Help: Poor financial issues, behind on bills

We need help. now. Our hours at work have been drastically cut, so we have almost no food, and our bills are behind. For 2 weeks I've been eating one meal every other day.  So if you could pray for me & my husband, and give ideas.... I would appreciate it.

A: Glad to help...

First, if you have a car, sign up to work for all delivery services you can.

Uber drive, Uber eats, Door Dash, & local food delivery service similar, and instacart [you shop and drive here> but take any decent bid offer and work well at the job, as if to the Lord, and go the extra mile, even if they do not add any extra tip. 

If any services dont allow you to sign at multiple places, only sign at the ones that don't try to monopolize you. 

You get paid a gig fee to do the job, (which is 🙃 commonly labeled as be a tip). Be polite and kind to the folk you deliver to. If after you deliver the goods or transport the people, the customer might give an extra tip, but you are not entitled to others money, so thank God 🙏 for what he blesses you with. You should be paid daily for these jobs, but if there's an option to select daily pay...take it as you need it immediately. The hours (both of you) are not at work, should be used for: making food at home, and then mostly for doing gig work until you have caught up on your bills. Of course you need proper sleep, at least 7 hours. So cut out tv, movies, entertainment at home etc, and focus on work. 

Be very careful driving and do not be distracted by music, calls, texts etc, so you do not get in accidents or injured nor injure others and have more debt accumulating from those bills. 

Second, look at what you own; things sell fast online and in apps these days, so get rid of non essentials. Jewelry sells faster than clothes, videos & books. Consider electronics, and vehicles. If you have to do it and carpool or bus it - do it until financially stable. If you need to find a smaller cheaper place to live, then do it - until actually financially stable.

Your church should be the next place you go. The church has a food pantry and budget has funds to help poor and widows, and pastoral *referred to* a member can help you look at your finances, jobs, etc and give guidance on what to do future (to get out of your situation and prevent it again). And help you plan in advance so you avoid it waiting so long to act. And in odd situations, know where to go locally for help.

Church might rally around and provide premade meals for you. A lot of wives make a priority to batch cook and freeze meals, and I am sure some in the church would be glad to drop some by to help, and later teach you how to do this with what you have, and how to make from scratch.

Ask church members if anyone has a garden with any in season or some past-their-prime veggies you can use for in soups. And any spare or extra fruit, or mason canned jams from harvest.

After those, if food is still an issue, try contacting other Christian churches around you. Also, local charities provide food assistance as well as you could apply for unemployment benefits if you get your time cut at work, and state & federal food assistance. So that is a help. But still reach out to your pastor and decons to get helps on any bills assistance they can help with; they can help temporarily as noted.

Remember, God will supply all your needs, if you seek righteousness and put Him first. Pray and trust God.

Here are additional ideas, not all of them may work; you may have to knock on a lot of doors.

This is where Google and gptchat can really be helpful. If you have children some apply.

Does your local area have a backpack Buddy program through partnering churches? They send children home from school with backpacks of food to eat over the weekend. Many of them offer similar programs so that children have food to eat over the summer.

Try going to your local grocery or Walmart. Get some bags of beans - red, navy, black, split peas. Also buy the biggest bag of rice you can afford. Beans and rice make wonderful, inexpensive, hearty meals - ask the folks in New Orleans! And you can alternate eating the leftovers for days!

Ask to speak to the manager of a butcher or meat market. Tell him your situation. Ask him if you could have some beef bones to cook with your beans to give them flavor. Chicken bones are good, too. If they offer, take! Brown the bones and then add water. Simmer for an hour or so, then add beans and simmer for another three hours. (Yes, it’s an all-day job!) salt to taste. There could be a  crockpot hack; check online for proper cooking of such recipes.

Next, go to the store manager and ask if they could let you have a loaf of store-brand whole grain bread and a jar of peanut butter. Ask if there is milk about to expire you can have. Ask if there’s some past-their-prime onions and celery and bell peppers to put in the beans. And even tomatoes, too. Might be good to ask around 7:30 or 8pm.

Ask to see the manager at a restaurant that serves prime rib. Ask if you can have the bones and scraps. Ask if there are any other leftovers you can have - salad? Bread? Vegetables? Potatoes?
Hopefully you have, are given, or can invest in some inexpensive plastic containers with lids to carry away anything you receive. Use a pail bucked and zip bags if you need to. Some might give em to you w food.

