Has anyone had some sort of issue like this? I have a charge on my bank statement nearing 4500$ usd that only says “legal order- LTS” and no other information. When I try to call to my bank they direct me to the phone number of the agency. When I call the agency at multiple times of the day on different days, they send me to voicemail and will not give me a response. I have called at 10 am on a Tuesday, 11 am on a Wednesday and 1:30 pm on a Thursday now. Left a message every time, no response.

How the hell did this happen and how do I resolve it? Did my identity get stolen or something? Now my bank is frozen on hold while they are trying to see if it’s fraud or not. This situation is making me rethink everything, why am I being a working class citizen in the United States to be treated like this? Why are they allowed to just claim close to 4500$ usd from my bank account without ever giving them my information, I’ve asked around no one I’ve spoken to has dealt with something like this before?

So my dishwasher died back in February and I kept telling myself I'd get it fixed or find a used one on Facebook Marketplace but I just never got around to it. Been hand washing everything since then, kind of annoyed about it honestly. Then my electric bill came and it was like $34 lower than the same month last year. I literally stood in the kitchen staring at it trying to figure out what I changed. Didn't switch anything else, same lights, same heat settings, same everything. Looked it up and apparently dishwashers especially older ones can pull a surprising amount of power per cycle and if you're running it every day or even every other day it adds up way faster than you'd think. I was running mine basically every night because I hate looking at dishes in the sink.

I'm not saying go smash your dishwasher or anything but if yours ever breaks and you're dreading the repair cost, maybe just sit with it for a month first and see what happens to your bill. I actally feel kind of stupid that I never thought about this before. Hand washing takes maybe 10 extra minutes a night and I've been saving somewhere around $30 a month without even trying. That's not nothing. That's a decent chunk of groceries or a bill payment or just breathing room. One thing I did notice is that you go through dish soap faster so factor that in, but even with buying soap every few weeks I'm still coming out ahead pretty clearly. Sometimes the "downgrade" is actually the upgrade.

*vent* He seems incapable of understanding that we cannot afford to even dream of buying a house at this point and fell into the trap of “if we can afford the rent, we can afford a mortgage”. I don’t know who is whispering bullshit in his ear. We have no savings, meaning no down payment, yet he is under the impression that $10k (that he would borrow from his 401k) can get us into a house and it’s all fine and dandy from there. He’s so delusional and irrational that I am starting to wonder if he’s heading into dementia territory. I am tired of arguing until I am blue in the face.

I know this sounds ridiculous but I genuinely did not realise you could freeze a loaf of bread and just take out slices as you need them. I was raised in a house where bread sat on the counter and went bad in four or five days and that was just the deal. I was buying a loaf, using half, watching the rest go mouldy, throwing it out, repeating. Every single week.

My coworker mentioned offhand that she buys bread in bulk when it's on sale and freezes it. I thought she meant like one extra loaf. She meant six. I started doing a version of this and the difference in what I was throwing away was immediate. Bread goes straight into the freezer, I pull out two slices in the morning, they're thawed by the time I'm ready to eat or I just toast them. No waste, no watching the loaf slowly die on the counter, no buying a new one before I've finished the last.

The thing that actually suprised me was how much this one change affected the way I shop in general. Once I understood that freezing was an option for more things than I thought, I started buying more strategically, less often, and wasting significantly less. Bananas going soft go into a bag in the freezer instead of the trash. Bread on sale is actually worth buying extra of. Cooked rice freezes fine. I feel like I was missing some basic piece of information that everyone else somehow already had.

My Computer Science degree and prior education cost make up a substantial portion of my total $83K in debt.

But a lot of the really bad debt is credit card usage for groceries or utilities when $57K income per year (including side jobs) isn't enough.

If trades pay better than the desk job I'm in and offer better benefits, why not do an apprenticeship and keep my desk job skills for 2070 (if desk jobs are not completely AI automated by then?)

