Hi! I'm Daz. Most of the people reading this probably know me a little better as Derp, or Ryker, from various online communities.
And it's been a rough year.
Normally I try to avoid asking for help. I'm pretty good at finding clever ways to re-arrange things, make sure that things smooth themselves out over time. But at the beginning of the year, I was face with an unexpected, very necessary long-distance move. It wasn't really optional. It was a matter of personal safety, both physically and psychologically. But it completely wiped out what savings I had managed to build up to that point.
The next few months were spent managing the realities of trying to build a life in a far more expensive city while living paycheck to paycheck. I managed to stay ahead of most of the expenses, or at least very carefully juggled which ones I could afford to let get behind a bit. The Calculus of Being a Single Human Adult Renter.
And for the most part, I was starting to get caught back up a bit. I was less than $200 behind, after being almost $1500 in debt after the move. After this check, everything was starting to look up! I even had enough to take the dog to the vet for a sudden eye infection without taking the bank account into the negative! (It might have had less than ten dollars, but still not in the negative!)
And I deferred payment on a few bills for about a week and a half, just waiting on my next paycheck to hit, because I figured that the $25 or so it would cost me in late fees was a cost that I could safely absorb.
Imagine my surprise when I wake up to find out that the bank paid all of those bills on the day I got paid -- except that they paid them before they processed my paycheck, and charged an overdraft fee on each and every one of them. Five transactions in all. Five overdraft fees. Almost two hundred dollars in unexpected charges that my bank, being the mega-corporation that they are, refuses to reimburse. Because they know they're basically ubiquitous, so it doesn't matter if they lose one customer. They have millions of others, and tons of small banks are basically owned by them anyway.
So now I'm back to the part where I have rent coming up, and not enough money to cover it due to these unexpected extra expenses, plus the extra $75 that it's going to tack onto the rent (because it'll be late) and the additional extra overdraft fee that the bank will surely charge for not having enough to cover the expenses.
And that's before gas, or food, or laundry, or any other adult expenditure.
I, like many of you, hate asking for help. But the logical part of me knows that, at this point, we're getting into territory where getting caught up is going to take a lot of effort, and a lot of sacrifices, and a lot of tempting fate that could end up making things even worse. Especially as I've largely been tempting fate for the better part of a year to just get caught up to where I am.
So. I'm asking for help. Because I've been doing this awhile now, and I've made sacrifices, and honestly -- I'm tired. And feeling a little defeated, at this point. Unexpected things are going to keep happening, and there's no way to tell ahead of time if they're going to be the kind of things that I can bounce back from easily, or if they're going to knock me further down the slope I just climbed, ever so slowly.
I don't expect anyone to contribute anything they don't have, or don't feel comfortable sacrificing. PLEASE take care of your own needs first, and only contribute if you really, truly are in a place that you can do so. But if you have anything that you could spare, the fundraiser amount puts me exactly even after rent is paid, groceries are purchased (budgeted for about $50), I get enough gas in the truck to get to work for the next two weeks, and the last few of the remaining bills are caught up, which puts me in a position to actually be able to start saving money again. And that would be a huge stress burden off of me.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide. I really believe that we choose our own families, and the people reading this are almost assuredly part of the family I've chosen for myself. One of these days, I'll be in a position to help one of you, too. And you bet that I'll have your back when you need it, like you always have mine, no matter how rough life gets.