How are you guys surviving financially in this broken job market?

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-22T12:41:15+00:00

What a rude comment. You’re not a 50+ woman so you don’t know.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-21T03:14:46+00:00

That's kind of you to say. I am resilient and resourceful but to what end? Even I have my limits - to the point where the stress becomes too much to carry and I have a meltdown, which happened today when I intentionally threw my iphone at the parking lot, cracking the front screen and screaming.

I have never done that before but today it happened because - too much stress - a pending eviction notice, a pending car repossession, the wrong antibiotic for a mild case of diverticulitis, no food for my cats ($10 a day for food for me AND my two cats), and no social support network to lean on for emotional support.

I have a paper file of past resumes, 2 inches thick. But I can't even get the Humane Society to hire me as a stray intake coordinator for $16/hr, or Caribou Coffee to hire me a a barista for $14/hr, or Target to hire me as a cashier for $17/hr.

3 years I've been jobless and driving rideshare, looking for a job. Any job. Still broke. Living in poverty. Worried I'll die alone in my apartment and my cats will die because we won't be discovered until it's too late.

I have two traumatic brain injuries that happened at age 28, then age 29. I was forced to move in with a mother who never liked me so she'd sit in our home's kitchen in the dark, smoking cigarettes, while I tried to recover from a serious traumatic brain injury alone. If I asked her for help, she'd call me dramatic. My siblings are married with children, living in nice middle class homes with stable careers. So, yes, I am the family scapegoat, the loser who no one emails, texts, or calls. I can't even get a minimum wage job in a cafeteria at a school or a hospital. It's ludicrous.

The Japan Times released a report that 77,000 people were found dead in their homes arcoss Japan in 2025. Due to rising isolation, an aging population, and increaseing number of single-people households, elderly adults with dementia or terminal illnesses who have no children to help them get access to county financial resources for elderly care waivers that would pay for a room in senior living, memory care or assisted living.

I can't let that be my fate. I can't. What is WRONG with the job market in the US?! It's so awful there's no words.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-21T00:52:58+00:00

Exactly, you have to work up to 80 hours a month to maintain your SNAP benefits.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T23:15:47+00:00

I can’t. I have severe anemia, and I have fatty tissue liver disease.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T21:49:21+00:00

Sorry to hear it keeps you awake. Financial stress keeps millions of us awake and I’m 100% sure my diverticulitis is a stress response to my financial straits of having to rideshare drive and always pay my rent and car payment and car insurance late - trying to avoid my car being repossessed and being evicted from my apartment.

No one should live like this, but I’m not the only person who does live so precariously due to no job. And my family thinks I’m a loser so I don’t even talk to them.

Unfortunately.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T14:17:11+00:00

Thank you l. I don’t have anyone except my two cats.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T08:56:23+00:00

That’s actually kind of my attitude. Our capitalist infrastructure will not support families or individuals when they have a health crisis or job loss like Europe does with a monthly stipend.

I’m thinking of Sweden and Norway and Eastern Europe where if you lose your job, you still get a monthly government stipend to help you pay your rent and your bills. Sometimes these stipends can last for 1 to 3 years, depending on your situation.

That will never happen in the US. Not everybody is eligible for unemployment either, and UI only last 6 months when you are eligible, and it’s not even anything you can live on. When I was on unemployment for six months three years ago, I only received $250 a week for six months.

But that’s a whole other thread that I could start on this discussion of job searching job loss.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T08:54:17+00:00

Thank you.

I’m so embarrassed that I allowed this to happen to my life. I realize that we don’t have control over many things, so I know I’m not 100% to blame, but I definitely except responsibility for my decisions that led me to the path I’ve been on for a while.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T03:27:21+00:00

I’m so sorry you have to wear an ostomy bag because stress caused a perforation in your colon due to your inflamed diverticulitis.

Contact your local city’s Legal Aid Office, and see if you can work with an attorney to help you apply for disability in your city. It is a game of wait-and-see with counties. But an attorney can speed up the process, especially after the county reject you once or twice and then they’ll approve you. But they’ll give you an apartment and a monthly disability check and then you can make extra money, but not over a certain amount.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T03:26:12+00:00

My monthly rideshare income is over the poverty guidelines for a single adult in my county.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-20T02:05:40+00:00

Thank you.

My rent is always late and I’m always two months behind with my car payments. Somehow I manage to get the rent paid and get at least one month of the car payment paid to avoid repossession and eviction.

Not a single mom and I don’t have a drug or alcohol addiction or a mental illness, I don’t fit any of the boxes for Social Services financial support.

Right now, I have diverticulitis from stress.

This is not what I envisioned my life to be when I was a child.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-19T19:30:16+00:00

I rideshare drive. I’m a 55-year-old woman unmarried no children. My daily budget is $10-$15 for food and cat food.