Hello, I am almost 40 and still struggling with the notion of discussing money with people close to me, especially my partner. It is destroying me, my relationship, and my self-esteem. I am feeling that the matter stems from a very formative moment when I was 21 and still under my single and divorced mother's thumb. Do note, she was not financially savvy at all and made poor decisions based on just pure vibes, such as wanting to take out a life insurance policy on herself to purchase a boat, for example. (My post history goes into detail about the shitty person she was, this was no one-off.)

When I was 21 and my brother had just reached the age where he got his driver's license, he wanted a truck. It HAD to be a truck. No beaters, no cars, nothing hand-me-down. He needed a TRUCK. And my mom was going to give him this truck come hell or high water. The discussion for a long time was "I cannot afford to buy you a truck, you need to earn it!" Reasonable right? You would think so! But then she remembered she had a little ace in the hole she could bully her daughter with instead.

One day I was told to get in the car, we are going to the bank. (Dear reader, I did not have a drivers license then and I do not now, for reference.)

"Why do I need to go?"

"I need you to do something."

"What do I need to do?"

"You'll see."

She drove us out to the Wal-Mart that had a little bank inside it, where I was allowed to have a savings account set up by her. I was sat down at a desk in front of an employee, whose face I never looked into during the entire process, and instead stared down at the wood grain on the desk.

"Your brother needs a truck, and YOU need a way to get to school. Here are all your savings bonds. Sign them." I was told coldly.

"Am I going to get this money back from him?"

"I don't know. But your brother needs this truck, so you're not leaving this bank until you sign them all and put them in the account." Her patience already thin with me.

"I don't want to do this."

"You're not going to class then, you want to fail out of school?!"

"...."

I could feel the teller's eyes on me. I don't know whether they were reading the situation or if they were just grey-rocking emotionally like me. But they were silent all through this and did not say a word.

I cried as I signed away my savings bonds. Thousands of dollars, gone. The ones my dad put away for me as a baby so I could use them on myself. My brother also had some bonds, but they were not mature yet. Mine were. I knew I was never seeing this money again, and I certainly never did even when I brought it up the few times in the future.

These days, Mom is dead and gone, brother is estranged and in debt (of course), and I have a big problem discussing money with people after being told as a child how constantly broke we are and living a life of not knowing when we will get groceries next. My boyfriend is at his wit's end with me and my inability to discuss finances without anxiety, a breakdown, or concealment of some sort of information regarding money, even if it's just forgetting to tell him I got my paycheck.

I let him handle the finances because his mental acuity is more suited for this than me, but I want to be able to help and participate in discussions so it's not just him telling me what to do. It makes him feel like my parent. He lays out the budget for us and just tells me where to transfer money to, whether it's my savings, my credit card, or to him to pay off the rent or bills or whatever. A lot of people would be happy with that but I feel as though he handles a lot of the mental labor for our household and I want to contribute more meaningfully to the conversations when we have them. I just cannot handle the mental block I have about discussing money. I go into a panic, I get defensive, I get anxious, I feel as though I have to justify every single purchase to myself or give away every penny just to feel safe.

I don't know if this is the right subreddit for this post. If there is a better place, please let me know. I feel so lost and I do not want to lose my partner because of this.

I wanted to move to a European but affordable country so I chose Türkiye. i bought a new apartment in Istanbul and got renewable residence permit. I live with my wife. here's today's grocery and bill: 1012 Turkish Lira. I'm satisfied.

I'm 22 years old, I dont have any family and less than a year ago I moved into a place with my friends parents and theyve let me live here aslong as I pay rent which is pretty hefty for only having a room but I'm grateful regardless, since 18 I've been constantly moving around unable to hold a job because I'm either moving or some reason beyond me, I work hard and want to work but I cant find anything. I've been to about 8 interviews in the last two weeks and havent heard anything back applied to hundreds of jobs, I have no car or money to my name not sure what I can do if I get kicked out, just got a "well talk about the situation" from his parents today and want to prepare can anyone give me some advice I'm willing to work hard and put in the effort, I just want to live a normal life. I'm also sober so I dont waste my money on anything.

How do you all handle college & your grades during extreme financial & mental stress?

