to believe the same pair for 6 months without washing.. I can't believe that. Neither do i wish to satisfy my curiousity of the fact whether her jeans is gonna be smelly or not. Haha. It is alright. She is not in this forum. :p

We are not eating this week because my entire paycheck went to rent. Hopefully, one of our 10 and 12 year old cars don't break anytime soon. Luckily, since my b/f joined the Navy reserves, he had a check come in. Woops! It has to go to his car insurance so we had to borrow from his Dad. How humbling.

My boyfriend, who is also my life partner, just got out of the Navy, then attended a university with his GI money while working full time job loading trucks for a retail store. He did attend college before the Navy, but he could not afford it so he joined so he could get some college paid for. He finally graduates and he can't find a job in his field or any other field. He's been out of work for 6 months.

After much frustration, he decided to go back into retail until something better came along since he has experience there. We had to move, so he had to quit his other job. These @#$%^&* wanted to pay that poor man $6.75 an hour! Finally, he just got a job loading trucks in a warehouse making $9.80 an hour. The highest salary he could find.

This is a man who has spent 5 years in the Navy and graduated from a university with a bachelors degree loading trucks for a living....he has not had health insurance since he left the Navy 4 years ago. It dosen't look like he will have any insurance unless something better comes along.

I hope soon you will be OUT of financial hell and INTO financial HEAVEN.......

May financial HEAVEN soon be yours...:)

Waywordclam, I know what you are saying...with my job craziness/instability, I am constantly struggling(what makes things worse is my impulsitivity when I have money, and buy things I SHOULDN't!) to save money, make more money so I can get out of living with two other guys in a house in there MID 30's!!! F$##!!! try living in Northern California without at LEAST 35 K a year, you are screwed! the economy still sucks, so this has a lot to do with it...having ADD/LD with Bad Economy, REALLY SUCKS!

I am in precisely the same boat, and am familiar with most of them.

I'm ashamed to admit I can't drive.