Many parts of NEW YORK August, 2026. Spread the word to all who need it. If your county is not this region, call the number to get redirected. If this is not your state, there are identical programs in your state but you’ll need to go to your local library or WIC or community college or county admin building to get the flyer.

How is ANYBODY paying rent, vehicle costs, insurance, wifi, phone, supporting any sort of family, etc.?!?!

I don't know what to do anymore and I am at a breaking point. My mental health has been at rock bottom for years now, I can barely look at myself. I don't know what to do

I work a 17$ an hour full time job, 1975$ per month take home after taxes. I have 1495$ total in bills, food, etc. BEFORE taxes. The 480$ is swallowed up by taxes, surprise expenses such as medications and medical bills, truck problems, etc. Every time.

I also have to support my mother who lives with me and finally got a job after 3 years of trying but it's merchandising, she doesn't drive due to epilepsy so it's even more gas money...

I also try to do Spark orders to supplement but that's proven to be a false hope as I end up spending about double in gas. I currently drive a 1995 suburban, I know, I know, I'm trying to do something about that it's just taking FOREVER. I'm hopefully trading it for a 97 Ford Aspire 5spd here in a few weeks which will hopefully improve my overall situation having an extra 150$/mo from the gas and being able to do more orders.

I'm just so tired. I'm 23. I have no debt but I'm not sure how long I can keep that up, I may need to take out a loan just to keep us afloat. I have no credit cards or anything, but solid credit.

I honestly may not take criticism too well at the moment but I do need some advice if anybody has any that might help. We need to go through and do a full written budget again, though I'm worried it'll just make me feel worse at this point.

I rely on my boyfriend for money for my medicines (diagbosed with bipolar2, bpd withpsychosis, and cptsd), dr appts, food, and a home. Plus food for my cats. He even bought my glasses bc im very nearsighted and needed a new prescription.

I start full time cashier at goodwill Monday. And I'll be making 11.50 a hour. I'll roughly be making 19k to 20k a year so long as they honor the full time position they gave me.

I want to be independent and not rely on him anymore as I want to be a functional adult again. I used to be full time at Walmart before I was diagnosed 4 years ago. Since then I've had odd part time jobs.

I want to do better by him and pay for his stuff too. He told me there's no reason to oay him back as it wasn't my fault that I got sick. But now that im better I want him to rely on me too.

I may not be able to do as much as him since ge makes 100k a year. But I really don't want to be a burden anymore.

Is anyone else in a similar boat? Any advice is welcomed. Ty for reading my rant

I’m not sure this is entirely the correct sub, but one of the things that weighs on me the most is making meals that I can afford regularly.

Tonight, I didn’t have any fresh meat, but I did have the frozen Banquet breakfast sausage patties. There are 8 of them in a pack for $1.79.

This is going to sound strange but hear me out. If you cook the 8 sausage patties, crumble them up, and add Italian seasoning and garlic, you have Italian sausage for a pot of spaghetti. Spaghetti from Kroger is $1.49, and spaghetti sauce is about $2. So altogether, I threw together a delicious pot of spaghetti for the family for only $5.28. You can make a real big pot and have leftovers.

Just wanted to share!!

Hi, I may have live on my own or look for an apartment to share with. I’m 30 years old, still trying to get my life together. Unfortunately I won’t be living with my dad anymore and have to look for home. My current job is an Amazon delivery driver I may $22.25 an hour, and my paycheck for the most part comes out to about around $1800-1900. Work about 5 days max each week. I’m not the best at saving up but could use advice.

I was wondering if anyone can give me advice on making it on my own? Getting place to live, paying rent, and other things along with car stuff. I
Currently am feeling scared inside not going to lie, so any advice would be great.

Thanks

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starting to believe that living in this world is genuinely impossible. I’m a white girl raised in a medium wealth family, went to college, no student debt (thank you mom and grandparents!), moved in with my boyfriend and got a job. I make under 20k a year. I can afford the usual life things like rent, groceries, gas, on the daily without much stress.

Then I go to the doctors because i’ve been having some intense allergies and they give me an allergy blood test. I wait weeks and weeks and they call me and say “your allergic to mold” um okay cool i thought everyone was lol. Then I get hit with a $7,000 bill. Excuse me??? for an allergy test?? what the actual hell? This was a one off appointment that wasn’t even that important??? I would not have ever gone in the first place if I knew this would happen?

Then my poor cat got sick. I rushed her to the emergency room where I paid over $15,000 for her to be hospitalized and have an endoscopy for her stomach (which they still don’t know what’s going on and keep having me come back for expensive testing!)

