I am going to grovel a little now. Due to my illness (ME), I am often unable to get out of bed from sheer exhaustion and pain. I nap numerous times some days just to keep up some energy. Due to this fact, I can't do much of anything involving sitting around at a computer. Often my blog entries are done in numerous small steps and take hours and hours to accomplish. We came to the conclusion that what would be best woudl be to get a laptop so I could work from bed, as there is no way I can move around a PC to the bedside to work comfortably (already tried that). I only want a basic machine, nothing that is $3000 or anything, but it is still $1000 plus taxes for a machine that would have what I need. Please, don't suggest used, I have already tried that route and unfortunately in order to get even the bare minimum of what I need they want 6-700 bucks. And that is with no warranty, no battery, and about 4 years old. I think people asking that for a 4-year-old computer are freakin' NUTS but what is more nuts is that people are PAYING that! What the hell is wrong with these insane people on Ebay that they will pay retail prices plus 10% PLUS SHIPPING to buy stuff USED?
The big thing is I would happily pay monthly installments for something but due to being in receipt of government disability I can't qualify for credit. We would happily be off of disability if we could find a way as a family to earn an income, but so far we can't even make enough doing stuff to break even. I have never been paid for writing so I earn nothing. My wife has a grassroots magazine (I help and write for it when I can), but the inability to get subscribers and publicity makes it simply a break-even exercise. We have considered trying to publish large numbers of magazines and distributing them for free in order to generate advertising revenue, but hey - guess what - costs money. And on disablity you can't get credit. Around we go in the circle again. Dizzy yet?
Anyway, if you have enjoyed anything I write and/or would like to read more (and more often), or if by nature you are a compassionate person who would like to help someone out with a difficult financial situation due to a chronic illness, please, you can help out by donating something on the link at the right of this page. This page does not get a lot of traffic but even a few dollars from a few people would get me a little closer to possible self-sufficiency. It would also earn you a great deal of gratitude from our little family.