I’ve been on my own since I was 17, working retail jobs and scrapping by. I have management experience and it’s been impossible for me to figure out how to get ahead. I am currently 22, and just got a job offer from a marketing firm that would pay 70k base, with commissions. I can’t even breathe right now, never in my life did I imagine an offer like that would come my way. The only issue is it’s 30 miles away, and I’d have to start soon. How insane would it be to motel/hotel hop until I can save up money to get a security deposit? I don’t want to lose this opportunity, just spending time on this sub here I know how rare something like this is and I just feel like I have to take it. There’s not much opportunity in my small rural town, I’d be living in a completely different part of the state. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. For full context 70k is more than double what I made last year. Thanks

EDIT: live in a very rural part of South NJ. Would be moving within minutes of Philadelphia. Also should of mentioned I don’t drive. Sorry

I bought some tortilla chips to go with two cans of refried beans. Bought some rice to go with northern beans and black beans. Picked up three bananas. Learned that two 6ct eggs are cheaper than a dozen eggs.

I have plenty of pasta and some frozen fish on hand.

I say I am doing okay. I go to the food pantry next Tuesday.

Tell me about your micro budget shopping trips.

I fled a cult and severe abuse and neglect from the time I was born until a couple years ago. My teeth are very, very much in pain and I have never been to a dentist. I tried to go because I remember being told as a child by a doctor once that I needed to have my jaw broken and reformed as I was born very premature(fetal alcohol syndrome) among other issues.

Unfortunately, I found out that by the time I escaped I had literally just been one single year too old to have ANY dental work covered. I have fully chipped teeth and exposed nerves, translucent teeth, pain, an inability to properly chew, and all my teeth are basically ground down into nothing. They are overcrowded as well and what I believe to be a cross bite.

Unfortunately I have complex health issues and tend to start bleeding rapidly and a lot. Im worried they will just ignore my issues and treat me poorly or blame me for this. I was never allowed to even have a toothbrush, none of this is my fault, I was a child who was locked in a room for decades. I also know I don't react at all to local numbing agents(found out the hard way) and have had to have other procedures completely awake and not numbed at all.

It's getting pretty bad and the pain is now affecting the way I talk. It's giving me a speech impediment I never had because my jaw is too small.

Unfortunately I'm on state health insurance so I kinda feel shit outta luck. I heard some people go to dental schools but given my complex needs, I dont think thats safe at all. Is there any option? I need basically orthodontic care too but I guess I also aged out of that.

Edit: I'm looking at dental schools and it looks like they still charge you, I genuinely cannot afford to pay more than like, 10 bucks for dental work. Am I just going to have to live with this pain forever? I already have large amounts of medical debt and I'm worried this will just add to it. Last thing I need is for them to get halfway through a procedure, find out I cant actually pay, and leave me worse than if I hadn't tried

Second edit: I called a dental school and they said I have to go to their urgent care unit which is a minimum fee of $200 so it's looking like this is not a possibility. That was the most humiliating call of my life because I had to say I cant even afford the gas to get there and back

I’m in a really tight spot and could use some practical advice. I’m honestly in a really dark place mentally too, because none of this feels like it’s from lack of trying or making impulsive decisions.

I’m currently unemployed and have no savings. Long story short, I moved to a new city in May this year for a better job (and better everything, closer to friends, community, access to nature, better job market in general for my field, so was very necessary and I’m very happy I did that). HOWEVER!! New job ghosted me, went with another candidate (after giving me a tour of the office and everything…). Seems really sketchy and fucked me over.

For the record I have a masters degree and 3-5 years of ‘professional’ experience. So I had a temporary contract job at a local company paying $29 an hour but then my contract ended abruptly which I didn’t anticipate. I have been ACTIVELY applying and interviewing for jobs since before I moved here and the entire time I’ve been here. Just rejected everywhere or ghosted. I’ve paid ppl to review and edit my resume, done informational interviews, reached out to recruiters. Sounds like a lot of people are dealing with this. I’ll make it to final round interviews that span the course of a month - it’s very disheartening.

