What if??

The crush of the Economy is being felt in my house as it is in EVERY home in America. At this point we are middle middle class Americans. I stay home, DP works 40 hours for the local government. We do what we can and sometimes we simply have to put things off for many months. Unexpected expenses really strain our budget and often things are re prioritized. I know there's millions of middle middle class Americans out there in a similar situation. We don't make enough money to have a cushy savings, yet we aren't poor enough to qualify for social assistance.
Recently a Deer jumped out in front of the van and broke one of the headlights. For some families its as simple as loading up the Credit card, or just going and paying cash out of the Emergency fund for a new light, others might actually carry full coverage on their 10 year old vehicle. We however don't have that luxury at the current moment, but it did get me thinking. What if there was a small fund that everyone in my community contributed to..willingly of course, where expenses such as a broken head light could be easily remedied, if someone needed to pay for a prescription their insurance doesn't cover, maybe this spring your funds are short and paying for your child to play Baseball would mean making sacrifices on food. This fund as I see it would help.

I realize there's plenty of Charities out there and social programs for low income families but the beauty of my idea is that its for those who do in fact live above poverty, but simply have to put off the little things in order to make the big ones happen (college, paying off debt, mortgage ect). In my head this "Fund" would be localized within a small community and would be aimed at costs that are under $500, and the demographics to support are those who live above poverty.

I was just thinking WHAT IF???