Real life. Real challenges. A brighter future.
This is where we start.
We’re a Queensland family of eight trying to dig ourselves out of debt, grow our little family business and get our family comfortably functional again.
We’re not expecting strangers on the internet to solve everything for us.
We’re working on it too.
Since Day Zero - 24 September 2026
Our Progress
❤️ GoFundMe Raised
$0 of $32,000
0.0% of our fundraising target
Money generously contributed through our GoFundMe fundraiser.
🔨 Debt Smashed by Us
$3,377.10
Debt we've personally eliminated since Day Zero - from work, Jays n Dees earnings, savings, selling things, spare change or wherever else we find it.
If we put it towards reducing our debt, it counts.
Total progress since Day Zero $3,377.10
This combines GoFundMe contributions and debt eliminated by us. It does not represent the amount raised through GoFundMe.The story behind the numbers
So… how did we get here?
G’day. We’re Jays n Dees – a family of eight living on a small acreage just north of Gympie, Queensland.
There are the two parents – D1 and D2 – and our six children, the Jays.
And because apparently doing things once would have been far too straightforward, those six children include two sets of twins.
We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate.
Financially, however, the last year or so has been considerably less cooperative.
“Oh, you fixed THAT?
– Life, apparently
Here, have another bill.”
🚙 Chapter One
First came the work truck
D1 is a self-employed handyman, which makes having a functioning work vehicle rather important.
The work truck needed some fairly expensive repairs to get it properly back on the road.
It wasn’t really an expense we could simply ignore – the vehicle helps D1 earn the income we need to support the family.
So we dealt with it.
One problem down.
Surely that would be enough for a while.
Narrator: It was not enough for a while.
💧 Chapter Two
Then our water tank retired
Our water tank had given us more than 25 years of loyal service.
Eventually, it decided that was quite enough.
Living on acreage means the tank isn’t decorative. Its water is used for drinking, showers, laundry, dishes and everyday family life.
So when it failed, replacement wasn’t something we could sensibly put on the maybe next year list.
Another large expense.
Another problem dealt with.
Onwards we went.
🚗 Chapter Three
Then came the family car
Our main family vehicle had begun developing problems of its own.
We put a decent chunk of money that we couldn’t really afford into repairing it.
And for a little while, it seemed to understand that its behaviour had been unacceptable.
It became reliable again.
Excellent.
Except…
About one week before our newest set of twins was due to arrive, the transmission failed.
Timing: impeccable.
With six children – including newborn twins – a reliable family vehicle isn’t exactly an extravagant luxury.
After finally having the vehicle assessed, we decided that continuing to pour money into it didn’t make financial sense.
A family member helped us by lending us the money for another vehicle.
It solved an immediate and very real problem.
It also created another debt that we fully intend to repay.
And eventually, it adds up.
None of those things individually explains everything.
That’s rather the point.
It’s the accumulation.
Necessary repair after necessary repair. Essential purchase after essential purchase. Borrowing to solve today’s problem while knowing tomorrow’s bills are still coming.
Over time, our credit-card debt climbed.
Money owed to family was added to the picture.
There is still necessary work around our property and home that we need to undertake to make things safer and more practical for our children.
And eventually we had to acknowledge something fairly uncomfortable:
We’re much further into the red than we want to be.
Our actual total debt is greater than the fundraising target shown here.
We’re deliberately keeping individual account balances, creditors and other private financial details private.
But we’re not hiding the situation either.
We need to turn it around.
So that’s what we’re going to try to do.
Where the fundraising target comes from
Why $32,000?
$32,000 isn’t a claim that this is every dollar we owe.
It isn’t.
It’s the fundraising target we’ve chosen to help us make a substantial dent in the situation, regain some financial breathing room and keep moving forward.
Our actual total debt is higher. We’re keeping individual balances, creditors and account details private while being open about the categories we’re working to tackle.
Reduce accumulated debt
A major priority is reducing the credit-card debt that has accumulated while we’ve dealt with the run of necessary family expenses.
Repay our family member
When our family vehicle’s transmission failed, a family member helped us obtain another vehicle by lending us the money.
We intend to repay that help.
Necessary work around our home
There is still building and renovation work needed around our property to make our home safer, more practical and more functional for our family and children.
We’re not chasing the latest and greatest. We just want to be comfortably functional.
One final piece of family planning
Some of the funds will also help D1 get a vasectomy.
We have six beautiful children.
We have experienced twins twice.
We love them dearly.
We also think our family has successfully completed its recruitment program.
Where will each dollar go?
We’re deliberately not assigning fixed dollar amounts to each category because our circumstances and priorities can change.
Funds will be directed where they’re most useful within the purposes we’ve described above.
As the journey progresses, we’ll continue to be open about what we’re working on without publishing private account or creditor details.
The other side of the journey
But we’re not asking you to do it for us.
This part matters enormously to us.
Starting a GoFundMe doesn’t mean we’ve decided that everybody else should pay our debts.
Far from it.
We’re going to work on them ourselves too.
That’s why this counter exists
Debt Smashed by Us
$3,377.10
This is the debt that we have personally eliminated since Day Zero – 24 September 2026.
The rule is simple:
If it’s ours and we deliberately use it to reduce our debt, it gets added to the counter.
No wallet required
Want to help us for $0?
You do not have to give us money to help us.
Seriously.
If donating isn’t something you can or want to do, keep your money.
There are plenty of other ways you can give our family and little business a hand.
Like something
If you genuinely like something we’ve posted, give it a like. That little interaction can help more people discover us.
$0Join the conversation
Leave us a comment. Say hello, tell us what you think, ask a question or simply join in.
$0Share our story
A share can put Jays n Dees in front of somebody we would never have reached ourselves.
$0Follow the journey
Come along and see whether we can actually pull this off. Every genuine follower helps our little community grow.
$0Visit our website
Have a wander around Jays n Dees. Read something, explore what we’ve made or try one of our free tools. You don’t need to buy anything.
$0Tell somebody about us
Word of mouth still matters. Somebody you know might find something we’ve built, written or created genuinely useful.
$0And if you genuinely want something we sell…
By all means, buy it.
Jays n Dees is a business too, and growing it is part of how we’re trying to improve our situation.
But we don’t want sympathy purchases.
Buy something because you actually want it – not because you feel obligated to rescue us.
Every extra person who discovers Jays n Dees creates another opportunity for our family business to grow.
That has value even when no money changes hands.If you’d like to contribute
Want to help us directly?
If you’re genuinely in a position where you’d like to contribute financially, we’ve created a GoFundMe fundraiser for our family.
There is no expectation from us that anybody should put themselves out financially to help us.
A contribution is appreciated.
A share is appreciated.
Following along is appreciated.
Even simply reading this far is appreciated.
Support Our Family Through GoFundMeGoFundMe opens in a new tab.
This page isn’t staying frozen in time
Follow the journey
We’re not planning to put this page online and quietly forget about it.
We’ll keep the counters updated and add milestones here as the journey progresses.
We’ll share some wins.
We’ll probably share some things that go completely sideways.
And we’ll keep moving the numbers whenever we’re able.
And so it begins.
Today we publicly started our $32K → $0 journey.
There’s nothing particularly impressive about those numbers yet.
That’s okay.
Every counter has to start somewhere.
This is ours.
Jays n Dees
$32K → $0
We don’t know how long this is going to take.
We don’t know how much of that $32,000 GoFundMe target will ever be raised.
We don’t know how successful Jays n Dees will become.
What we do know is that standing still isn’t going to improve anything.
So we’re starting here.
And two numbers we’re determined to make move.
Come along for the journey. ❤️