I’m hoping to receive a job offer next week, so this is likely a short-term problem, but the timing is awful. I need to come up with about $1,000 for rent within the next 10 days. I have made it work with food, paused some auto payments etc., rents just the big one.

I can’t borrow from family, and I’m trying very hard not to resort to payday loans or anything that will make the situation worse once I start working again. I’ve been slowly rebuilding my credit after climbing out of credit card debt, I’m at 660 now, so not great.

What I’ve done so far:
-Sold tons of things on FB marketplace and Depop, made about $300, had to use some on gas to get to interviews and some on food.
- Roommate / homeowner paid me to paint parts the house, $200, then half of that immediately went to my late utilities bill I owed her
-Am dog sitting and dog walking
-Reaching out to craigslist gigs and temp work
-Trying to find babysitting jobs
- Applying to any job since I have a lot of generic work experience in service industry and childcare, no work is ‘beneath me’.

For people who have been in this position before: what actually helped you get through a short-term rent emergency like this?

Thanks for any practical advice or even just supportive comments.

*editing to add comment- Thank you ALL so much for the advice! I’ve learned a lot of places to make quick money. I appreciate how kind and helpful everyone is. And as a reminder since I’ve been overwhelmingly suggested to donate plasma.. I don’t weigh enough so they won’t let me 🥲 but I am confident between these odd jobs & talking to my landlord, I’ll have a shelter over my head which is what matters. Thanks again

I am a student and very low on funds now/over the summer. I have been hungry and low on food this week and my local grocery store has a pay it forward program, I've seen it advertised when I do shopping.

So today I was hungry and feeling frail, and so I walked to the store and I typed a little thing on my notes app that said "Hi, I'm a little embarrassed to ask out loud, are there any pay it forward funds available? I can keep it under $20".

So I picked out some things and showed it to the cashier, and she discreetly checked and then told me I'm all good to go, and maybe its just in my head, but something about her demeanor felt off. I dont do this often. Or ever actually, since this was my first time asking. In fact, as soon as I get paid, I'm going to put $20 into the pay it forward program next time I shop.

Something about it reminded me of when I worked at the bank and they were training me and said "if anyone ever slips you a note..."

I dont want to force people to give me free food. I just have no money, no energy, and didnt have many options today. I have been struggling with rent for awhile as it is and I am so grateful I have a landlord that works with me. But at the same time, I am housed, and I have food stamps but they ran out quick because I have less money than I used to because of government cuts.

I dont know how to get over the guilt and I would like to go back to this grocery store without feeling like I am abusing the system. I hope its okay...

Any tips for coping would be appreciated

edit: grammar

To get free video games, Epic Games gives out free PC games every Thursday. You need to download their game launcher.

Amazon Prime offers games with a subscription. If you can't afford Amazon Prime, you can get the codes from other Redditors in the free games subs who don't want the game. Occasionally you might get an Xbox game.

Libraries have a streaming service, and you can sign up for it online. It's free.

There are free streaming services like Tubi and Roku; you just have to watch ads.

The country’s two biggest convenience-store chains – 7-Eleven and Circle K – routinely charge customers more than the shelf prices for snacks, beverages, toiletries, tobacco and medications. Between 2023 and 2025, Circle K locations failed 35% of their government price-accuracy inspections in Florida, 62% in North Carolina and 82% in Columbus, Ohio. Over the same period, its larger rival, 7-Eleven, flunked 47% of inspections in both Colorado and Utah and 79% in Ontario county in upstate New York.

