poverty

<p>Hello, my friends.</p><p>I&#x27;ve stared at this screen for five minutes trying to figure out how to write this.</p><p>It&#x27;s getting to the point where the thought of having to write yet another begpost (especially one of such an amount, again) makes my skin crawl.</p><p>But I must do this because I need to everything I can to keep my family safe.</p><p>My only hope for ceasing this constant digital panhandling is a promotion at work that I really, really need. My family desperately needs an income increase.</p><p>Yet my only hope for that promotion is rest, and my only hope for rest is to be safely housed.</p><p>Realistically, no one is going to co-sign on an apartment for a total stranger so my only practical option right now is to continue staying in hotels.</p><p>Our most reasonable option for a hotel is impractical if we don&#x27;t pay several days at a time.</p><p>So.. I&#x27;m attempting to raise funds for a week&#x27;s stay at said hotel, and to cover a haircut and beard trim so I look presentable at work.</p><p>Goddammit I hate doing this. Especially such a large amount.</p><p>But I need somewhere to sleep.</p><p>If you&#x27;re willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can&#x27;t donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn&#x27;t feel bad.</p><p>Venmo: <a href="https://venmo.com/thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>venmo.com/thegizmotwins</a><br>Cashapp: <a href="https://cash.app/$thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>cash.app/$thegizmotwins</a><br>PP: <a href="https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1</span><span class="invisible">982</span></a><br>GFM: <a href="https://gofund.me/12171be3" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gofund.me/12171be3</a></p><p><a href="/tags/mutualaid/" rel="tag">#MutualAid</a> <a href="/tags/housing/" rel="tag">#Housing</a> <a href="/tags/poverty/" rel="tag">#Poverty</a> <a href="/tags/mentalillness/" rel="tag">#MentalIllness</a></p><p>@mutualaid</p>

<p>UPDATE: If you&#x27;ve have the means and have been on the fence about donating to us, I hope you&#x27;ll consider doing so now; the bulk of our funds for this (and nearly all of our prior fundraisers) have come from one (insanely generous) individual, and it breaks my heart to keep relying on them constantly. They have been so unbelievably kind. Please help us spread out the burden a little more.</p><p>Otherwise, please boost the hell out of this so we can reach goal and quit cluttering up the timeline! 🙏</p><p>==============================<br>Good Morning, Friends!</p><p>I mean.. I suppose as good a morning as it can be given the international circumstances.</p><p>Unfortunately I must add clutter to your already-crowded timelines with more digital panhandling because we&#x27;re running out of time before <a href="/tags/rent/" rel="tag">#rent</a> goes late. I&#x27;m trying desperately to avoid incurring late fees and undue attention from the leasing office. Moreso the latter than the former, if I&#x27;m being honest because we loathe &quot;rocking the boat&quot; and attracting scrutiny.</p><p>We have received a couple of <a href="/tags/gofundme/" rel="tag">#gofundme</a> donations in response to my previous post which we sincererly appreciate and can definitely use to compensate for my hours at work having dipped now that we&#x27;re past the holiday season, but sadly we won&#x27;t see the funds for several days so I can&#x27;t count them towards our running total (unless we don&#x27;t make deadline. Going late would also burn most if not all the funds from those donations in rental late fees which would really suck).</p><p>Please forgive me yet again for the constant <a href="/tags/mutualaid/" rel="tag">#MutualAid</a> posts. I know it&#x27;s getting very, very, very old. I want to say &quot;I shouldn&#x27;t have let things get this far&quot;, but the reality is, it&#x27;s complicated; I tried to do everything I could. I don&#x27;t really have the mental and emotional stamina to work multiple jobs -- everyone says, &quot;You&#x27;ll just get used to it&quot;, but I literally start to have emotional breakdowns and mental glitches when I try to work that much, and my <a href="/tags/bpd/" rel="tag">#BPD</a> becomes almost unmanageable -- and my partner was struggling so badly with his <a href="/tags/ptsd/" rel="tag">#PTSD</a> trauma.</p><p>I don&#x27;t want to be a burden to the community anymore, and I promise you we&#x27;re working as hard as we can to achieve that. But we&#x27;re not quite there yet. We adore this apartment and don&#x27;t want to do anything to jeopardize it.