My husband and I both work our bums off, but we are still at the bottom of the ladder. I have a pretty good job, but am only guaranteed 32 hours a week, but I volunteer for as many extra shifts that I can. As a contract worker, I do not get benefits. My husband works "full time" but they have started cutting his hours because the work is slow, and he doesn't get benefits for another six months - he only just started working here, after being downsized from his last job. We are in low-income housing, and before both of us found employment, we lived off credit cards so are in debt. Since I am a caregiver, I get meals when I work, but my husband eats at home. We can afford maybe a couple of loaves of bread a month, and he's been eating peanut butter and jelly every day for the last few weeks. We just ran out of the PJ and J...so he's been eating bread. I can't bring food home from work, so we started talking about getting food stamps. The problem is, I think we're above the cut-off, even though we don't have a penny to show for it. We are careful with our money, and everything we buy is second hand from goodwill or craigslist. Anyhow, we are working on paying off our debt, much of which my husband had before I met him. We're down to about 9.500, and that's after putting me though school. We think we're doing pretty okay, but it gets fustrating sometimes. We both work hard, we've never asked for assistance before. I went to the doctor a few weeks ago for the first time in about six years because I've been having...lady problems... and that cost us hundreds out of pocket, so we're not doing that again. We both need our eyes checked, we need dental check ups, and my husband needs some real food. I bought my car second hand, and the person we bought it from let us make payments, because my job is about 15 miles away and the busses don't go out into that town. Anyhow, that's about to die, and we can't afford to have it fixed.

I feel like unless I have twenty kids and I sit on my rear all day long there's no hope for us. And it feels like we'll never "make it" if we continue working. We are still broke a few days after each paycheck because of bills, even with two incomes.

There's no way out it seems, so I really need to know what can we do? We've cut out every expense we can think of - we always have the lights off, we never turn on the AC when it's hot, or the heat when it's cold. No cable, no cell phones, etc.

I'm not trying to complain, I'm just feeling a little depressed.
Additional Details
This winter the average temperature in our house was 38 degrees. It hasn't gotten hot enough for fans yet, but over the winter, we covered up in blankets and kept ourselves busy. Heat costs a lot, and honestly, you get used to it after a while. Sadly, our pet finches died it was so cold.