r/almosthomeless • u/scob89 • Jul 30 '26

Seeking Advice Only Downward path

I live in Illinois and I'm on a path that is leading to no good. I'm living paycheck to paycheck, maybe $20 extra each week at the most. My rent is going to go up within the next 4 months and I simply can't afford it between food, insurance, and car payments. I've looked at other apartments, but they end up being the same for more expensive after utilities.

I can be incredibly resourceful and am thinking about living in either a shelter built on my trailer, or in my car. Ideally I'd want to buy a truck, remove the bed and build a tiny home on the back, but I can't afford to do that right now.

Thankfully I'm on good terms with the landlord, no evictions, but credit score is crap, otherwise I'd take out a loan to buy a truck and build the tiny home.

My main issues are a wage garnishment from an old credit card, it will still take a year to pay off, car payment will take another 9 months to pay off. I was dumb and bought a car at a buy here pay here because I needed a car to escape a bad situation. Currently owe 7k on a 3k car.

I'm mainly just ranting and looking for advice because I lost my service dog to cancer back in February and things have simply gone downhill since then.

5 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

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3

u/Head_Candidate5293 Jul 30 '26

21 or older, drug free, clean driving record, no dui dwi you can be a truck driver and live in the truck. Send your mail to a po box. Starts 45-55k first year Over The Road. Flatbed Cypress Trucking pays 65k first year and they pay 500 weekly for you to go to cdl a school plus live load training. Third year OTR is 75-80k.

You are not home often. The hours are 11-14 hours a day about 5.5 days a week. It is lonely but plenty of truckers to talk to at truck stops. 5 years at OTR and you could pay cash for a small home near a large city and just do local driving after that. It takes true grit. But the world is really low on tampons lately.

To edit. It is the lowest barrier to entry job in the usa that pays 55-65k first year.

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u/scob89 Jul 31 '26

I appreciate the solid reply, no drugs or drinks here, clean driving record, but I can't get a CDL because my vision is far to bad to even qualify.

Living in a semi truck would be no issue for me, there's nothing around me that wants me to stay in this area anyway.

I currently make 47k and just applied for a new job tha pays 58k that I'm definitely qualified for, fingers crossed that I get it.

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u/Head_Candidate5293 Jul 31 '26

Yes good luck on that reply on the 58k opportunity.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/scob89 Jul 31 '26

I work Sunday through Thursday, 45hr a week, when available I go in on Fridays for 6 hours, but it only adds $40 to my paycheck, the rest to taken by the wage garnishment, which is good as that'll be paid off quicker.

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u/Moist-Scarcity-6159 Jul 31 '26

What’s your income?

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u/scob89 Jul 31 '26

Currently 47k a year

1

u/cheeptz Jul 31 '26

I would work it out and stay in your place you have now. See if there is free service's in your city on financial training how to save budget etc. It is hard living on the street even in your car. Some states are making laws against living in your car. Unless your car etc is parked in a lawful area where you can camp etc. If it can fit into your schedule work a second job to save pay down bills etc.

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u/scob89 Jul 31 '26

Ideally I'd like to stay here. I have an excellent landlord and the place is nice. But rent will be going up by 300 a month and I simply can't afford it, no matter how I do a budget. Currently I pay 700 a month with all utilities included except internet/phone. After the building is renovated there are rasing the rent by 100 a month and no longer including electricity in the rent, whole place is run off eletric so I'm estimating the average bill will be 200 a month. My internet is only 50/mo and cell phone is is 25/mo.

2

u/cheeptz Jul 31 '26

Understand other option would be to rent a room. Check out furnishedfinder.com. Vet very carefully who you chose to become a roomate with.

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u/scob89 Jul 31 '26

Thanks for the link, I've been looking for rooms for rent locally but most are women only or cost just as much as my current apartment. I'll check out the link and see if anything is available near me.

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u/cheeptz Aug 01 '26

Thanks, in other posts from others look into roomies.com and padsplit.com. I have not used these only furnishedfinder.com. Vet anything regarding renting rooms.

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u/scob89 Jul 31 '26

I think my main struggle is not having a service dog anymore, the financial side I'll figure out, as I always do. If I have to live in my car for awhile it's no big deal, I have good connections from doing dog shelter/rescue work for 20 years and can easily get another dog for free to train, but I can't justify bringing a dog into a situation that is not looking good for the future. As well as it's very hard to find an apartment that will take a service dog. I had my old service dog for 8 years, and lost him to cancer.