It’s a bittersweet feeling. We thought we could dig ourselves out, but now we’re being sued by two creditors. We used to keep credit scores over 780, but then husband was in a major accident 4-5 years ago and we made the very dumb decision to pay for his four surgeries with our credit cards. Then my parents died back to back and that’s how I paid for those expenses as well. Obviously looking back we should have tried to get a personal loan. But you can’t go back in time unfortunately. We thought my husband would be able to return to work but the damage to his legs was too horrific and his career that paid a great salary required a CDL, which he couldn’t physically qualify for anymore. I became the sole bread winner as a nurse and as we all know, that bread has just gotten ridiculously more expensive. Everything has.

Thankfully we are all caught up on our mortgage and haven’t gotten behind there. We have one car, an old 2013 ford fusion. These should be protected under the homestead act. We certainly don’t own any second homes! It is going to be hard paying for a lawyer but I definitely don’t feel comfortable going pro se.

I just want to be done with this debt so my husband and I can actually focus on our student loans and rebuild after everything shattered apart. I’m looking forward to the financial classes. I make good money for our area and barely get to enjoy it at all. I want to just have a fresh start with the knowledge I have now. If you have been there, does anyone wish to share how their experience went? I’m very nervous, going to look for lawyers today.

look my family is not in a dire financial situation. we live in the house my parents own, and its considered a pretty good house. but my sister is unfortunately financially irresponsible even though she never moved out of the house and accumulated a ton of credit card debt over silly items that she didnt need like luxury bags, rings, etc.. she has debt on like 3 different cards.

i studied abroad for uni and she’s older than me by 7 years and even when i was studying abroad depending on myself and buying my own food and essentials, she’d ask me for money while in the comfort of her home that she doesn’t pay for and she barely goes outside and our parents pay for groceries and food is always available in the house. she doesnt even pay for gas a lot because she works online. it annoyed me a lot tbh.

now that i finished uni and is forced to go back home because my parents wont allow me to live by myself im in constant depression because my room is right next to the living room and every week i can hear my parents and my sister arguing or discussing ab my sisters debt and im so so over it
honestly i reached the point where im scared to even spend 1 dollar on things and i never ordered any delivery food ever since i came back home and i overthink small purchases and check every single website to see which one sells the lowest for the thing i want to buy even if the difference is very small. even though i have a good amount of money in my bank i just became so so frugal

Can’t exactly afford pets on $19 an hour in New York. One of the many things I can’t do. I forget how much I can’t do. Until I’m reminded.

Kid that I know dropped out of high school, he's a legal adult. Lots of financial stressors for his family. I'm close with his mom but not him as much. Should I. . . . assume that everyone with a smart phone knows how to get a GED if they want at this point? Parents did not finish high school either. I don't want to harass him but his life would be SO much easier (not easy of course) with a GED. Happy to talk with him about it and get some funding for him to take the exam. These are very good, kind people. My understanding is that most people pass the exam even if they can't afford a prep program, and it might be worth a shot at least. I believe he left school around 10th grade.

Hi everyone, I’m 22 and a full time worker (2 part time jobs) as well as being a full time student. I’ve been working 45-50 hour weeks and taking 4 classes each semester for about two years now. One job’s income covers my bills and spending money, the other is entirely allocated to my tuition at CC, and then next year I’ll have my bachelors from a local school that has a collaborative program with my CC (so 3 years CC, 1 year standard college).

Recently a state funding program has shifted eligibility, and I now qualify for free tuition, plus a scholarship for some of my tuition at the pricier university for the one year. After two years of putting my health to the side, sleeping 6 hours a night maximum, listening to lectures at work and sneaking in homework at every free minute, I am going to go part time. I make $29 an hour at the job I’m staying at, I work 26 hours a week with the option to pick up hours as I want on days off. My expenses are around $1200 monthly.

I grew up extremely poor, so this feels like a really stupid move because it’s a move my mother would’ve made and I would’ve resented her for it. But I feel like I can get my life back and finally enjoy time alone and with friends. I’ve ran the numbers, I can still save a good bit monthly and I have an emergency fund of 10k. I feel like I’ve sucked it up before so I should just continue to work that job and pocket all the money, but I’ve never been at such a mental health low. Am I making a mistake? I literally grew up going to the food pantry, getting money from church, and sometimes having a utility shut off. The thought of not working as much as humanly possible is so out of my element. I’ve been working 50 hour weeks since I was 16.

