Wanna Get Ficced?

I could paint you a pretty picture of the whole history of what's going on, but the basic story is this: We move across the country in September. We've been trying to save up money to do so since February (when I got accepted into grad school), and we've done all right. Right now we have the money to get across the country (from Missouri to Oregon), and we've got a little money to get some basics when we get there (food, a few pieces of furniture if we get good deals off Craigslist). What we don't have is the emergency fund we wanted in place. The emergency fund was going to come from my working over the summer at any job I could get. At the moment "any job I could get" equals jack squat. I've applied for editing work via Craigslist, sent out my resume to a couple of places I know are looking for contract writers, and put in with a temp agency. I've gotten no responses from Craigslist or from sending out my resume, and I'm getting no calls for interviews from any of the places I apply to through the temp agency.

In short, I'm going slowly mad as I stay home and pack things and make dinner and post stuff on Craigslist and watch our bank account get no larger because I can't find a damned job.

We're cutting costs wherever we can. I've completely stopped buying comics as of last week ($30-$40 a month). The Husband is no longer playing any Magic tournaments that have an entry fee ($8-$11 a week). We've taken the unlimited data option off our phone plan ($20 a month). If we can sell our second car (hopefully for about $1000), we'll be able to knock down the insurance payment by $13 a month. The only thing we're paying for that counts as an extravagance anymore is our Netflix, and we're keeping that because $9.85 a month keeps us from convincing ourselves to spend $20 going to the movies when we've got 800 movies in our queue.

I'm still trying to find work, but the window is closing quickly. We want to sell the second car when we move out of our apartment at the end of July, and that means I'll have to drastically adjust the kind of hours I could work to match The Husband's schedule. It also means I only have about five weeks to get any sort of office work. I can still attempt freelancing, but my hopes for that aren't high given my current experience. We're lucky that we're staying with family for the last six weeks we're in the area, and we've been told that we only need to pay for food and pick up after ourselves, but the money we're saving there by not paying rent or utilities (about $1000-$1200) is already earmarked for food and furniture when we get to Portland. And we're not renting a U-Haul and taking our furniture because the cost to replace it is close to what it would cost to haul it out there ($1500-$2000).

So now I'm here making a post I had really, desperately hoped I wouldn't have to make. I'm asking for money to help us get our moving fund to the point I had really expected to have it by now. I'm asking you, if you've got a couple of bucks and want to help, to help. Because I'm stressed out about the whole thing and all my usual avenues of getting money into the bank account (getting a job, cutting costs, selling things) aren't getting the results I need to feel comfortable making a cross-country move. The car we're keeping is damned close to brand-new (2008, 15,660 miles on it), but that doesn't guarantee that something won't happen on the way. We're healthy and taking care of ourselves, but that doesn't guard against one of us getting injured in some way. That's the money we're missing; the money to keep us on our feet and above water while we get settled in. Ideally, I'd like to have between $1500-$2000 sitting in the bank for unexpected expenses. We have about $1500 in the bank now, plus some more coming, but it's all earmarked for other parts of the move (packing tape, shipping costs, hotel costs, gas, food, and so on).

Let me be clear: We are not destitute. We are not about to lose our house or our car. We're not about to get nailed by collectors for any sort of unpaid bills. No one has lost their job. This is not a, "I need X amount of money or my entire world collapses" post. This is simply me, asking you, if you'll help make the whole procedure of moving across the country less stressful. If you'll help me by giving me a little bit of what I should have been earning this summer because I can't seem to make it myself. I'm asking for help because I have no guarantee that the things we're selling will actually sell, and I can't sit here any longer and tell myself it'll be okay. That certainly someone wants the stuff we're selling. That it'll all work out. Because six weeks in, I'm realistic enough to know that there's a good chance most of our stuff will end up at the DAV as donations, and I'm realistic enough to know that the temp work I get may just be a day or a week or two weeks, and that won't bring in enough to get us where we need to be.

I also can't offer you anything in return for your generosity beyond my thanks and a sincere promise that whatever you choose to give will sit in the paypal account until we're ready to move (I'll take a daily screencap and post it if necessary). I'm not even promising to send out thank you notes because I know my own record with those, and they wouldn't make it out, no matter my good intentions or how grateful I actually am.

So, in short, if you've read this and want to help, I thank you. And if you've read this and don't want to help, I understand. There are people in legitimate dire straits who need help. I'm asking for help building an emergency fund. And I sincerely thank you if you decide you want to help me with that.

The donation button links to my PayPal account The PayPal account does not link to my bank account. In order to get any money that might come from this post, I'll have to request a check, and that check will have a date on it. I'll take a picture of that check and post it so that anyone who helps can see that I let the money stay there until we needed it. We move mid-September, to give the check time to get to us, I'd request it at the end of August.

There's no minimum donation amount set on the button. Like I said above, I'd like us to have $1500-$2000 for unexpected expenses.

Again, thank you if you help. I hope I can return the favor at some point.

I'm going to shut up now.