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Sadie
Waterville, Maine
My name is Sadie and I live in Waterville
with my 12-year-old son. I went on TANF about a year ago when I could no
longer work because I had 5 brain aneurisms and needed surgery. Thankfully,
my condition has greatly improved and we were able to leave TANF about 3
months ago when I got a delivery job with a local business. I earn $6.25 an
hour, and although I sometimes get 30 hours a week, usually it's more like
25-27. I would like to work more hours, but they just aren't available. I
get some child support from my son's father, but the Department of Human
Services is keeping a lot of it to repay itself for the time I was on TANF.
That makes things even more difficult. I just don't have enough income to
pay my bills. Here's what my budget looks like this month:
| Monthly
Income: |
|
| Take
home pay |
$560 |
| Child
support |
224 |
| Total
monthly income: |
$784 |
| Monthly
Expenses: |
|
| Rent |
$400 |
| Lights |
20 |
| Phone |
20 |
| Groceries |
200 (My last food stamps were $10 a month ago) |
| Gas
for car |
30 |
| Car
insurance |
30 |
| Computer
service |
20 (my son uses this for school-I can't take it away from him) |
| Non-food
items |
25 (laundry, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc.) |
| Clothing |
0 (forget it!) |
| Car
repairs |
?????
(Help!) |
| Total
monthly expenses |
$745
plus car repairs! |
If I really squeeze things I may have $40 a
month for the emergencies that always seem to come up, but I never have
enough money. Just yesterday I lost the brakes on my 1985 car with over
200,000 miles on it. I don't even have a dime in my checking account. What
do I do now? I know it's going to take a lot more than I have to fix it. I
really need another car to be able to reliably get back and forth to work,
but that's out of the question. My older son who's in the service has a car
that I can use, but that's broken down too. It would cost about $500 to get
it on the road-so that's not a solution either right now.
A little help right now would make a big
difference. It's just not there for families like mine.
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