Asking for help from our friends…

Mum has dusted off my blog to write a little about what has been going on in our lives & ask for help. She says it’s hard to write & using my blog helps her. 

As lots of our friends know it has been a hard few years for Mum, Archie & I. It is getting better & better but this year has been hard & we need to ask for some help as everything isn’t going to get better overnight. Mum says we can wish this but it’s not how things work.

We are asking our friends & the anipal community of twitter for help with the costs of finding a new home to rent, some medical costs & Archie’s vet bill.  After talking with her Psychologist & Psychiatrist getting a little home for us is the most important thing. A lot of things will get better when we have a safe, quiet place to call home. It is really important that we stay with mum, we are her family & help her look after herself because she loves us so much. Mum has severe PTSD so living alone & having our home be her sanctuary is really important.

Our paypal is freyabergin@gmail.com

Mum hasn’t put a round figure on the ideal amount because really everything helps & its daunting. She will be seeing a financial counsellor when they are available.

But this is a breakdown of some of the costs that are hard for mum to cover at the moment:

• New rental costs = $2400 approx, this is based on renting for $280 a week, the bond & 1st months rent. This is the most realistic price after a lot of research.
• Archie’s Vet bill = $298 – he was really naughty, mum was distracted & he ate a lot of dark chocolate. Mum could pay it but it came out of the house moving funds.
• Medication = $210 a month for the 2 most important ones that keep mum going, there are some more but they only cost $6.10 each. The antidepressant is $60 a month (so far so incredible) & the ADHD medication $148 a month. Both are really what is going to make the big difference in mum finding a job that she can stick with.
• Medical insurance = $152.60 for just hospital or $235.05 for extras too, like dental, glasses etc. This covers the treatment for Fibromyalgia & ADHD that is not available publically.
• Rug replacement = $550 Archie might have been really naughty a marked on a lovely rug & ruined it at our lovely friend who let us stay’s house.
• Kennel expenses = $280 a week, $40 a day for us both.
• Storage costs = $46 a week or about $184 a month. This will be gone when we have a new house.

Paypal seems to be the easiest way to do this, mum looked at the fundraising sites but all seem to take a cut that seems to not be the best idea for all. But she will take advice if anyone thinks they are a better idea. Anyone in Australia might like bank account details instead, leave a message & mum will give them to you.

Mum gets a payment for being a student, it is about $1200 a month. It isn’t enough for anyone to really survive on & mum is allowed & wants to work, she can earn $10000 a year without affecting this payment. She was working part time until early March when she re-injured her back & lost her job. Mum hasn’t worked full time for more than a couple of weeks since injuring her back a bit over 5 years ago.

Here we are supervising mum studying. It helps her a lot.

There are other bills & things but really we need to find a home. The cost of medication is also a worry for mum because without them she really struggles to do much, let alone to find a job, do her study & get things more stable for us.

Now that mum is feeling a lot better & her confidence is coming back she is looking at jobs & all paws & fingers crossed she will find something soon.

Mum is looking at withdrawing all her retirement savings which is not great but is allowed for the purposes of covering all her medical expenses for a year. She also is planning to take the old landlord & real estate agents to a court that deals with that, they did not do their job & left urgent repairs for over 6 months. She should get some money back on the costs of that, possibly a good amount that covers the costs of moving in & out & some of the rent while we were there, but it’s not quick. Both of these take time & effort that mum just has not been able to manage yet.

We will do another blog post with some more of the history, it’s hard to write & we don’t want to overwhelm people.

Please know that mum is very nervous about this being public as there is someone who makes life very difficult for her but keeping us is far more important than her dignity.

Thank you for listening. Please do not give anything that will make you miss out or worry.

From Charlotte, Archie & their mum Freya

Edited: There are lots of services to help with homelessness & a lot of things but because mum is not sick enough to get a disability pension her income without a job is too low for them to assist. Mum is in touch with a lot of support but there isn’t a way to get help now from them. In the future yes but not at the moment. Catch 22.

As you can see we help mum laugh a lot.

Here I am helping mum relax, its a hard job but I’m good at it.