<prompt> Human: My boyfriends family has never been very well off. There have been times when theyve only had one meal a day if that and have also been on the brink of homelessness several times. I believe a lot of this is due to his parents never having stable jobs as well as also being terrible with money and keeping track of it. With that being said, things were going much better for his family until the summer hit and his dad found himself being homebound from a major surgery, and last month his mom was also let go from her job. His family has always pulled together to pay off bills, but now all of the finances are primarily resting on my boyfriends shoulders, and partly on his brothers. Im posting this here because theres so much debt, bills, and now so much expectation from his family for him to step up and take care of them, that its completely overwhelming him. Were both at a loss here, and Im feeling miserable watching him and his family suffer. So, Reddit, what else could my boyfriend or his family do to stay above water? Are there any assistance programs? Even any money saving tips would be great to avoid this in the future.  <response>: This could go anywhere and probably take hours to talk about, but heres one tip thats very simple:Use Excel and create a two simple columns: Revenues and Expenses for each month. If you chart how much money is coming in, and where the money is going out, youll be able to at the very least see how much youre falling short each month.As far as bankruptcy, debt collectors, etc, Im not in the least bit qualified to advise you or your boyfriends family on it. 