21 year old broke student

I took some time off from school after screwing around. I finally went back to school this past summer to take prerequisites for nursing school. I did really well but the problem was that I didn’t get a chance to really work this summer. I was so engulfed in the two classes I took, that were all day 3 days a week plus an additional 7-12 hours of studying a week, I didn’t get the chance to work all that much.

I’m now taking classes this fall as well and I’m starting to run low on cash. I do a pretty good of living within the means that I make with my schedule I have. I go to community college so gas is a real killer. I pay for most of my school with my aunt or dad pitching in a couple dollars until I can pay them back with in the next paycheck I get.

My family is a tad dysfunctional with money never really being talked about and things being swept under the rug until it is too late. I have a younger brother who goes to high school in the opposite direction of the school I go to and is about 45 minutes away. My parents have me run around doing errands for them and also picking up and dropping off my brother wherever he needs to go. Included in dropping off my brother is feeding him and sometimes his friend I drive. My dad rewards this by once or twice a month putting 20-40 dollars of gas in my car. I can’t talk to my mom about finances as she refuses to get a job after closing her company after 20 years and yells whenever I ask for anything in return for helping them out with things around the house or just to get a little money back for driving and pretty much killing all the gas I have.

I have an aunt who is willing to help out but whenever my mom catches wind of my aunt, who is her sister, helping she blows up and is ready to kick me out and completely cut me off. I don’t have the funds to move out and pay rent right now nor do I really have an emergency plan of having a friend I can stay with till I figure things out.

Starting in a couple weeks I begin working with a hospital initially it is volunteering, to build my resume for applying to nursing school, but quickly after started it should turn into a paid position based on how things are going and projects I’m assisting on. I’ll be working there twice a week and then on the weekends I work one day. I have class 3 days during the week. So I’m really only living one empty day where I’m solely studying or attempting to have any sort of social life.

I’m not really sure what answers I’m looking for but if anyone has ever been in a tough situation with their family and money was tight with school and you couldn’t really work much more. What did you do to get by and how did you deal with some of the issues with your family.