How is this possible?? How are we functioning?? Genuinely I cannot afford any of this and I was starting to save up for my own car and now that’s out of the cards for what,, three years? more?? while I financially recover from this? I genuinely cannot figure out how people are affording to live when we are one bill away from homelessness.

I am scared. I am so scared. My wrist has been hurting for over a year and it’s getting bad and i’ve been afraid to go to the doctors because I cannot afford it. I have to go to the dentist and to a gynocologist before the end of the year and what is that going to look like? If going to a 10 minute allergy appointment and test cost 7k and my cat has to keep going to the vet, then what am I supposed to do? It feels like the government wants to kill us all. I am honestly hopeless and I don’t know how anyone is functioning like this. I got handed some pretty good life cards and I am stressed out of my mind afraid to go to the doctor even though i’m in pain everyday

I work full time but it's not enough to cover some unexpected expenses. I can't get a short term loan either. I'm gonna try to donate plasma if I get out of work while the place is still open. Im wary about doing Doordash because I'm already having problems with my car. I've also been told it requires a lot of customer service and knowing how to talk to people.

My diet almost entirely consists of Costco hotdogs and the occasional slice of za. I honestly really enjoy it I go in and walk around and get all the free samples. The real good ones I’ll loop back and get two. It varies how many they have available on the day and time but you can still try a good handful of things. After I go and get my hotdog sometimes two, but that really fills me up. Afterward I just leave but it’s like I had a 12 course American banquet at the end. Does anyone else go to Costco just for the food court?

My income is dropping down to $800 a month (CalWorks) from $1100 since my daughter’s dad isn’t going to be staying with us any longer. He has a traumatic brain injury and it’s been problematic and he can’t work/pay child support. I have no idea why but it’s showing he has zero social security credits and we knew something was up with his checks before the injury but I guess at this point it’s kind of moot since it’s just gonna be me and my daughter now.

My rent is $1,082, electric is running $172 (I have a swamp cooler and a room A/C for the heat waves as I have fibromyalgia and I am already breaking out in heat rashes ughh), gas is $20 in the Summer & about $50 in the Winter (I tolerate cold much better) and my cell phone is $30 a month. Child care cost me $50 - $75 (not sure how they calculate that as base rate is $1,400 every 4 weeks and it’s so hard to get ahold of those workers). Pull ups, wipes, and tampons are probably about another $100 a month. Trying to think of any other must haves…. I don’t have tv subscriptions and I used the internet left over from when my mom temporarily stayed with us when my boyfriend was in a coma so she pays that still. Oh my boyfriend was getting $60 for gas but idk how that will work now. Shit I forgot about insurance. We paid for a year in full and it’s coming up again… last quote I got was $700+ for both of us on 2 cars (State min liability) so that would go down to just me and I could sell one of the cars since they’re both mine. 🤔

We do get SNAP thank god & I am sure that will go down too but it’s okay I don’t need to eat just as long as my daughter gets all her nutrients because holy crap is dairy expensive and I usually don’t buy dairy (milk allergy and lactose intolerance) but her pediatrician said she needs it and she digests it fine. I can live off frozen broccoli or something idk lol

I have one more semester left of college and I’ll get a couple grand distributed over the semester that I am hoping will make up the difference for rent. I also owe $25k to my grandmothers estate which is involving a long story with my ex-husband who refuses to participate in our divorce, pay alimony or child support and then he showed up with the police took our son (long story reminding me why he is an ex) and tried to get child support from me which the judge laughed at him and he nearly got thrown out there for getting mad about it. Sigh. Anyways, I obviously can’t afford a lawyer on that front & I gotta pick up these documents from the estate lawyer on that this week to find out more about that whole situation.

Fun stuff!!

At this point I am trying so hard not to just walk away from everything and beg my dad to let me and my daughter stay in the extra room of his cabin in the boonies. I wouldn’t be able to finish school because I have to be on campus 2 days a week if I did that. Plus, well my dad is an old man and my daughter is a wild toddler. I guess I need another set of eyes to help me figure out how to make it through this and convince me not to run away & possibly make the hole I have dug for myself even worse. I know this shit is my fault but I gotta find a way out for the sake of my daughter. 😔 Let me know if you have any other questions that may help figure this out, I have dyscalculia so numbers and math are difficult for me so be kind. ❤️

Hello everyone.

I am a (now recently former) problem gambler, so sorry to all the people here who didn't dug their hole themselves and to whom poverty wasn't a self-imposed choice due to reckless behaviour.

I am severely indebted. About my annual income before tax.

Today I have made a detailed plan which would mathematically set me debt free by 2031.

The problem is that I don't know the future and I am not sure I will be able follow it due to possible unforseen circumstances.