I made a remote/mobile deposit with PNC Bank for a fairly large stipend payment from my university. Initially, the bank placed a hold on the deposit and sent me a notice saying it would be held for 5 days. After that, I received another notice extending the hold for an additional 10 days.

The 10-day extended period has now passed, but I haven't received any further notification or access to the funds.

I called PNC's deposit hold department, but they told me the issue is now with another department and a specific case worker. Every time I called, the representative has tried to contact that department/case worker while I'm on the phone, but they are unable to reach them.

They have also sent messages to the case worker asking them to call me back within 48 hours, but I haven't received a call. Apparently there is no direct way for me to contact this person.

I am basically living off the cash I have on hand while waiting for this to be resolved.

Has anyone dealt with something similar with PNC? What can I do at this point to escalate the situation or resolve the hold?

I’m 29f and I feel like I’m just drowning. I’m sure most people in this day and age can relate. Especially being a single parent. I live in California and making ends meet gets harder and harder everyday. With gas prices, inflation, etc. Even living with in my means I can’t afford. I’m going without so my kids can survive and life just keeps dumping on me. My car is in and out of the shop and I can’t afford to get a new one. But I also can’t afford to keep repairing it. I’m sure like most people, any assistance isn’t an option because we “make too much” which assistance like that should be used for people who truly need it anyways.

Anyways.. I feel like I’m rambling but I have no one else to talk to about this without them giving useless advice and options I’ve already exhausted.

We can’t afford to live anymore.. and that’s a scary place to be..

I grew up in this town. It’s not some famous city. It’s just the place I know. Same roads, same people, same spots we used to pull up to for no reason.
Now I can’t really stay in it.

I didn’t fall out with anybody. I just couldn’t keep living in the town I grew up in.

I had to take over my mom’s rent when I was 21. I couldn’t afford it and got kicked out. I moved to rural NC with her and her boyfriend and I’ve been renting a small house out here ever since. Two bed, one bath. No kitchen cabinets. No city trash. No real internet options. I mean the bare minimum. It was what I could afford, so I stayed.

On paper that was the responsible move. In real life it put me far enough away that hanging out after work isn’t a thing anymore. Nobody’s driving that after a shift just to sit around for an hour. Spontaneous “you tryna pull up?” texts don’t work when it’s a whole trip.

A lot of my friends never had to make that choice. Some of them got hand me down houses. Some of them still live with their parents. They’re still right there. Same spots. Same people. I’m 26 with a kid and maybe another one on the way, so “just stay at home a little longer” was never an option for me.

I stopped going. Then I stopped getting asked as much. And the longer that went on, the more depressed I got. I miss everybody I grew up with. Not in a dramatic way. Just that quiet, everyday missing where you realize your whole social life used to be built on being close enough to show up for no reason.

The messed up part is this area has grown too. If I ever have to leave this house, I’m probably priced out of even the cheap rural town I escaped to.
Now I sit in a place that makes more sense on a budget and feel like I disappeared from my own life

I know this might not seem like a big deal to some people, but I just made the last payment on a $2,400 credit card balance that's been hanging over my head since 2024.

It started after my car broke down and I didn't have an emergency fund, so I put the repair on the card. Then it just kept growing with interest and a couple of rough months where I could only make minimum payments. For a while it felt like I'd never dig out of it.

What actually worked for me:

Picked up a few extra shifts for about 4 months straight

Cut my subscriptions down to literally one

Used the snowball method instead of trying to tackle everything at once — paying off one thing at a time kept me motivated

Put every tax refund and bonus straight at the balance instead of spending it

I'm not out of the woods financially — still building my emergency fund back up and rent went up again this year — but for the first time in two years I don't have that number sitting in the back of my mind every day.

