We are a family of seven. Two adults, and five children. We were extremely comfortable and had over $50,000 in savings before COVID hit. Perfect credit. Life was good. Once COVID hit, my husband lost his very good job. We immediately went into frugal mode and saved every cent we could, but life had other plans. Two of our children developed health issues, one requiring five days a week of various therapies, we had several home repairs happen, our primary car broke down completely, and the list goes on and on. All while we were still paying all bills on top of my husband frantically searching for a job.
I picked up work to help try and float us through, but it didn’t cover nearly the amount my husband’s job did. It covered groceries and that’s about it.
A year later we are broke and severely struggling. My husband just started a new job a week ago that pays $70,000 a year. So no paycheck yet, it should hit next week. We have just come out of forbearance for our home and had our monthly payment lowered, so we should be okay there. But utilities have fallen behind (and are at risk of being shut off), credit cards are behind, saving accounts overdrawn, everything is behind. We were hoping to use our tax return ($13,000) to pay down these bills and start fresh/begin saving again with my husbands paychecks, but even though we filed in February, we were told we won’t be getting a refund until likely August.
We reached out to a local charity to help us with the utility bills (at least with the past due amounts) but I’m not sure what else we can do. Are there any other options for us? With our credit tanking over the last year, we can’t get a loan to consolidate debt. Though I’m sure that’s the worst option anyway.
We literally aren’t buying anything right now other than groceries and we can hardly do that right now. We haven’t stepped foot in a restaurant in over a year, no events, no shopping, etc. We aren’t spending, we are focusing every cent on paying down debts, but it’s just one thing after another that prevents us from doing so.
We just need some option to help us through the first few months of my husband’s new job while we pay down everything. Does something like that exist? Any advice on this situation?
ETA- I cannot get a job if my husband is working as someone has to be home with the children, we have no family/friends who could watch the children, and childcare costs here would defeat the purpose of me working entirely. I have been picking up odd jobs online as often as I possibly can.
Submitted June 18, 2021 at 09:38AM by Naive_Barracuda_8303 https://ift.tt/3cNZO2X