</p><p>As an additional incentive for donating, I&#x27;m including a pic I took this morning from our balcony. If you donate or boost, you can look at it and vicariously enjoy the view that my partner and I have enjoyed for the past month and a half only because of the generosity of the fine folks of the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a>. But only if you donate or boost.. otherwise sorry but you can&#x27;t look. (kidding)</p><p>You all made this happen, and I&#x27;m sorry we haven&#x27;t yet become self-sufficient. It feels like home here thanks to you. We&#x27;re really, really trying even if it may not seem like it.</p><p>Thank you.</p><p>If you&#x27;re willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can&#x27;t donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn&#x27;t feel bad.</p><p>Venmo: <a href="https://venmo.com/thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>venmo.com/thegizmotwins</a><br>Cashapp: <a href="https://cash.app/$thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>cash.app/$thegizmotwins</a><br>PP: <a href="https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1</span><span class="invisible">982</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/mentalillness/" rel="tag">#MentalIllness</a> <a href="/tags/solidarity/" rel="tag">#Solidarity</a> <a href="/tags/poverty/" rel="tag">#Poverty</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://ovo.st/club/mutualaid" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>mutualaid</span></a></span></p>

<p>Hello Everyone,</p><p>I&#x27;m sorry, but it&#x27;s already time for another <a href="/tags/begpost/" rel="tag">#begpost</a>. We&#x27;ve been safely housed this week thanks to the incredible generosity of our friends here on the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a>. What little wages I was able to earn from my shifts earlier this week went to the monthly storage unit bill to avoid a hefty late fee.</p><p>Consequently, we&#x27;ve exhausted our grocery supplies and my &quot;E&quot; (low fuel) light is on in my car.</p><p>While we&#x27;re somewhat content where we&#x27;re currently staying, it is a 40-mile round-trip commute and we were a little dismayed to learn that this motel&#x27;s policy is no more than 30 days in any given room before we have to change so that it can be &quot;deep cleaned&quot;.</p><p>I don&#x27;t feel the policy is unreasonable given the demographics for a low-budget motel, but the thought of having to switch rooms every few weeks is exhausting to even consider. Dragging our microwave and mini-fridge (which I don&#x27;t know with complete certainty whether we&#x27;re technically *allowed* to have said items) and our stuff over and over is not the most appealing.</p><p>If we don&#x27;t stay here, our only other options (besides living in our car) are an extended-stay type hotel that in multiple google maps reviews was referred to as a &quot;trap house&quot;, or an apartment complex which I&#x27;m afraid could potentially be referred to as the same.</p><p>We were disappointed last month when we tried and spectacularly failed to secure an apartment at a complex we&#x27;d fell in love with, and have been sort of floundering on that front since.</p><p>But I think we&#x27;ve both had our fill of motel/hotel life, and it&#x27;s time to settle down again. We don&#x27;t want to rent a room in anyone&#x27;s home, at least not for a very long time, after our past couple of experiences with that.</p><p>So, I&#x27;m leaning towards the semi-sketchy apartment complex, if they even have any rooms available now. I can&#x27;t say I&#x27;m very optimistic about living there being a pleasant experience, but we&#x27;re worn out. We&#x27;re tired of nearly all our belongings being locked away in a storage unit halfway across the valley.</p><p>Like everywhere else, there&#x27;s an application fee for both of us. We may have to be creative at addressing the rental history problem. Both our credit scores are atrocious but my gut instinct is that this complex won&#x27;t be as concerned about that.</p><p>It might save us a tiny bit of money monthly, but the downside is we can&#x27;t just pay the rent daily or weekly. We&#x27;ll likely have to fundraise an entire month&#x27;s rent before we can get moved in, plus any deposits (the specifics of which I can&#x27;t recall at this moment).</p><p>And, with hours at work being the way they have been and seem likely to continue for the immediate future, I don&#x27;t know how easy it&#x27;s going to be to keep ahead of that monthly rent bill.