I don’t know what your child care situation is, but if you can get a job, try to get one at a restaurant. They often give employees break meals. If you can work the last shift, you might also get the leftovers. Find out this info in interview. If you note your a hard worker but have needs and would be happy to work those shift hours to also get those as benefit helps.

Some Christian groups you might be in online might help you financially once. Contact the admin and ask for help. You can show finance issues proof [censor private sensitive info on a copy you send]. I've seen groups online help, it's amazing but they are thourough in checking to ensure not a scam. 

Use GoFundMe to ensure you are held financially accountable- faithful & integrity-  and so people and GFM know who you really are. 

Join Buy Nothing fb group near you and post a request of needs. 

Minimalism & finance changes: 

One thing you won't be able to escape is actually dealing with finances and selling off things not essential, and not buy beauty products, clothing, jewelry, even your usable car (or rusting one thats never been renovated), etc.

Consider driving vs town transport timing and costs. Seriously consider this, and know transport will cut free time at home if its longer than a vehicle takes. City travel is horrid. Town travel is fine by bus. Also matters if your job is at night & town safety /crime rate, and if no busses run the hrs you would work.

If you need to sell a car, figure out how much it is actually worth, and get offers from reseller places. Don't sell until you actually get decent prices. Do not tell them your story.

If you have a $5,000 car, or a 40k car and can sell it for 30k etc, do it; take a chunk of that money and put aside in a 2nd checking to pay for bills you might fall behind on that you can't get out of or cant cancel [subscription services should all be cut off immediately]. 1st use the $ to catch up on past due bills, and put enough in there for a few months of bills you would fall behind on.

Then with $ left... and if you need a car...buy a inexpensive Enterprise reseller car with that, pick lowest priced, best vehicle avail. Tell the seller on site your situation, and that you need money for food and bills so it needs to be good, reliable and cheap, something not likely to have repair needs for 2- 3 years. Plead with them and hopefully they wont mess yoo over, and maybe shave a few hundred dollars off the commission fee (ask 🥺 after they know your situation, found a car right for you, and then try to shave $$ off the car price and commission afterwards Before you sign. Also 👉bring a mechanic from your local shop to help you examine the vehicle.  If you already have full coverage on your orig car, do not skimp on this!! 👉 if you are in a bad accident you will be in such a very bad situation☠🤑 if you are at fault... so heed: 👉buy full coverage! But older the car the lower the cost.  👉Make sure the car they help you find what would be the cheapest, safest, least in need of repairs, and would be a low cost insurance vehicle.

To confirm they arent lying, right there call your ins company and get an est for full coverage costs for the 2 or 3 cars they recommended to you.

All Enterprise vehicles should be listed on the resell website so check there first! Then go to that/those dealer(s). Check around at various nearby dealers. I've seen the dealer looking at the site to see what they have but not sure if they only show you whats on their lot [their commission is tied to on site cars likely]. So plan out where you will go, what you will say and when in the convo you will say things. Don't reveal things out of order, and dont let them pressure you [you will find a good affirdable one anywhere Enterprise. Do not give up from impatience nor settle!] Tell them this is too important to leave to chance, if they try to pressure you, and do bring a mechanic, even if its someone who works on and knows cars from Church. Ask the congregation for that help. But schedule it around acceptable timing schedule.  He can meet you there once you find few to look at.

Be cautious of buying electric scooters ( they can burn a house down), and be cautious of buying mopeds & motorcycles. If you get one, have very serious policy on using it.

When driving and a light ahead is red, slow down in advance, so when it turns green you are not flying thru intersection. Tooooo many other drivers run red lights. When turning, follow UPS policy-- never turn left! Too many crashes, and statistics are it costs same gas and takes same time to turn right and go around a block to do " right turns only". And when you do turn right, slow down in advance, follow above red light advice so no one crashes into you. Slow and double check before you make that turn. Never try to beat a yellow light, never turn on yellow, someone will hit the gas when the light turns green as yours turns red. Never be distracted [no phone calls, no music or audio - ever]. Pull over in a safe place to call someone back.

Be extremely cautious if your area has rain, sleet, hail and snow or floodings; no mopeds or motorbikes if you are in such weather zones.

Hope this helps!