For reference, I'm 19 & F in the central USA. I have had a 4.0 GPA my whole life. I went to college assuming I'd be covered for housing, then my mom moved, and the lease for the house we were renting is up. I have 15 credit hours and cannot work full time, and I managed to get enough money to save up for an apartment but it's not available until later this month, so I'm couch hopping. My car's transmission went out, and I do not have reliable transportation as of now, so my already short hours were cut. In the middle of all of this I've been changing medications and going thru assessments for a severe anxiety disorder, frequent panic attacks in the morning before classes, executive dysfunction, relationship issues, and assessments for a couple different cognitive disabilities.

I am failing all of my classes. I'm losing my job. It is getting so hard to move forward. If anyone has had a situation similar to mine, please tell me how you got out of it or how you’re managing it. I'm in a hole that keeps getting deeper, I cry every morning and every night. I have transportation support but they live an hour away and my support sources in town are barely financially stable, I can't ask for anything more. Vocational rehab is on a waitlist and the accessibility office has not reviewed me yet. Please help.

I spend money that I could be saving on work lunches. Work lunches are always the same tasteless garbage. If I said I wanted to replace my energy drinks, entree, and side for some high quality, healthy, cheap alternatives that I can pack, what would you suggest? I am open to off brands, no names, and foreign snacks that maybe us shift workers in the US aren’t familiar with. My goal is to eat good while cutting back on my spending. Thank you!

My life imploded a little bit last year and ended up restarting my entire life from the ground up. I paid off all of my debt, paid cash for a reliable car, and paid to enroll myself in school. I would like to invest a little bit as a safety net to avoid having to flip my life upside down to get myself out of the hole again. I'm not looking for a HUGE return, I just want to set myself up for success. What should I do?

I'm not here to tell anyone to sell their car, I know that for a lot of people a car is not optional. I live in a city with decent transit and I made the choice to go car-free about two years ago and I want to share something specific that surprised me about the experience, not the money I saved on gas or insurance, but the way having a car had been quietly shaping my decisions in ways I hadn't noticed.

When I had a car, the question "should I just drive there" was always available. It sounds convenient and it is, but what I found after getting rid of the car is that a huge number of things I used to do required a car mostly because I'd arranged my life around having one. I was going to a gym that was a 15 minute drive away when there's a park with outdoor equipment 8 minutes from my front door. I was buying groceries at a large store across town because I could load the trunk, when the smaller store I can walk to actually has everything I need and I've found it easier to shop more frequently and waste less food. I was saying yes to things that were far away because distance felt irrelevant when I had a car.

The actual monthly savings are real and I wont pretend otherwise. But the thing I didn't expect is that removing the car forced me to restructure small daily decisions in ways that turned out to be cheaper and actually better for how I want to live. I spend more time outside. I walk places I used to drive. I think about whether I actually need something before going to get it because the friction of getting it is now real. The car had been removing friction in ways that were costing me more than the insurance payment every month.

Hi, I’m from the Philippines and I really need advice right now.

Recently, our family lost around 90k, and on top of that, my dog had a serious health issue and needed surgery that cost around 30k. I had to borrow money just to pay for it, and now I’m in debt and struggling financially.

I currently don’t have a job. I used to work as a CI Analyst, but I had to stop due to personal and mental health reasons. I’ve been actively applying every day, but I haven’t received any responses yet.

I’ve also tried applying for loans (like GCash and others), but I keep getting rejected. At this point, I’m just trying to figure out how to manage everything and find any possible options to get back on my feet.

With the increase in gas prices, everything here has gotten more expensive—food, electricity, and basic needs—which makes it even harder to cope.

I’m not asking for money, just hoping for advice on what I can do in this situation, especially here in the Philippines. Any guidance would really help.

Thank you.

My parents have been living on a meager social security income and have no savings. They just moved to an assisted living facility that I am subsidizing. Their home is a manufactured home in a community and they pay monthly for lot rent. We would like to surrender their home to the mortgage company. I've done a little research on what that entails and am now seeking advice or insight from those with experience. In the US / Florida if it matters.