</p><p>I don&#x27;t know whether we&#x27;ll actually be able to pull this off. I don&#x27;t know if we&#x27;re &quot;jumping out the frying pan and into the fire&quot;. But I do know we&#x27;re pretty burned out and I&#x27;m not sure what else to do.</p><p>In summary: we need funds for food, gas, application fees to what will likely be a dirty, musty &quot;ghetto&quot; apartment, so that at least we can resume having a semi-permanent address.</p><p>As always, thank you all in advance for your help and support.</p><p>If you&#x27;re willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can&#x27;t donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn&#x27;t feel bad.</p><p>Venmo: <a href="https://venmo.com/thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>venmo.com/thegizmotwins</a><br>Cashapp: <a href="https://cash.app/$thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>cash.app/$thegizmotwins</a><br>PP: <a href="https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1</span><span class="invisible">982</span></a><br>GFM: <a href="https://gofund.me/12171be3" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gofund.me/12171be3</a></p><p><a href="/tags/mutualaid/" rel="tag">#MutualAid</a> <a href="/tags/mentalillness/" rel="tag">#MentalIllness</a> <a href="/tags/poverty/" rel="tag">#Poverty</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://ovo.st/club/mutualaid" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>mutualaid</span></a></span></p>

<p>UPDATE 2: I was cart pusher this evening at work. We had two call-outs tonight so I am utterly and completely exhausted from picking up the slack.</p><p>However, there was one silver lining to this I guess; a co-worker needed tomorrow off and traded shifts. So I work tomorrow rather than Saturday, which would allow me to use the funds from *that* shift towards rent. It&#x27;ll be less than $100 but that&#x27;s still money that would otherwise not be available until next week, which would obviously be too late.</p><p>EDIT/UPDATE 1: Having gotten some rest and can think a little more clearly and actually calculate things (as closely as I can given the circumstances), I am somewhat alarmed to discover I wildly underestimated how much we would need, and now am embarrassed to announce that the goal necessary for us to make rent in time is.. more than double my original guessing. 🤦‍♂️</p><p>I knew our accounts were low, but I didn&#x27;t realize just *how* low.</p><p>We&#x27;ve already received a massive donation from an incredibly generous donor (thank you) that already meets my original $500 goal so we&#x27;re already nearly halfway there which is fantastic.</p><p>I then planned to increase the goal to $1,200, but on second thought, that amount would probably cut it far too closely. Even $1,400 may be a tad optimistic.</p><p>So, to pick a number that is both sort of a halfway point between the two numbers and also incorporate a bit of mild whimsy, I&#x27;m now setting the goal to $1,333. Because why the hell not. (I thought about $1333.33, but that&#x27;s just being pedantic.)</p><p>We have this apartment solely thanks to our community here on the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a>. We would like to continue to enjoy this incredible living space you&#x27;ve so kindly given us.</p><p>Therefore, I shall continue to clown around, to dutifully shitpost, and otherwise try to earn your support.</p><p>Please read on below for an excessive and unreasonably long explanation of the situation.</p><p>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=</p><p>Dammit.. I should have posted this sooner; I don&#x27;t know why I do this.</p><p>Actually, I do know: I hate doing it. And lord knows I will procrastinate until the last possible second if it&#x27;s an activity I dislike.</p><p>To be clear, it isn&#x27;t the interaction that I loathe. I actually *do* enjoy that. When we meet fundraising goals, it&#x27;s like Christmas morning every single time. You know the scene in the movie where the Grinch returns the gifts to the citizens of Whoville? It&#x27;s like that. It feels like a miracle every. damned. time.</p><p>Actually, it *is* a miracle every single time.</p><p>The begposts also give me a chance to infodump to all of you. Sort of like a newsletter or blogpost. A &quot;State of the Goofballs&quot; address, if you will. It&#x27;s as if I open up the firehose of my mind and just vomit words until I run out of inner monologue.