My family's broke.

[Stonecreek]

Broke as in no money, not as in physically fractured. See, my dad's of retirement age, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) will not give him the past two checks he's owed. This means our family's been shorted over $2,800 in the past few months. My dad's made over a dozen calls to get the money, but to no avail. So now, we have all our monthly bills come due, and mom balances the checkbook (she's an accountant), and discovers we have nothing left. This is with her working a full-time job.

So I offer to pay off all the bills I can, and they politely decline, saying it's more important that I find a job. That's up there on my priorities, believe me (I want to move out so bad! I hate being my age and still living under my parent's roof), but family comes first. I don't want to see them suffer, but by living with them still, I am being a financial burden. I am doing my hardest to find any sort of employment, but even with my degree it's been rather fruitless. What can I do to help them other wise?

[Skorpigeist offline]

you know, it doesn't seem like there is much more you can do than you already have. You can keep trying to do what you can and maybe help your folks realize that it is not wrong to ask thier children for help in whatever way possible. Just keep you chin up, and you will find a rewarding job and with some struggle, things will be right again.

[Cecilia offline]

I concur. You've done what you can...it's just a rough patch in life. Support your parents, help them in any way you can. ^^

[Rail Runner offline]

have you thought about cutting down on certain services to lessen the amount of bills that you and your parents have?...it may suck for a while, but it will help to bring up the balance at the end of the month. I have had to do this before, didnt like it, but it had to be done. Otherwise, keep doing what you are doing, you are doing the best you can

[Vora Lyoko offline]

Yes. Help your parents in any way. And cut down on anything. And I mean anything. Even if it's one dollar your should help your parents.

Hope you find a job.

[Chad Rains offline]

I have to sympathize here. It's just about identical here in my household. Even with just my mom, me, and my little 10yo brother we are like barely making ends meet as it is. And to make things worse, while my mom makes a half decent paycheck at like nearly $12/ho, she is a bus driver and thus only works during the school year and the rest of the year she collects unemployment which literally halves her income. And this year school doesn't go back into session till the beginning of October.

And to make things worse, my aunt who lives just across town makes nearly double what my mom does and also has her daughter living with her also adding to the income and she is worse off than we are. I mean, I love her and all, but she is really terrible with her finances.

One thing I will say about my mom. She has never really nagged at me to get a job or really come out and said I should help pay some of the bills. Even with the gas shut off with a $3K past due bill she hasnt really bothered me about it. But lately I guess a kind of switch has flipped in the back of my mind and Ive finally gotten on the ball to try and look for a job. Between of having a partial school loan to pay off after semi-'dropping out' (online classes arent really going well. Probably gonna hold off to go to a physical campus instead.) and actually wanting and willing to help pay some of the bills (primarily the cable/phone/net bill for obvious reasons but thats besides the point.) I have been really looking around.

Already got 2 applications sent out and me and my mom are supposed to go to a local job fair over the next few days. So my options are fairly open. About the ONLY job I am /NOT/ going to take under any circumstances are the real minimum wage type jobs like the classic McD's hamburger flipper or grocery bagger. One of the jobs I actually put in an application for is a place called KraftMaid which isnt far from here (and should be fairly well known across the US. I even think theyve been used a few times on home improvement type shows) and ive actually got a cousin or two working there as references and even my mom put in an application there. So it all really depends and im almost anxious to see how things go.

[Stonecreek]

Well, last night the family did some shuffling around of bank accounts, and a lot of other financial jargon I don't understand, but we have money to get by for the next few months (or until the blasted SSA gets Dad his checks.) I guess this can be locked, seeing as the problem's OK (for now).