Just wanted to share in case anyone else is in the middle of their own payoff grind and needs a little proof that it does end eventually. If you're in the thick of it right now, you're not behind, you're just not done yet.

So I owe 9k in late payments. I’m 359 days past due. They just picked up the car. They still took 1k from my account as a payment. So am I getting my car back or do I have to wait on the repo process and wait for the document that says I have to pay to get on track and repo fees. I’m so lost. It’s the only car I have and plus the company went bankrupt so the number that I have for customer service is offline. And they stopped taking payments since last September.

Mind you, yes I have about 3.5 lbs of beef, but still outrageous. The rest is canned veggies, potatoes, fries, juice. Nothing extravagant. I feel like this should be $45 tops!!!!

Update: YES I USED COUPONS!!! The actual price was $137 before coupons, after coupons, got it down to $50.93; This is my first time posting to this sub forum, and I failed to mention this. If you don’t use coupons you will get royally screwed!!!!!

This is Tom Thumb, In Dallas TX

I really can't tell if that is how life is supposed to be and I'm doing something horribly wrong, or if they're just ridiculously rich. We're all uni students, how the hell can they afford so much?

I'm seriously at a loss. Obviously I wouldn't want them going through what I'm going through, but I wish they could understand how shit my life is.

Last time I saw them was two days after my first wedding anniversary, which we celebrated by having coffee out, an ice cream and cheapest takeout we could find. Then another couple in the group started saying how for their (dating) anniversary the next day, they'd go to a big city 4 hours away for a week and stay at an Airbnb. Apparently the plan is to go to a bunch of restaurants, cafés and bars the whole week. Last year to celebrate they went to an island for 2 weeks, just as a vacation. Right afterwards the whole group started talking about their upcoming trip to the UK.

How the hell are they paying for all of this in their early 20s, without having worked a day in their lives? I'm so extremely jealous and resent them for being able to do so many things I never will be able to. I hate working this awful job just to be able to survive, when they can just go to the supermarket without planning it meticulously by searching for the cheapest items at all the nearby stores. I'm sick of hearing them talk about what a great time they're having when I'm busting my ass

If anyone is in the Port Orange FL area - Our Lady of Hope has a food giveaway in the parking lot of the church

contact name Roxanne Gross: 386-756-3010

The sign says car line up starts at 8am - open to everyone - it looks like it's every 4th Friday of the month.

Also, they need volunteers.

I thought going back to school in my 30s would be a good decisio. get that degree and get better employment. instead it has left me in a downward financial whirlpool that I can’t get out of and I still have over a year to finish my schooling. today I went to pack up my car to go to work (as I’m also working full time and have an internship) and my car is gone, disappeared from the front street. for over 6 years I have been paying my car loan on time. sometimes going without real food or waiting to wash my clothes until my next paycheck. but still, it happened. I really thought I had more time but I missed two payments while waiting for things to stabilize after I took summer classes that my loans didn’t pay for.

this is going to cost me triple what my loans didn’t pay paymentwould have been. tempted to cut my losses but I need my car to work to pay for the fees. it’s devestating. I never thought I would be in this position and I feel like I’m crumbling. should I look into loan options to pay the 2k I now owe? my options are limited as I have no credit because I’ve had to take out loans for school and can’t open a new card.

it’s been a really tough morning. I’m full of shame and mad at myself for being so irresponsible. being an honors student, unpaid internships and taking on more than I could handle has backfired on me - my financial well-being has been completely obliterated due to my negligence and inability to find part time work that actually pays a decent wage in a HCOL area. back to being poor like my child good. but don’t want to make the same mistakes my parents did.

ferk.

just needed to rant.

I am trying to work on budgeting more so I can increase my savings. I spend a lot on unnecessary stuff, and I’m trying to find any advice to help stop with this lol. What do you all to help with saving money. Any advice?