Closing financial gap

Dear reader,

I actually feel a bit ashamed to ask for a contribution for my (or better: our) problem, so thank you in advance for reading.

Short introduction:
So my name is Martin. I am married. Together we have four children. And with six of us we live somewhere in the north of the Netherlands. We are in itself a normal family with normal family problems. I work in the office 40 hours a week. My wife is not able to work because of circumstances, but instead takes care of our children in the place. We have a few difficult months behind us but as a family we are happy and try to make the best of it.

Our problem in short:
Due to a combination of unfortunate circumstances, we have built up a debt. At this point these have largely been redeemed, but have made a big gap in our financial health. We try to climb out of this gap again and (hopefully) start the new year financially healthier, but unfortunately this has proven extremely difficult.

The Butterfly Effect - Our problem explained a bit more:
Due to a combination of unfortunate circumstances, we have built up a debt. We have spent money (which we also had at that time), after which we were presented shortly afterwards with some unexpected bills (after which we did not have the money anymore). To pay these bills, we have reversed some direct debits, including the rent of our home. This created some new debts in the form of payment arrears. We have arranged payment arrangements with these authorities. In addition, we have borrowed from friends to pay some bills.

These payment arrears and debts have largely been paid for, but it has hit a huge gap in our financial health. This makes it not only difficult to save money. Daily expenses also become difficult in this way (buying diapers, food etc). As mentioned earlier, we try to climb out of this hole ourselves, but that is extremely difficult. For example, we have been seeing red figures on the bank for a few months now, and we usually have no money left to spend mid-month.

What do we do ourselves / have we already done ourselves?
It would be unfair to ask for a financial contribution without trying to solve it yourself. We have repaid most of our debts to the people and institutions that are entitled to it. To close our financial gap, we try to limit our monthly expenses as much as possible. No more unnecessary subscriptions, cheaper subscriptions where possible (like for the telephones) and we stopped giving charity for example. We limit our groceries to the minimum.

To ensure that we at least have money to buy food / drinks, we get our money of the bank for that month at the moment the salary comes in.

Our goal:
We hope to receive €2000 in donations to close our financial gap. That is the amount we need for that. Anything that comes in above this amount is donated to Compassion. This is a international Christian child sponsor organization that gives children in developing countries the chance to live without poverty (www.compassion.nl).

Contact:
I can imagine that after reading the above, there might be questions. If so, feel free to email me at [email protected]. I will try to respond as quickly as possible.

Thank you for reading.
Martin