I wrote a diary the other day about the current issues I have been having with Covid--basically, I have to be off work for three weeks because I am immunocompromised. This is hurting me financially because I only had one week of paid time off--so I am missing two weeks' pay. Like many other healthcare workers, I can’t get workers comp. Because of my condition, my body sheds more of the virus than a normal person would, so it is not yet safe for me to be around other people. I have to isolate until May 6, so I can't even go and do side work to make up for the shortfall, like I normally would--there is a temp agency around here where you can go and work and get paid the same day. Good for emergencies if a bill is a little higher than expected.
For a while I was actually working two part time jobs in addition to the job I have now--one at a hotel, and another at a restaurant, in order to pay down some medical debt I had related to a lupus flare-up that caused me to be hospitalized back in 2019. I was working over 100 hours per week! But I'm not 25 anymore, and once I got the medical debts paid down enough, I quit those two jobs. Maybe that was a mistake, and I should have pushed myself harder and kept doing it. I am like the 60% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck and can't pay even a $400 emergency bill.
Also, my sister moved in with me back in November and it has been...difficult. She had been living in a hotel with her boyfriend, who has a drinking problem. She decided she could not deal with it anymore and wanted to leave. I let her move in with me for until she could get back on her feet. But she ended up going to the hospital in January with pneumonia, which has made her COPD much worse since. She is now on oxygen most of the time and has applied for disability.
But she has caused a lot of problems in my household since she came here. She has been really hateful toward my daughter with autism, and no amount of trying to talk to her about better ways to interact with her seems to help. I know some of my daughter's behaviors can seem strange and difficult to people who are not used to being around her--she has lungs like an opera singer, and when she starts voice stimming, she entertains us and all the neighbors! (Luckily, my neighbors are very tolerant.) But she is at the developmental level of a toddler in the body of an adult and is completely non-verbal. But my sister knew how she is before she came here.
In any case, she has decided to move back in with her boyfriend. He got some money from somewhere, and she went and rented an apartment for the two of them. Her lease starts on May 1st. I don't know if she is being wise by moving back in with him, but I feel like I have done all I can do for her. I can't let her keep dragging me and my children down.
I still have some financial fallout to deal with because of her being here, though. For one thing, I have been paying her car insurance while she is here. She was costing me an extra $280 per month--I don't know if there is something on her driving record, or if the vehicle she owns is the issue--a Mini Cooper, which she bought with the insurance money she got after her last husband died. Anyway, when she told me she was moving, and that loverboy had gotten some money, I called the insurance company right away and asked them to take her off my policy. But when they took the payment out of my account of the 26th, they still charged me the extra $280. When I called, the phone agent said I had called too late in the billing cycle, and the change will not be reflected until next month.
But now I have to tell you about the most stupid thing she did, that caused the mobile home park where I live to tack a $250 fine onto my lot rent this month. When I saw this extra fee on my account, I called the property manager, because I had no idea what it was for. He told me she had gone one day and parked her car next to the community playground and sat there in her vehicle with the windows open, smoking pot--and some of the parents who had their children there called the police on her after they asked her to go somewhere else, and she refused. As it turns out, she was apparently smoking the synthetic stuff, so the cop let her go. But the mobile home park is not happy about it, and even though I told the manager she will be leaving, they are still going to make me pay. I don't care if other people smoke pot--but can she at least have a little respect for other people? Also, does she not think to herself that this is a conservative community, and a lot of people are not tolerant of that sort of thing--did she not realize she should have found an isolated, safe place to do it? (And stay off the roads while high?) She is lucky that police officer let her go—he could have just assumed the pot was the real thing and hauled her off to jail.
So now, I can't afford to pay my lot rent or payment on my mobile home. The $235 for the mobile home payment is already overdue by a few days. The lot rent is due on the first, but I have a grace period until the 5th. The paycheck I got on Friday (along with my daughter's SSI on the first) would have been just enough to cover my first of the month bills--with about $50 left for gas and groceries. But now that I have the extra expenses my sister has put on me, I am going to be in the hole by about $530. With no way of coming up with it. In addition, all the bills I pay mid-month will be coming due, but I won't have a paycheck--another $1400 lost. So I am totally and completely screwed.
I don't want to ask the community to help me--you guys helped me when I got covid and had to miss work last time and helped me when I have had flare-ups in the past. But if anyone has some work I could do from home in order to earn some money, get in touch! I can do general office work, write blog posts or short articles, create graphics, and also, if any of you doctors could use somebody who is good at getting Covermymeds to approve prior auths, I'm your friend. I can also do things like records requests, referrals and other medical office tasks.
I have also started a website--this is something I have wanted to do for a while in the hope of earning a little extra money. If you think my content is worthwhile, you can Visit my website and contribute to support my work on the site. Likewise, if you don’t want to support the site, perhaps you could share it with people you think might like reading the kind of content I write?
I may have to consider either getting a different job, so I am not getting exposed to covid as often and having to miss weeks of work at a time, or I might have to go back to working multiple jobs again so I have a bit of a financial cushion in emergencies like these. I don’t know what else to do.
A commenter below requested I provide my paypal. It Is tonyahky at gmx for com The direct link to my website’s donation page is here.
UPDATE---Enough money has been sent to cover the payment on my mobile home! The next critical issue is the lot rent and the fine they charged me—the fine was $250, while the lot rent is $440.
UPDATE—As of now, $540 has been raised—that means I can pay the fine and the mortgage payment without going negative on my bank account. Now I am trying to make enough to recover my lost paycheck—about $1400. Thanks so mush to those who have contributed!
UPDATE—Another $500 in donations has come in---how the total is up to $1040. Thanks so much to all who have contributed so far!