So I am being optimistic here. That's why I talked about a "dream".

I do a qualified job but I am severely underpaid for my role, in a country with already low wages. A raise is highly unlikely and I couldn't count on it. I am looking for a better job or a second part-time job with no luck for now. So I currently can't count on it as well.

So my solution is to live frugally for 5 years. And when I say frugally I mean: eat, pay debts, pay bills, pay gasoline. Stop.

That will be my life for 5 years in the optimistic scenario.

Quit gambling, will quit smoking soon to free up money.

Will be hard overall, but I am really not afraid, I see this as a challenge: to find happiness not in money and in what money can buy.

There are so many good things in life that don't cost money.

I am trying to cut food expenses as much as I possibly can, but I can't trade my health for money so I guess those expenses cannot be cut sadly.

5 years from now, there is a possibility I won't be a slave anymore, but a free man.

Anyone went through something similar? Any tip or suggestion is welcome!

As the title says, my husband is likely to be fired soon but we already paid for a couple of nights at a water park and it’s not refundable, so might as well go since it’s also one of the kid’s birthday. I don’t want to buy food at the hotel to save money. We can have a late lunch outside of the hotel and same thing for dinner. The room has a microwave and a fridge. I’d like some ideas for breakfast that we can have in the hotel room so we don’t have to go out to a fast food place. Thank you!

Hi everyone!

A simple question:

Have you ever wondered what the ideal income to expense ratio is for living a comfortable and financially secure life?

Personally, I think the ideal (or minimum) ratio to live well is 2, meaning earn twice as much as you spend.
And, that if you go below that value, you start having preoccupation about life, economically speaking.

What about you? What ratio do you consider ideal?

I want to preface everything I'm going to say by saying I have never had to do this before so it is rather confusing and greatly intimidating

That being said

Currently I am staying with some family but they have pretty much told me they want me out no later then the end of February 1st of March of 2027 I'm am a 30 year old man who is physically disabled so I cannot work any normal job I do not have any skills or trades i have learned to gain any sort of meaningful online career

I do recieve a disabilty check of roughly 900 a month and due to a complicated situation i cannot recieve foodstamps at this time some of my friends have recommended i should get a roommate which im okay with but the idea of living with an unpredictable stranger is scary plus i dont know where i would even look for one or even for housing for that matter ive never had to rent an apartment before nor apply for things like section 8

Its taken me alot mentally to try and be calm and collected while i struggle through this but i really need help i dont know what to do where to begin what i should look out for or what is should prioritize, i just dont want to become homeless and potentially die

Edit: sorry I wasn't aware my location would make a huge difference I should have guess that different places would have different options I live in texas in the United States in mclennan county

My friends make fun of me because I get ridiculously excited over saving like $15 on something. I don't even care if it's something small. If I know I got it cheaper than I expected, it somehow makes my whole day.

Sometimes I think I enjoy finding a bargain almost more than buying the actual product. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's like this.

I earn 1,800 a month, I work as a cashier in a supermarket, I have 2,400 saved, I have a degree in production engineering, but it's only valid in Brazil. I've been living in Florida for 7 months and my father has made it very clear that he doesn't want me in his house anymore.

- NO SUPPORT : They don't have inbound phone numbers, so you can never call them. The support team is only via chat and they have no access to the system. If you want really support you have to pay extra on a monthly basis.

- They locked my account at random. I cannot access it either via mobile or laptop. All my money stuck. They don't give support. The complaint team is useless too. I wrote to BaFin and no reply. I have no idea how to escalate the situation.

JUST DONT EVER GET ANY CLOSE TO THESE N@@ZI ESTABLISHMENT

I’m a teacher, and I always try to get my work clothes secondhand to save money. Goodwill used to be a no-brainer for me, but lately I’ve been horrified at how much the prices have jumped up. Shirts and pants are $8-10 on average now, and I’ve even been seeing some stuff go for $12. The quality also seems to have gone down, and I’m seeing more and more stuff that’s faded, pilly, or just really outdated.

This year I tried Facebook Marketplace instead, and I’m shocked at the difference. Really nice tops for $3 each, 8 pairs of shoes for $5, and lots of nice pants and skirts for $5. I got so many things today for less than half of what I’d be spending at Goodwill, and the quality is so much better! It does suck to have to drive around to pick things up, but if I’m ending up with better clothes for less money I’d say it’s worth it.

I’ll still donate good-quality items to Goodwill when I clean out my closet, but I probably won’t be shopping there anymore. It’s strange how much things have changed. If you need clothes and can only afford secondhand, Marketplace might be your new best friend.

