By Hannah Natanson, Joe Heim, Meryl KornfieldThe Washington Post

The government has been closed for a full month – and federal workers who have missed two paychecks are now using credit cards to pay their bills, visiting food pantries to stock their kitchens and reviewing their bank accounts, plotting exactly how long they can manage without a salary.

The answer is not much longer for Cynthia Brown, a Government Publishing Office staffer who has been working without pay. The 53-year-old said she is barely eating, subsisting on coffee and protein shakes.

She said she has already sold everything she could find in her house, including two old iPhones, and started a GoFundMe to help cover her expenses. She had hoped to drive for DoorDash to supplement her income, but her car was repossessed

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