This year has been tough for me financially – I’ve been down on my luck in terms of jobs and recently I’ve been screwed out of hundreds of dollars by family.
But getting $200 worth of over drafts thrown back my way has definitely made my week.
They were all incurred at different points during the year, and not once have I called my bank to request a reversal.
Wishing my luck upon those who read this!
It makes me hate this subreddit sometimes. I'm disabled, like many people on this sub, and already work full time and donate plasma every week. I'm physically unable to work a second job. And if anyone says they can't for whatever reason, they're shamed. Like what? Poverty is traumatizing. We're all here together. Why are we judging other people and their debts, finances, situations, etc? And honestly, I don't think there's a single person on this subreddit who hasn't thought about (or already has) a second job.
Why does it become a moral and personal failing if somebody is a victim of a capitalist system and isn't poor in the ~right~ way? A lot of people on this sub seem to think that every person here is physically and mentally capable when that is far from the case for so many of us.
There is a lot of great advice here that I've gotten over the years. Advice that hasn't been "just get another job/donate plasma/get a higher paying job." I don't want to discount all of the help people share and personal anecdotes given, there's a lot of good. Recipes and meal hacks. Advice about medical bills. Personal stories shared so we know we're not alone. Direction to resources available to people that some of us don't know about. Emotional support. Dealing with our bullshit excuse of an economic system.
It just pisses me off a lot to see these comments sometimes. Physical and mental disabilities are real and nobody should be further shamed about the already demoralizing situation we are born into. (Honestly I feel like "I just don't wan't to work a second job" is fucking valid because working full time and balancing everything else life has to offer is exhausting sometimes. We're humans and not machines and we're not built to work 24/7. god forbid somebody wants to spend time with their loved ones or resting so they can stay sane!)
Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk. I've been sitting on this post for a while.
I've been unemployed for seven months now. With my wife going to school full time and overwhelmed with her busy schedule, I took the plunge and took the clippers to the sides and back of my head. I found a nice stopping point where I didn't have to do any scissor work. My wife stepped away from her homework long enough to clean up the back, and now I have one of my favorite haircuts ever.
I took this selfie in the parking lot right before going into the interview that landed me a job offer. Things are looking up.
About a week ago, my partner broke his tooth while flossing. We now know it was partially caused by a filling he got in childhood. The filling partially crumbled after 2 decades, and took a good chunk of his actual tooth with it. It apparently broke very close to a nerve, which made it extremely painful.
Now, my partner does have dental insurance, but the places that take his insurance were all scheduled 2-3 months out. Then, we looked into dentists with payment plans… also booked out. Because of the pain it was causing him, though, we needed to do something ASAP. We knew pulling it would be the cheapest option and made a couple calls. The place that could get him in the soonest was a small private practice with good reviews.
Before arriving at this appointment, we fully knew we would only be able to afford the extraction. We even “mourned” the loss of his tooth trying to make it light-hearted. My partner got in the chair and explained a bit about the financial side of things. In that conversation, it was brought up that an extraction would cost $122 and a composite filling would be $340. I was so upset that saving the tooth didn’t even seem that expensive, yet we still couldn’t afford it. We also ran into another issue— he didn’t want to do anything without X-rays, which were not covered by insurance. The dentist could tell we were a bit off after hearing that, and said “Well… give me a moment. We might be able to figure something out.”
He came back and said “Tell you what… If you leave me a 5-star Google review, we can do the composite filling for $122 all together.”
Y’all. We didn’t even think saving it was possible given our situation. I know a good chunk of money was still spent, and if we waited maybe we would have a different story, but relieving my partner of the extreme pain made it so worth it.
We left the best 5-star review we could write, and thanked him profusely. He seemed like he didn’t want to yank an otherwise good tooth, genuinely cared, and offered a free follow-up appointment to ensure that the filling is not irritating the nerve since the break was so close to it. After a lot of financial stress in the past 2 months, it seemed like a huge win.
I don't know how widespread this is internationally or even nationwide. But, in NYC, we have laws where most aluminium cans, plastic bottles, or glass bottles can be recycled for 5 cents each. There are specific spots where you can recycle for money, mainly near supermarkets.
So many people treat it like an embarrassing thing that they're too above to do. Only poor people do it, people who "really need the money".
I say, suck it up. It's not that bad. It's frugal if anything.
I learned to do it from my baby boomer parents. If we spend so much money on bottles, why not store them instead of throwing them out and make some money back while we're at it? Two or three big bags of bottles can be $5-10. That's pennies, but it's still 5 to 10 bucks I didn't have a few minutes ago.
A lot of people do it in my neighbourhood. If you're gonna use bottles, then recycle them and make some money while you're doing it.
There was a good 2013 documentary about this called "Redemption". It was about New Yorkers who can to survive. They go through garbage looking for cans to recycle. I see that a lot in my neighborhood. I've given bottles to canners on the street a few times. It's hard work walking around all day, going through trash, and lugging around the bags.
I just need to vent. I have a decent state job, I pinch pennies, cook at home, almost everything I own was bought from a thrift store or a hand-me-down and still every month I am behind. I started making a list of things that have come up in the last 2 years.
That's just the big stuff. I'm tired boss. There's no amount of eating beans or brewing my own coffee that can make up for this. All I want is for some day to go to the grocery store and feel that I could afford which ever brand of frozen pizza I so desire.
So I'm about 48k in debt, I've picked up SO many gig jobs in the last couple months and the debts not budging, which is fine, none of the gigs were consistent enough to ACTUALLY make a dent. But there's light at the end of the tunnel. As a CNA I just landed my first travel gig at a facility where I'll have a ton of overtime opportunities, working long weeks I should be able to make about 10k a month and pay everything down. Better news is: after I finish this assignment I should be eligible for even more lucrative ones. This whole journey has been really interesting because I've learned all the different ways I can make money, and that would all be so fulfilling if I wasn't just watching it disappear into a hole every month. I'm paying off the loan premiums and stuff, and putting all the spare cash onto the one with the highest interest first. But I'm honestly just super excited to have this be over.
Hopefully the next travel assignment will be lucrative AND more pleasant since it won't be winter away from fl.
Long time lurker first time post. Not sure where to start I guess I hate been poor who doesn't right? From family stopping invited to parties because we can't afford gifts. You can see how people treat you differently. I dont mind people looking down on me, but the family that's supposed to love you look down on your kids. I'm trying my best to get out this. Both cars stop working and I honestly dont know how ima get them fix or a working car. I'm always stressing cause of bills, tossing and turning at night. Sleepless nights just, thinking of a way out. Sorry for the vent. I'm just mad because my kids are wonderful and I see how they get treated