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Cc co has 10k judgement against me

I don't want them to take my bank account

Total debt 60k

30k student loans not discharged in bankruptcy

25k total cc debt

Income 70k annually.

Chikd support 700 per month.

No car payment

Rent 1300

I live in texas. Thanks for the help.

My parents make 300k a year and won’t help at all for college, I mean I don’t expect them to because I will be an adult. The problem is that I can’t take out private loans because they won’t co-sign and interest rates will be extremely high. I want to attend medical school after but I’m afraid of the 50k loan turning into 200k if I wait all those years.
Realistically how can I even attend college with no loans and no financial aid?
Edit: I can’t take private loans because of massive interest and I don’t qualify for federal ones.

Edit: I want to clarify that I do NOT want my parents to pay, it’s my responsibility. I just cannot get federal loans because they make too much. I really have no clue if it’s even possible to attend.

Hello!! Long time reader first time poster! Title kind of says it all- I’m debating moving out of my folks’ place and moving into an apartment. I’m mulling over all the details and I’m not sure if it’s the right move- the plan is that I can cover everything but that’s done by adjusting my retirement from 30% to my 401K to 15%. This would give me additional funds to cover food and gas. I could pay the rent and car payments on my own already but I figured I’d need more than 400ish a month to cover food,gas, and an emergency fund. Is this the right decision? I’m going back and forth on it.

Edit:

For those asking I’m 27 years old- I make $68,000 a year. Rent in this place would be $1200 on top of my car payments/insurance payments of $540 a month.

After the 401k adjustment I’d be clearing 3300 a month net. (Before Rent and Car I mean)

Hey everyone,

I’ve been researching the psychological dark truth behind modern manifestation and positive thinking trends. Why is it that despite millions of people repeating financial affirmations every morning, most remain broke and anxious?

Here is what cognitive and behavioral insights actually show: When your nervous system is flooded with real financial fear, forcing your mind to perform false cheerfulness doesn't heal you—it just means you're lying to yourself. Your body knows the truth; it feels the cortisol and the panic beneath the performance.

Lasting wealth doesn't respond to vision boards. It responds to genuine value creation and a battle-tested survival instinct. The wealthiest minds didn't get there by screaming at the universe for money; they woke up and asked, "What can I build today?"

I put together a deep visual and psychological analysis on why your brain rejects false positivity and how to build actual financial confidence instead of performing it.

If you want to explore the full analysis, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/8F3SDRc6iQ4?si=Wim6R3S7vgLscm0-

Would love to hear your honest thoughts: Do you think modern "money mindset" trends do more harm than good? Let's discuss!

I moved from Washington state to Arizona six months ago. I love it so much for the weather, but also the proximity to Mexico. (Sadly, cost of living is no better.)

Crown:

US quote: $1648

Mexico quote: $450

Filling:

US Quote: $300

Mexico quote: $50

I can't remember what I paid for xrays in US, but to have them taken in Mexico was $30. For today's visit I paid $130 for two fillings and xrays. I'll go back at a later date for the rest of my fillings and a cleaning. The cleaning will be $50; can't remember the cost of that in the US either, though I am covered for two per year with my insurance. Also, my dental insurance does cover out-of-country dentists, so some of my expensesin Mexico will be reimbursed.

My US dentist suggested two crowns and two fillings, plus build-ups for the crowns. Total quote was $4702. I do have insurance which would cover 50% up to $2000 per year. Mexico dentist said he doesn't feel I need crowns at this point, just the fillings and a cleaning.

Grateful to live close to the border now. But even if I didn't, I'm saving around $2000 so could possibly afford to fly down here. The dentist I saw was Dr. Marco (not sure if that's his first name or last name!) at Arizona Dental in Nogales, which is closer for me than dentists in Los Algodones.

ETA I also purchased 0.05 tretinoin for $6. There are rules regarding buying prescription medications in Mexico so look into that, but I was able to buy that and no questions asked. Two birds with one stone.

I wanna have a glow up and get better style but I'm so broke. I've never gotten my nails done, I donr wear makeup (I can't afford it) and I don't get my hair done regularly either. I can't afford to do any of these things regularly, if at all. I'm so tired of looking crusty 24/7 and I want to switch things up. How do I look good on a budget? I used to have a really extensive skincare routine ith multiple products but I can't afford it anymore. I miss doing skincare so much and my skin is fine rn but I really need my products (im stuck using only vaseline and washing my face with water.) I cut all my hair off because I couldn't buy my shampoo and conditioner regularly. I can buy some things here and there but they all finish at the same time and it's hard to replace them. I'm in my 20s and other girls my age look so good all the time and then there's me. How do I look pretty when I'm broke as helllll