Those that know me know I have been an incredibly hardworking and independent person for all of my life. Barring a few major things, I pay for all of my expenses and medical-related spending. I'm also horrible at asking for help.

I inherited my car, Peggy, from my grandmother after she passed 6 years ago. I love Peggy, we went everywhere in the tri-county area together, and she's a perfect car for the work I do, which includes hauling many costume pieces, theatre-related things, groceries, etc.

Unfortunately, the last year has not been kind to Peggy. In late summer 2020 she had some minor issues that I fixed myself, and I decided to take her to the shop to get a checkup and an oil change (I was long overdue for one) just to make sure everything was okay. What came back was a myriad of major issues wrong with the car -- the most immediate problem being my tires needed to be replaced or else they could possibly burst. In total, all of the repairs cost $4000 and it took me from August to December to get them all done, entirely due to the help of very gracious friends who were able to help me monetarily.

As soon as I got the car back from its final repairs, it had some trouble starting up occasionally. I figured it would go away on its own, and it wasn't particularly concerning for a car that is 16 years old. However, the problem grew worse and worse until one time it took 3 tries to start up the car. I immediately took it back to the shop and they had it for three days until they said I needed a new engine and that it would cost $6500. I knew at this point I couldn't put any more money into a car that was only worth so little, and so I started car browsing for a car that would suit my needs, with the plan to hopefully buy one in 2022 or 2023 when I had saved up enough money.

By chance, I came across the perfect car for me. It had everything I needed to do my jobs once everything picked back up, and it was my favorite color. I knew it was fate, and also that I would never find a car comparable to this one ever again. So two days after I viewed and drove the car (and a very long day of negotiating), I became a first-time car owner!

As an independent contractor, the COVID pandemic has hit me incredibly hard. I lost all of my work and had to go on unemployment. Work has been coming back slowly, but it is little and far between, not enough to sustain myself on, and I haven't been able to go back to all of my jobs yet as they would put me into contact with too many people outside of my circle.

I am still on unemployment over a year later at this point, and the money that I earn through that goes directly toward paying my current expenses. There is often little money left over to spend on anything else. As a dependent all the way through 2020, I haven't been able to receive a stimulus. Because of unemployment, my tax return will yield very little. In other words, the amount I am currently making cannot sustain my current expenses PLUS my monthly car payments until I am fully back at work. My total expenses with the car payments come out to be about almost $1000 (most likely more once things are back in full swing and I am back to paying for gas constantly as well as student loans).

Money raised will go to my checking account and then my savings account that I keep for car-related things. (Stripe requires the account it transfers money to be a checking account), and will only be used to make monthly car payments, which is $426 a month. The good thing is that I can also make bigger payments than what I owe, so if I put down larger chunks of money for my payments then my principal loan will go down which means there will be less interest to accumulate.