Anyone ever couch-hopped as a temporary way of life?

I'll sum up my current circumstances to the best of my ability:

I'm broke (~$30 in my bank account). I'm not in the school at the moment, but I plan on going back in the summer. I have an apartment and rent is paid for this month, but I don't have a job and even if I did get one, I probably wouldn't be paid in time for next month's rent. I have a final interview at a bookstore next week, but my car bit the dust a few hours ago. I'm pretty sure my engine seized up, so basically I'm fucked because I won't have a car.

I'm thinking of selling everything I own of any kind of value to scrounge up enough money for another car. If I could, I'd rather borrow $2k from my sister, but I don't know how well that would go over. Regardless, this leaves me in a bind as to where to stay, since I don't think I'll be able to afford living here for at least another few months. I feel bad that I'm putting my roommate in this situation, but honestly I don't think finding someone to take this room is going to be that hard.

I have a handful of friends in the area, and I don't think they'd mind if I just rotated sleeping at their places. I already asked my roommate here (if it came down to it) if I could sleep on the couch downstairs, and he doesn't seem like he'd mind. He's probably more worried about having to cover the rent by himself should I not be able to find him a roommate (the lease is just in his name).

My other alternative is moving back home and working 40 hours a week at Staples. This might seem ideal, but I hate my hometown with every fiber of my being. My mother and I clash constantly (she's part of the reason why I'm not getting any kind of help whatsoever) and I'd honestly rather walk in front of a Mack truck than live there for two months. I could probably stay with a friend for free, or close to it, but I don't like imposing on just him when I could at least rotate between places if I stayed here. He also lives with his fiance and I would feel weird staying there.

I'm up at 4AM because this is stressing me the fuck out.

So, yeah, has anyone ever lived on couches for a few months? If so, how did it work out for you?

 

Not for a few months, but a few weeks.

Worked out quite well, I helped them with household chores and it was alright.

 

Move back home, take the Staples job, and spend most of your time out of the house and go home at night when your mom is hopefully asleep anyway.

Plus Staples and no rent equals money for things.

 

I agree with Deckard. Suck it in and get it done. Just think of the $$$

 

Defo move home. Sometimes you have to swallow pride and make do with the hand you've been dealt. It's the safest option + gives you an opportunity to reprioritize goals and get your life on track without owing $2k to someone or selling your life away.

 

There was a time in my life when my dad was unemployed and we had to live separately as a family. My mom and I lived in my mother's mom house, and my dad lived at his mom's for about 8 months. That's almost a year. He slept in her couch.

I don't think the act of sleeping in a couch itself is bad, the problem is if you get along with the couch owner. If things are alright with that person, it shouldn't be such a horrible experience.

 

As much as I wish things would work this way, they won't. I won't have a car for at least two months (so this means I'd probably have to walk to work), there's nothing to do in my hometown, and everyone I know lives an hour away, and you... don't know my mom.

We're going to go check up on my car in a bit and see how things are looking.

Update: My engine is not seized. Holla.

I have either an oil leak, a fuel leak, or both. It's going to cost money I don't have, but it beats the shit out of having to find a new car. Resuming the job hunt now.....

 

Going home might be okay in the long term, but you should definitely help your current roommate with all your might. Getting fucked on rent sucks, especially as he's the only one on the lease.

 

^ Thanks for the advice. I neglected to mention that I've already sent my resume to a temp agency here and have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. My brother told me about another one that I'm going to check out soon.

Any kind of job is better than what I have now (nothing). I applied at fucking Wendy's, but I'm hoping the temp agency will set me up with something decent, since I have good experience for someone my age and I kick ass at everything I do.

This is something I'm 100% against, and I'm doing everything to keep the damage limited to me. He's a good friend of mine and I wouldn't do that to him. Even if I move back home, I'd still pay my half of the rent, although he would be taking up power and internet since I wouldn't be here to use them.

My engine not being totally ruined is pretty much the best thing I could've hoped for. Even if the damage costs hundreds to fix, I might just wind up selling my car and riding the bus for awhile until I can save up some money.

 

I agree with what most have already said. You're going to have to sacrifice a lot in order to move ahead. Valuable lessons to be learned here.

 

It's going to cost roughly $1,000 to fix everything that we know is wrong with my car. Something went wrong with my timing belt's tension, so that's why my engine isn't starting. I have to get my timing belt replaced, whatever deals with the belt's tension, I have a few more belts that are cracked, and I have at least two oil leaks.

I don't think my mom wants me to move back, either (which is okay with me). She said she'll probably wind up putting the costs of repair on her credit card and just have me pay her off. If this interview goes well, I'll have at least one job. As soon as I get a job I might just get a credit card to pay for my rent for one month, as it'll take me a few weeks to start getting a paycheck. I've never had one and probably need to build a (good) credit score, anyway.

This is easily the worst financial situation I've been in, but I could definitely have it worse. Most of my old coworkers had $50k+ in student loans, whereas I only have $10k in total, and I've never had a credit card so I'm clean as far as that goes. I don't like owing people money, so rest assured I'm pulling myself out of this as quickly as possible.

I know you mean well by this, but I'm getting really tired of hearing it from everyone. I moved to a bigger city closer to home because I failed out of school, and I figured it would be relatively easy to get a job here. I did have one, but got fired because of a bullshit reason that I couldn't do anything about, and that put me in a really bad situation. I've been looking for a job for weeks and have put in dozens of applications, been to interviews, and the like. The place I'm interviewing for this week interviewed me the first time three weeks ago and I've been in there at least three times a week since.

I probably sound defensive right now, but my point is that I'm trying to get myself in a stable situation and the timing just really, really blows. As soon as I have a decent job and my car isn't fucked, I'll be fine until the summer when I can go back to school.

 

Not much to say that hasn't already been said and you seem to be in the right direction already. If you were indeed fired could you not apply for some sort of unemployment? I'm not sure what your circumstances were before losing your job, but unemployment compensation is there to help out in situations like yours. It takes a while to get it started up if you are even eligible, but it is an invaluable tool when trying to survive what may be a long and arduous search for a new job.

-ServiceGames-

 

My dad recommended the unemployment office and I was going to check it out, but it's kind of hard to get to the place without a car. If this temp agency and job work out, hopefully I won't have to bother.

 

In PA at least, they can do everything by phone. I'd call them as soon as you can and if you get a job in the mean time it won't hurt anything as they'll just suspend the process.

 

I tried doing it over the internet, which was horribly broken, and the phone wanted records that I don't have on me. It also told me I could have fraud charges brought up against me if I misconstrued any information, so I freaked out and hung up.

I'm calling my old post office tomorrow to see if they can forward my mail so that I can get at those forms. Getting an unemployment check isn't something I wanted to do (out of pride), but at this point I can't really turn down "free" money.

 

I felt the same way about collecting unemployment, but it's not really free money in the sense of a government handout. It is money that is paid in by employers and employees alike to allow for periods between jobs like this.

In many industries collecting unemployment because of slow periods is normal without even having lost your actual job.

Having said all of that. Hopefully you don't even end up needing to use it.