Hussein Mansour, 39, and his wife, Ibtisam, 30, counted themselves lucky until three months ago.
Although the couple live in the rundown Balata refugee camp in Nablus, they both drew salaries from the Palestinian Authority.
Mr Mansour works at the Saed Sayed school in Nablus. His wife works at the city's al-Watani hospital as a nurse.
But following Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections, the European Union and the US both cut aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Israel is also withholding $50m in tax revenues every month.
That means that more than 160,000 state employees of the Palestinian Authority - teachers, nurses, the police and security forces - have not been paid for over two and half months.
Like many Palestinians, the Mansours feel they are being punished for Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections.
In the couple's case, they have been hit doubly hard - losing two salaries.
Credit
To reach the Mansour home, you have to pass through a warren of alleys. Balata refugee camp is place of high unemployment and poverty.
In a three-storey concrete house, there live three generations of the Mansour family. The couple have two children: Hayat, four, and two-year-old Mohammed.
At lunchtime, female members the family sit in the house's living room and roll rice and grape leaves, a Palestinian delicacy.
Mr Mansour's mother suffers from arthritis and high-blood pressure. The family buys her medicine from the pharmacy on credit.
The couple say that their savings will run out at the end of this month. But Mr Mansour still buys sweets for each of his children. 'I don't want my children to notice any difference,' he says.
Drug Shortages
The family's dream, however, of buying a new home outside Balata refugee will have to be postponed, says Mr Mansour. The savings they are using to survive the financial crisis were meant to pay for a deposit on a house.
Both Mr and Mrs Mansour still go to work, but are unpaid.
Mr Mansour insists that the school's staff want things to continue as normal. But the teachers can only keep up the pretence so far.
Many of the students now have to walk to school, their parents no longer able to afford the bus fare. Some cannot afford to buy lunch at the school cafeteria.
At Mrs Mansour's work, things are more serious. The hospital lacks 10 cancer drugs and it's running short of intravenous fluids. In the last few days, fortunately, the hospital has received new supplies for its dialysis unit.
One of the Mansours' neighbours in the camp is a police officer. Samir Shibbiyya, 30, says crime rates are on the rise as people get financially desperate.
But because the Palestinian Authority has no money, the police are being told to ration fuel and are not going out on daily patrols.
Mr Shibbiya says the situation has never been so bad. One afternoon, he apprehended two youths who were about to throw rocks through the window of jewellery shop.
As for the coming weeks, Mr Shibbiya is no more optimistic. 'Without people getting paid, things are only going to get worse,' he says.
ECONOMY IN CRISIS
World Bank says economy will shrink by 27% in 2006, 74% will be below the poverty line and 47% unemployed by 2008
$116m: PA's monthly wage bill
PA employs 165,000, but has not paid wages since March
25% of people in West Bank and Gaza depend on PA wages