Working your way out of homelessness, Giving Tuesaday #homeless #Chicago, #Giving Tuesday

I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about life in the shelter, my day to day trials of living in my vehicle, the cost of being homeless. I found out something I never heard of before and that is Giving Tuesday. I figured it was time to take my previous post of the economics of being homeless and expand it to what it will actually take to get out of this situation.

In the previous post I broke down that to barely survive it costs $10.75 a day or roughly $350.00 per month just to barely squeak out life in this city. I’ve mentioned to some people that I was able to obtain a temporary position that is going to run through the end of the year. Congratulations, right? Definitely, but that is just the tip of the iceberg to getting out of the truck. A few people have stepped up in helping me with funds for gas to help with the first week or so. The tough part was finding out today how pay works. I am going to work almost 3 weeks before I see a check. The agency gets the hours on a weekly basis, they hold a week back and pay every two weeks. Basically I’ll almost be done with the contract before I see a check for it. How I’m going to make it work I’m not sure, but I don’t have a choice. I will be making less than I feel I am worth, but beggars can’t be choosers. So $15 hour is $600 per week. After taxes that will work out to roughly $420. My gas use will increase to roughly $20 day. Why not go closer to where the job is? That is simple, you aren’t allowed to sleep in a vehicle and I need to be able to park where it will be overlooked. I’m going to have to change the oil in the truck soon. It hasn’t been done in quite awhile and with it being the only major asset I have it needs to be taken care of. I also may need to come up with some more appropriate clothing for work. But for this post I’m not even going to delve into that.

So let’s break down numbers. I’ll take home about $1680 for the month. Subtract $350 in living expenses and $400 for increased gas costs for work you are down to $930. In Chicago if you are lucky you can find a studio apartment in a neighborhood you won’t get shot in for $600 month. So $600 first month, plus security deposit $1200. Next is utilities, coming from no address, or using the shelters address they require a security deposit as well. Most apartments water is included so gas and electric are the two that are a concern. I’ve already checked into it and gas is a $250 deposit and electric is $175. So the cost to get into an apartment with no furniture is $1625.

So ideal scenario it will take two months to put away enough money to move into an apartment and that is provided finding one at reasonable terms.

So I’ve seen on the internet that today is “Giving Tuesday” something I’ve never heard of before. I’ve also been determined not to ask for help, but now is definitely the time that I need it the most. Not when I didn’t know what tomorrow held but now that I know I need to keep gas in the truck to generate a paycheck. The info is below.

So I may as well use this to start promoting myself. If anyone has any computer problems they need solved feel free to leave a comment here,
dm @chihomelessguy on twitter or
message on Facebook Chi Homelessguy. I guarantee the work and if you aren’t satisfied when I’m done you don’t pay. I’m also willing to work for much less than I should charge because of the circumstances I am in. Do you have an old laptop you aren’t using? I’ll barter my services for it.

If anyone reading this finds it in their heart they would like to help me, it can be done by


2 thoughts on “Working your way out of homelessness, Giving Tuesaday #homeless #Chicago, #Giving Tuesday

  1. Pingback: Time to address the Panhandling situation and the harassment and embarrassment that goes along with it #Chicago #homeless #panhandling | The Chronicles of a homeless man in Chicago

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