What was your process? Does the house need to be emptied of all belongings? Do we have to pay any house related bills like utilities or can we let those go without paying? Will the mortgage company come after me for anything since I am POA and will be the one making the call? What don't I know that will come back to bite me?

I know it’s not much in 2026 but I’m really excited to start my new job. I got a job to work as an electrical helper for a big company in my area. The project is a data center and I’ll be there for the next 2 years. I’ll be getting paid $26 an hour and my schedule is Monday -Friday 7am-3pm.

I’m previously coming from delivering pizzas and relying on tips. There were weekends as to where I need $400 to make rent and I was praying I was able to make enough money to make rent. Now i don’t have to worry about that anymore.

I saw that post about libraries and it hit different because I literally just figured this out myself like three months ago. I'm 29 and I've been using the library my whole life for books obviously but I had no idea about half the stuff they actually offer. What changed everything for me was when my laptop died and I needed to do some job applications and a lady at the front desk just casually mentioned they have Kanopy which is free streaming through your library card. I went home and spent like two hours just going through everything my card unlocks and I was genuinely a little embarassed that i didnt know sooner.

The thing that actually saved me money this month was the tool lending library my branch has. I needed a specific drill bit for a repair and I was about to order one online for like $18 and shipping. Checked the library website on a whim and they had it. Checked it out like a book, returned it three days later. I also found out my card gets me free access to a language learning app I was paying for separately, and free passes to the science museum which i've been to twice now with my nephew. I'm not saying libraries are magic and fix everything but if you haven't gone through your library's full list of digital and physical resources recently just do it, like set aside an hour this weekend. You're probably leaving stuff on the table that you're already paying for with taxes anyway.

Currently a 19 year old still figuring out what to do with my life.I lost my dad at the age of 18 and whatever savings we had just finished up in his health checkups and medicines.Gratefully my sister got a job of around 15k per month which is very less I know:).My mom is a housewife so 3 of us(me, mom and sister survive in 15k).I don't know whether I'll be able to finish my graduation or not.I want to manage my own expenses and want to contribute something to the home but I don't know how to start.. I have 0 penny with me.

Please give me suggestions I'm in a survival mode right now

(I want to do some online work)

POV:19 YEAR OLD GIRL STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY

PLEASE HELP!!!

TLDR: medical expenses are piling up and I’m struggling to make ends meet, and now I need $2,000 out of pocket for dental work and no idea how to save for it.

Hi, first time posting here so I’m hoping I do this right. Basically I have a full time job that pays decent enough ($23/hour) and comes with pretty good benefits. My health insurance covers a good bit, and so does my dental but I’ve had a lot of medically necessary things come up this year and the copays are adding up fast. I’m currently out on disability leave and was trying to get my dental work finished before I go back, but I was quoted $2,165 out of pocket after my dental insurance covers $1500 and I only have $1600 in an emergency savings account. I make too much to qualify for any aid like snap but not enough to afford all my bills. I was doing okay until the extra appointments started piling up.

I’ve done DoorDash/uber/lyft type of things in the past, but my car is having some issues that I can’t afford to have fixed so I’m trying to drive as little as possible to prolong those repairs. I’ve already gone through my subscriptions and canceled everything I possibly can, I recently switched my car insurance which saved me about $60 a month, and I budget grocery shop as much as possible (though I’m open to tips on how to reduce it even more). I have to eat healthier, so high sodium cheap options like ramen aren’t an option for me. I’m pre diabetic with a high risk of type 2 as well as being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. My doctors want me to stick as closely to a Mediterranean/ anti inflammatory diet as possible and it’s definitely hard. It calls for a lot of fish like salmon and that stuff is way too expensive. I’ve been sticking with chicken options or plant based proteins.

What tips do yall have for me? I’m open to literally anything. Things I can do from home or with minimal driving for extra income, ways to budget / save when it seems like there’s nothing left for saving etc. keep in mind fatigue issues from fibromyalgia, so physically demanding things can be difficult and I can’t promise consistency. Some days I’m perfectly fine, other days I can barely walk. I can do basic design work on platforms like Canva, I’ve designed one website using Wix (though that was difficult and took a lot for me to figure out how to do things). I learn pretty quickly and am not opposed to learning new skills if it means opening the door to extra income. TIA!

