Dear Diary,

Today’s been a rough day. It just feels like it’s getting harder and harder for me to find any breathing room.

Lucas broke his arm at school today. Insurance will cover some of the medical bills but he needs physical therapy to make sure he doesn’t lose any range of motion. It is going to cost another $300, at least. After paying off the electric bill last week, we just don’t have spare cash. I already have over $1,000 on my credit card and I don’t know how I will pay that off.

And I can’t take extra shifts because there is nobody to watch Mark after daycare ends.

I tried asking Randy for a raise at work, telling him that the general store was getting more and more customers and that there had to be some room for me to go from $15 to $18 an hour. To be honest, I can’t even remember the last time I took a day off. He told me he’d try for next month, but right now there just wasn’t any space in the budget. When I asked for an advance on my paycheck, 20 hours of the 40 hours I’ve already worked this week, he told me it was against company policy to give employees risky loans. I wasn’t asking for a loan, I just needed to access the money I had already earned!

I just wish I could have some breathing room, just a few hundred dollars to get ahead of all this.

– Emily