I'm a firefighter in Texas with two kids and a wife going to school. In February, while training forcible entry (breaking down doors), I tore a ligament in my left wrist. Although workman’s comp was covering 75 percent of my pay, they were making those payments every three to 6 weeks. Unfortunately, during that time many of my payments for phone, utility, and even mortgage ran past due and accumulated a ridiculous amount of late fees. I have been back to work for one month and have only barely started getting my bills together, but because I am so far behind we are still barely able to make minimum payments to avoid incurring any more late fees. I just spent my last check entirely on our mortgage, to keep the water from getting shut off again, and on our car payments. The account is now negative. Now, we barely have enough cash for gas for myself to go to work and my wife to go to school (not to mention her brakes on her vehicle are way overdue to be replaced). My retired firefighter father offered to buy us groceries for the next 2 weeks, but due to his fixed income and his own personal medical bills, I have a hard time accepting his money, because he will be putting himself in a financial bind. Anything you can do to help alleviate the financial crisis we are in would help to make us stable enough to at least get my children gifts for this Christmas. This is my first time, so I really don't know if this will work, but I certainly hope it does because I have absolutely no other options. Thank you all so much.

Hello everyone, I feel sort of ridiculous begging people for money online but I am sort of out of options. I am a 19 year old single mother. I live with my mother. She lost her job about 2 years ago due to the company closing and since then she has been working 2 jobs trying to support us. I am looking for work also but it's tough since I do not own a car and buses dont run where I live. Plus daycare is super expensive, and I have no family available to watch my son. We recently had to take out loans to pay bills which just put us more in debt. My mother has medical problems and the bills are piling up. I dont really expect anyone to donate, but if you do it would really help. Thank you.

Hi, I am a small business owner and the economy has really hurt my business. I have had to take out several loans just to try to survive, but things have taken a turn for the worse. I don't want to let my employees down and leave everyone without a job. I know a lot of folks think that business owners make a lot of money, but I think only a few manage to do that. I have taken tons of risk to try to help so many people, but it looks like it may all collapse. I would appreciate any donations you can make to help out. Thank you!

I have come to the conclusion that there is no way i can pay for the medical bills i have or the food i need. I broke my collar bone a few months ago and could not work. My boss decided to fire me and i could not pay for my debt. The banks have taken a number of belongings from me that i cherished. I am alone in a big city and need some help with getting some of this fire i call debt extinguished. Anything will help. God Bless.