Wow. That brought back so many memories. I lived like that for years when I was married. We had four children and my husband worked for his family business. He would go weeks without a paycheck, because they had to pay their employees and his mother. We’d have no food in the refrigerator, but were declined for food stamps, because he had an income on paper, which they said was a few dollars over the limit. They didn’t get that he wasn’t being paid for weeks! I remember having no car, and walking door to door selling Avon with a baby in a stroller, and my older children helping give out books. Everything you said is reality for many people.