I’m not trying to fight, I apologize if you got that impression. I’m actually in this situation myself right now and it just frustrates me when I hear “just move.” I’m very glad to hear that it worked out for you though, West Virginia is likely way worse than where I’m stuck. I know that everyone’s situation is different. In my case I do not own anything of value that I can sell. I drive a twenty year old beeter car, and the furniture in my apartment isn’t even mine.

It’s also incredibly difficult to save money over a period of time like two years because of unexpected emergency expenses that always pop up. Just a month or so ago my car broke down—had to have it towed to the auto shop ($70), would up having to have a new battery installed and the alternator replaced. That was $700 in one day—just to have the car running again so I could get to work. If I’d have had everything done that ideally needed to be done to it (new tires, power steering leak fixed, A/C fixed)—it’d have been an additional $1200 or so. Then about two weeks later I was forced to evacuate for Hurricane Florence. I had to pay $210 to stay at an Air B&B. On top of that I am an hourly worker, so on top of the lodging expenses, I also missed out on 4 days of pay. So in total I lost about $460 ($210 + $250). And that’s not even counting how much I had to spend on gas and food while I was gone, so add maybe another $150 on to that. My point is that unexpected emergency expenses like that are almost inevitable over a considerable period of time, and when they come they wipe out any savings you have accumulated and send you right back to square one when you’re trying to save money at a snail’s pace on paycheck to paycheck wages.