So... I think I may have to move back home. I moved out on my own in a different town a few hours from where I lived - back in January when my then-boyfriend and I were kicked out for just sleeping in the same bed (he came from MN to IN just to visit me and probably wouldn't have been able to visit again for months).

Since then, I found a place to stay and a job... but after workmen's comp (long story) ran out and I got denyed SSI and Disability... I'm not making enough to make ends meet. I work $7/hr at McDonald's. =/ Of all the places I applied and called back on, that was the only one I ever heard from. Even if I bust my ass and work 40 hours a week, I'd be lucky to take home $200 a week.

I really don't want to have to move back home. I have freedom here. I feel safe enough to sleep on my back when I'm in my OWN apartment, alone. I suffered a lot of emotional abuse at home. I didn't even realize most of it until the past few months. So... yeah, not too keen on going back. I hope my parents will stop forcing me into the child role and not giving me the chance to do things on my own. I'm 22. I can file my own taxes, make appointments, and do my own laundry. Finances aside, I've been managing my life fine here since getting my own place in February.

I don't want to leave this place behind. THere's actually an active GLBT community. There's other people around that are my age. If I wanted to, I could WALK to the downtown area, which is even relatively safe at night.

I'm hoping I can get enough financial aid, scholarships, grants, etc to move back here and cover some cost of living expenses.

Part of me wants to start college here in Fall. Part of me wants to start in Spring because then I'll have more time to save up to move back here, and maybe first take a month off from working and worrying how to make ends me. But with Seasonal Affective Disorder AND being at home, I don't know how I'll handle that...

I'm wondering if I want to go back just so I'll have the time and money to do the YMCA's Extreme Bootcamp again, work on another cosplay, and attend just one more con. -_-

sigh What to do? I'm afraid of going home because I don't want to... I dunno... lose my feeling of independence? Lose that momentum I've built up... or something.

I'm sorry you're having a hard time making ends meet, I'm there myself.

I had to move back home right after I graduated university this past spring, because no-one is hiring. I've applied to every kind of job, internship and paid volunteer program I can find, and even the fast-food chains aren't hiring anyone. I feel like a failure, I hate leeching off of my parents who are themselves struggling to make ends meet on half of a single paycheck, and I miss the independence I had when I lived in my own apartment. And while my folks aren't abusive now or trying to turn 23 year old me into a little girl again, it was abusive once, and I know the awful feeling you get when you have to go home, to god-knows-what waiting for you.

It doesn't sound to me like you're secretly just longing to use your parents and your old home as a freebie so you can go back to doing cosplays and cons, the way you've laid it out took a lot of thought and consideration, and most kids I know that just want to run back to their homes don't really work all of that out. They just give up and go. Is there any chance you could use some time at home to work out another way of supporting yourself away from home again? Could you use it to find scholarships and get prepared for college? If so, then a short stay at home may work out to your favour.

Just don't fall into the "I'm a 20-something living at home with my parents, I'm a failure" trap that I keep flirting with. We've both done all we can to make it on our own, it's just harder to do these days.

Good luck

Get a roommate? I don't know what to suggest...

There was a point just this year where i wasn't sure where i was going to live. I moved out of my parents house back in august with my boyfriend.

Well we broke up at the end of December and i thought i'd have to go back. After having so much freedom being away from them. But then a friend we'd just made was going to be looking for a roommate at the end of january, so that worked out..

until the end of march/early April. When my hours were cut, and she got greedy saying she cant have me not paying the full amount. I argued saying "isn't something better than nothing" and she comes back with "well i can always get someone who can pay MORE to move in with me"

At this time i was very sick. I had one illness after another so i was horribly stressed. I wasn't sure where i was going or what was going to happen to myself or my cats. My parents made it clear that they would rather NOT have me back. I didn't want to come back anyways.

Well my ex told me i could stay there until things were sorted out, and my cats went to live with my parents.

Then for my birthday he asked me back out as an official couple and said i could just stay here with him and not worry about rent (because while i was 'homeless' i qualified for food stamps) because i keep the apt filled with food XD

I wish you luck. My mom says everyone has to move back in with their parents at one point. It might be difficult, but if you have no other options..

Heh, I tried applying for foodstamps. I kept missing their calls because I was sleeping before work. x_x I could walk downtown, but I don't work there. I work in the nearby next city over.

Cable is packaged with my internet...getting internet seperately would actually cost more. I just have the uber-basic "cable" right now, though.

What I really need help with is rent (even the waiting lists for rental assistance are indefinitely closed here -_-) and electric.

As a single person, making probably the same as the OP i get $175 a month for food stamps.

Mortage? Where do you think I live? o_O I have an apartment, and I'd break my lease agreement if I subletted or allowed someone else to live here. I kept missing the calls for foodstamps so they auto-denied me. Where I am, a single person household making under (I forget the amount, but I was under it) is eligible for up to $300/mo in assistance. That never implies that everyone gets that much.

I'm kindda... looking forward to not having to worry about all this shit, and not having to deal with a few of the immature d*ckheads at McDonald's. At least the managers like me, and I know I'll have a job when I come back, whenever that may be.