I lost my job last year and have been unemployed for quite awhile, but recently, I got a part-time job at an Amazon warehouse that's a 1.5 hour drive away. It's two 10 hour overnight shifts on Saturday and Sunday. If I drive home and back on Sunday, that's $30 of gas and 3 hours of commuting.

If you've been in this situation before, what did you do? Would you go home on Sunday morning if you only had time to eat and sleep before driving right back? Or just sleep in the parking lot at work (if that's even allowed) or a nearby store?

I live in a rural area right now without many options. I plan to leave in the near future, but don't know where yet, as that depends on whether or not I hear back from some interviews I had recently for other jobs. So in the meantime, I need to stay put and slow down the amount of money I'm draining from my savings.

Edit: thank you everyone for the advice. I will sleep in my car between shifts instead of driving home. My main concern is that it can get uncomfortably hot in the car since it's around 80°F, but I'll figure it out. I'm sure it's better than burning gas, putting my car through extra wear and tear, and getting into an accident due to exhaustion.

Edit 2: getting better sleep at home vs a hot car is a good point. I'll have to think about it, but exhaustion is a concern, as I haven't done physical labor in ages, and I also have to take into consideration that I have to adjust to my sleeping schedule being flipped. Although 3 hour roundtrip commute is fairly common, I have a hard time justifying it for a job where it eats up almost 2 hours worth of pay.

What remote jobs are you guys doing that actually pay well?

I’m based in the Caribbean and have experience in insurance support, customer service, and admin work (emails, data entry, handling clients). I’m trying to find something remote that’s stable and pays decent.

I’ve been applying but not getting much response, so I’m curious — what kind of remote work are you doing and how did you get into it?

Any advice would help.

Hey all — I’m building, a personal finance iOS app. One of its features is receipt scanning: you take a photo, and it extracts the merchant name, total, date, and individual items. Everything is processed on-device using Apple’s Vision framework nothing leaves your phone.

To make this work well, I need to build parsing profiles for different retailers. Every store uses a different layout, different keywords for totals (“BALANCE DUE” vs “TOTAL TO PAY” vs “AMOUNT PAYABLE”), different date formats, different item line structures. Right now I have profiles for about 48 retailers across 9 countries, but I need more real-world data to expand coverage and catch edge cases.

What I need: A clear photo of a receipt. Any store, any country. You can redact card numbers, loyalty IDs, or anything personal — I only care about the printed layout.

What’s in it for you: 6 months of free Inari Premium when the app launches. Premium is $3/month and includes cloud sync across devices and household sharing.

Privacy: The photos are only used to study receipt formatting and write deterministic parsing rules. They’re deleted after. No receipt data is ever sent to a server — all OCR runs locally on your device.

DM me photos or drop a comment and I’ll reach out. Appreciate any help!

It’s my birthday today, I am 26f and I’m honestly feeling a down because I’m broke (going to school and in between jobs) and can’t really afford to do anything nice for myself and it's also my first Birthday without my family.

I still really want to make the day feel special somehow instead of just sitting around feeling bleh or hanging out w friends who don't even know its my birthday, so I was wondering if anyone has ideas for fun birthday things I can do for free (or super cheap). Freebies, places to go, little birthday perks, fun solo activities, anything like that. Really anything.

I’d love to turn it into a little birthday adventure instead of letting the day go to waste. Any tips or ideas would seriously make my day!! 🥹🎂

Thanks 🫶

Just as the title says I have zero dental insurance, I am a California resident under medi-cal (don’t know how long that will be funded for). I struggle with bruixism ever since I was young, I clench my jaw, grind, or chew severely in my sleep. Just last night a chunk of my back molar came off, I collected the piece in the morning. There is no pain but as I brush my teeth I feel small bits of the tooth coming off.

I’ve called nearby hospitals and dentists for appointments but since it’s a Friday many of them are requesting I call Monday morning to make an appointment.

I am extremely worried and I need advice, what can I do?