</p><p>I always feel compelled to try and show that we&#x27;re trying to get our shit together, in a feeble attempt to demonstrate that we&#x27;re &quot;worth&quot; helping. I think I tend to make them so long (longer than even my standard verbosity) to (hopefully) illustrate that I&#x27;m sincere. I&#x27;m not trying to scam anyone, and if I learned that I ever made anyone feel taken advantage of I would feel utterly heartbroken.</p><p>On the other hand, I think I hate making begposts because.. well, primarily it&#x27;s embarrassing. It&#x27;s surprisingly difficult to allow myself the same grace that I would grant anyone else. But it&#x27;s also extremely scary because our options are quite limited. And with current (gesticulates wildly at everything on the planet) events, it&#x27;s downright terrifying because I&#x27;m afraid there&#x27;s going to be a *lot* more people in similar circumstances, and the double-whammy is it could easily be our donors also joining us in poverty.</p><p>In other words, I&#x27;m afraid that not only could this cause an exponential strain on the Mutual Aid community, the funds available could simultaneously begin to dry up, further diluting our chances of avoiding disaster.</p><p>Anyway.. I&#x27;m babbling and doomering unnecessarily again so I will attempt to place the focus back on the primary matter at hand, which is that regrettably we have failed to become self-sufficient yet again over the course the previous calendar month.</p><p>Hours at work still remain low enough to doom us financially yet high enough to drain me of the will to live or even bother performing basic hygiene, let alone look for a second job and by extension try to once again figure out how to juggle two menial entry-level jobs who both expect you to be available from Open to Close, seven days a week. Further altering my availability risks even *less* hours at my current job, which makes the monumental hassle of securing a second job seem less than ideal.</p><p>I had to drop a shift because my allergies were so bad I was basically sedated by Benadryl for two days straight. My partner had to drop a couple of shifts when his father was hospitalized again due to complications from a fall and head injury some months ago, and my partner was far too emotionally fragile with that happening to be at work.</p><p>Of course the loss of these shifts has not been kind to our bank account. I truly, truly wish we didn&#x27;t have to keep doing this. Yet I must for my partner and our codependent border collie. Not to mention I think our little clan sort of owe it to the Mutual Aid community to not give up, and to make it seem like the staggering amounts of generosity were a worthwhile investment to help us. I&#x27;ve disappointed far too many people in my life. I want to start doing the opposite of that.</p><p>Hopefully I haven&#x27;t disappointed you too much, my dear pocket friends.</p><p>I&#x27;m up way past my bedtime and the letters are starting to swirl around. Unfortunately since I&#x27;m once again just siphoning everything I possibly can from my daily pay advances, I don&#x27;t know for certain what those amounts will be until the day after my shift. Plus I&#x27;m chronically disorganized and trying to adjust to having a legit bank account instead of just venmo or the like. I fucked up and accumulated a couple of overdraft fees because I lost track of pending charges.</p><p>At the moment, I&#x27;m confident we&#x27;re at least $500 in the red for rent and sadly that&#x27;s an amount that might need to be revised upwards. I&#x27;m struggling not to just mentally shut down thinking about how *much* upwards.</p><p>Please forgive me for once again asking for help.</p><p>If you&#x27;re willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can&#x27;t donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn&#x27;t feel bad.</p><p>Venmo: <a href="https://venmo.com/thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>venmo.com/thegizmotwins</a><br>Cashapp: <a href="https://cash.app/$thegizmotwins" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>cash.app/$thegizmotwins</a><br>PP: <a href="https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1</span><span class="invisible">982</span></a><br>GFM: <a href="https://gofund.me/12171be3" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gofund.me/12171be3</a></p><p><a href="/tags/solidarity/" rel="tag">#Solidarity</a> <a href="/tags/bpd/" rel="tag">#BPD</a> <a href="/tags/ptsd/" rel="tag">#PTSD</a> <a href="/tags/poverty/" rel="tag">#Poverty</a> <a href="/tags/mentalillness/" rel="tag">#MentalIllness</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://ovo.st/club/mutualaid" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>mutualaid</span></a></span></p>