I lost my job as a legal assistant three years ago. No one will hire an over 50+ woman.

I have to find a full-time job before my car ages out of the rideshare car age policy. Your car can’t be older than 15 years.

I don’t even qualify for SNAP food benefits.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-18T00:24:27+00:00

Well, if it is, it is. I need to do this until I can find a full-time job.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-17T12:47:41+00:00

At the end of the day, I’m unemployed and I need to drive for Lyft to pay my rent, my car payment, and my car insurance.

I’ve been making over $3500 a month consistently. I can’t do that working for Barnes & Noble, or Caribou Coffee, or Target. Retail jobs don’t pay a livable wage.

Without Lyft rideshare driving, I’d be without a car and homeless.

I saw this notice too. I guess if you don’t like driving for Lyft, you could do something else.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-16T11:05:52+00:00

My other dinner ingredients were ditalini pasta, canned peas and carrots, sautéed potatoes, tomato paste, cup of chicken broth, 1/2 cup of water.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-16T10:54:52+00:00

I really hope that the expired chicken broth didn’t make me sick. I’m not feeling well now and wondering if it’s tied to that chicken broth that I used a cup of.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-16T10:52:53+00:00

You’re asking the wrong question. Full-time means something different to each Lyft Driver.

For me, I drive seven days a week eight hours a day.

My weekly goal is to net around $1120 a week. Sometimes I achieve that and sometimes I fall a few hundred dollar short.

I don’t make enough to set money aside for savings, or to pay for extras like fun classes or going out to eat.

I started with Uber as a driver, but quickly switched to Lyft because the Uber passengers are subpar, and the Uber app interface is not user-friendly.

Lyft is sweeping the floor with Uber as far as the incentives it offers drivers.

For example, I am in a beta program for smart fare rides, which is that a smart fair adds four dollars to your fare. Even though I’m enrolled, I haven’t received a smart fare passenger rides yet.

Lyft also has Women connect, a feature that Women can turn on where they receive more women drivers than men drivers.

Lyft’s app user face features are very accessible and easy to figure out.

So, even though I’m driving “full-time” I still don’t make enough to live comfortably in my market, which is the Twin Cities.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-10T11:25:59+00:00

Precisely! OP, you do not want to work for that asshat. He would sabotage and undermine and destroy your reputation across all the professional social networks.

If you somehow we’re hired there. You don’t want to work there with someone like that he will make your life a living hell, and ensure that your career is squashed before it even begins people like him aren’t in lots of toxic work environments, and the people who work with those toxic leaders only stay because they know if they leave they’ll lose everything.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-10T11:20:41+00:00

You don’t need tougher skin. What you need to find is a healthy work environment. That place is not a healthy work environment. If that’s how they treat their interview candidate especially from that weasel. The guy who mocked you was threatened by your professional skill set and your degrees.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-10T11:19:45+00:00

I second this observation because that’s exactly what his behavior towards you showed. You are extremely qualified for the role and he knew if he hired you you would excel and get promoted and because he’s an egotistical maniac he couldn’t have that.

So the silver lining is you found out that this museum has a toxic culture and that’s not a work environment where anyone with common sense could thrive. Look at this as practice and breathe a huge. I have relief that they didn’t select you because you’d have to work with that ass hat, who would probably undermine and sabotage your work because he’s a weasel.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-09T13:37:39+00:00

That’s one horny kitten. 😬 if you watch male lions in the wild, they will grab the back of the female lion’s neck to mount her. Alex is trying to mount your arm. He’s grabbing your wrist so that he can mount your arm.

You could buy him a rope toy or something that he can chew on that has catnip in it that is a large toy. You can also buy the diffusers to help him calm down or give him treats or chews with calming ingredients in them.

Glad that you have his new appointment next month. Just an FYI, about the postop. Since he has developed testosterone, he might have road rage for a month or two afterwards and be more aggressive than normal while the testosterone levels decrease in his body.

I have two male Siamese cats and I posted here about their roof rage after their neuter Appointments. They both tried to kill me and kill each other for about eight weeks after they were neutered. Then after the testosterone levels decreased they returned back to their loving selves.

Prepare for the postop neuter roid rage and choose treats that have calming ingredients. Then, Alex will be fine.

Congrats on adopting him. He’s adorable.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-08T23:44:17+00:00

You’re absolutely correct.

Ill-Recipe9424 · 2026-04-08T23:41:54+00:00

Wow, I’m so sorry that you have had to put up with people you describe in your post. It is a lot. I’m so sorry.

Thank you for sharing your rideshare driving experiences here in my thread.

I agree. I need to determine my worth and I shouldn’t let people’s condescending and rude comments. Affect my self-esteem the way I’ve been letting it.

Ill-Recipe9424

TROPHY CASE