We went through this in a way with our fire December 3rd, 2013. Lost everything but what we were wearing and the little that was salvaged - most of which was still thrown away. Books grew a red mold on them, etc. I think firefighters did more damage in our house than the fire did. They tore up all the ceiling, made holes in the wall, tore down doors, took the lid off my piano and sprayed water down inside it... I wanted so much to just repair and stay in our house but there was no way. It had to be torn down, and most of our stuff was demolished with it. We found a doublewide and had it moved here to the same spot and are starting over, but I fret so much about the bills. What happened to you, werewoman, is what terrifies me. I suppose after having lost all once, I'm scared of it happening again. My husband's 1985 work truck finally gave out, so he had to get a new vehicle. I have no idea how we're going to have enough to make the payments on it, and we got them to go down as far as they would. They refused to go any lower. Now we need $285 extra dollars a month for it. You do learn who really cares, though, when things like this happen. We were given so many donations from individuals, churches, there were 3 benefit dinners for us... Clothes came in, even food... The first month, though, we had to stay with my parents, and my mom's actions stressed me out so bad. She and my husband do not get along, so things were volatile from the start. But she would call my sister and talk about us. I'm vegetarian, and only twice the whole month did she make anything for supper that accommodated me. By the time we moved to a rental home a month later my body was craving protein so badly I ate tons of eggs!! I could've cooked for myself, but I was barely coping and didn't feel like messing with cooking. And of course she called the rental home my husband found for us "trash" - which it wasn't at all. She had to have gone looking at the wrong home. And we didn't need this at this time. I was struggling so badly emotionally. But thanks to strangers, we bought a used car with donations, and it helped with getting our house, too. We got rid of our credit cards long ago - have been paying off 2 of them for years and still paying on them. We refuse to use them anymore. Unfortunately we have no savings, so life is paycheck to paycheck, and we've been scraping by. But you learn to cut back and figure out what you really need.