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[quote=Anonymous]Can you sublet until June to cover your part of the rent and move in w/ parents? I know you dont get along but sometimes that matters less than getting your life back in order. After my divorce, I lived with a woman I truly didnt feel comfortable with for over a year to just save money and I took the bus and the metro to get around. I was way out in VA, not convenient at all and it was a pain in the ass but I made it work because I needed to get my life together. I have also been in a situation where my apartment went up for sale suddenly and someone bought it, decided they wanted our unit ( it was a row house in DC) and then we legally had 6 weeks to get out of there. We had very little savings but I somehow moved myself, my fiance and my son into a house we bought together a few months later. It was terrifying but we slashed EVERYTHING. I even had my kid eating breakfast and lunch at school and explained why. Here is what we did in a list: we cut our grocery bill in half ( I know you say you arent spending much on groceries but you have to be eating, right?) I dont understand that part of your post. We used natural cleaners and bought paper products ( toilet roll) in bulk. We did dishes by hand, saving on detergent. Little things really added up. We both took on extra work. Stuff we wouldnt do normally because we thought we wouldnt ever need to. We took temp work. We babysat. We dog walked. We hustled it out. I also wrote contacts from my work and asked if I could help with any of their work and they used me. I sold a LOT of things. Old jewelry, stuff I cared about, electronics, even things my parents gave me for graduation....none of this was more important than my getting a place to live and coming up with some savings to help us. I would have sold a car in a hot minute and figured out public transportation. I dont know your area but I have lived all over the US and have never had any trouble using public transport. You need to really see that car bill as a huge obstacle even if you take a loss at first. No cable for sure, and NO cellphone. Yes, that's right - NO CELLPHONE. For two months. I paid 10 a month I think to keep the line on the plan. Not sure what your cellphone co or what plan you have but you might be surprised what these companies (cell, gym, etc) say if you call and tell them you are unable to pay your bill because of a job situation but want your account to remain in good standing. I also used internet at the library or at other people's houses. I switched over my credit card debt to a no interest card in my Mom's name. She offered and I took her up on it. This way I wasnt accruing more debt with every month. This was hard for me to do but easy for her since she saw the other things we were doing... We were very house poor for the first year or so after we bought the house and were straight back to no savings but we learned a lot from that time period. We still live on 100 a month groceries as a family of 5 6 years later and make all of our meals from scratch. I grew to love cooking and we are healthier for it... Most of all that situation taught me that I dont get any stability in life without hustling and working for it and I cant expect things to just fall in place. And that all of that is normal and ok. I teach in a college now and I feel like the twenty somethings are disillusioned about things they feel they ought to have, period. We cant all have things right away and that should be ok - you should be eager to get life on track and then address things you want. For now, you will have to take several hits to get your life back and most of us have had to do this in one way or another. I called every one of the companies I paid bills for and had a humble conversation with whoever answered the phone about the situation I was in and the fact that I would be appreciative of any help they could throw my way. They were ALL helpful. You have to be willing to ASK for help and not feel guilty especially assuming you are doing everything possible on your own to move things in a positive direction. Good luck to you. [/quote]
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