Living paycheck to paycheck gets harder

[superconnected]

Source: AP

NEW YORK - The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.

Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It's starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc.

Food pantries, which distribute foodstuffs to the needy, are reporting severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking their help.

While economists debate whether the country is headed for a recession, some say the financial stress is already the worst since the last downturn at the start of this decade.





Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_bi_ge/stretching_paychecks

[Hydra]

1. Recently posted, but thanks for greater coverage

poverty- it's not just for the minority anymore

[superconnected]

2. Thanks, I'm looking for the other post to see their opinions.

This article is a terrifying read.

[Hydra]

3. Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2090114

[KamaAina]

4. And here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2088602

[DemoTex]

5. Groceries: unbelievably expensive all of a sudden.

I paid $3.49 for a package of eight English muffins yesterday; almost $4 for a loaf of bread; $2 for a dozen eggs .. at Publix. I don't know how people are going to cope once the heating bills kick in.

[tblue37]

8. We women who live alone and have gotten to that age where we often feel hot

suffer when we have to pay for air-conditioning in the summer, but our heating bills aren't as bad in the winter.

[DemoTex]

17. Dr. DemoTex is that age ..

She wants the heat on in the summer.

[Wcross]

10. Don't forget the other "tricks".

Instead of 12 oz package they redesign it to a 10 oz and charge the same old price. That way you feel better but still pay more.

[allisonthegreat]

22. harder and harder to eat healthy

But have noticed that all food is up and the gas well look at the post about the price on the barrel. Disgusting!

[Xenotime]

23. This does not look good. Grim sign for the 'richest country' in the world.

[Orsino]

6. Frog soup...

...almost coming to a boil. The MSM will find it ever harder to hide.

[Hydra]

7. I wondered why my feet were so hot

:evilgrin:

[Earth_First]

9. STFU! What do ANY of these folks have to say about ANY of this...

Walk a mile in our shoes motherfuc*ers and find out exactly how hard it's become!

[Miss Chybil]

15. I think that's what they're trying to say.

Not the "walk a mile in our shoes" part, but the "how hard it's become" part.

[LiberalEsto]

11. The dollar stores are booming

and the big mall stores are practically empty in my part of Maryland, as far as I can tell. Meanwhile the checkout lines at Big Lots are getting longer and longer.

I buy greeting cards at Dollar Tree - 2 for a dollar. Who can afford cards that cost $4.99-$5.99 these days?

The price of paper goods has become outrageous -- $6.99 to $9.99 for a spiral school notebook? Composition books that used to sell for 69 cents now sell for $2.99 or more, unless you happen to hit a good back to school sale. Toothbrushes cost a small fortune. Ditto cosmetics - so I don't bother with makeup these days.

Our household is reasonably well off in terms of income, but every month it's a struggle to choose which bills have to be paid right away, and which ones can wait until the next paycheck. I don't know how people making minimum wage can survive these days.

[Stand and Fight]

14. Those are my thoughts exactly...

I struggle with the same things every month.

However, I recently experienced a huge jump in my income, and the memories are none-too-distant about the fear that comes with "living" from paycheck-to-paycheck.

[madrchsod]

12. dollar stores,ten for ten`s,charity shops

no vaction on weekend trips anymore.overtime evaporating so even those who have decent jobs are falling into the hole...the recession has been here for quite awhile..

[Stand and Fight]

13. Good God...

This is terrifying. I know what it's like to live from paycheck-to-paycheck, and I realize that the term itself is a crock... The reality is that most of the time it's more than just paying the bills and making due till the next payday. Most of the time it's deciding which of the essentials you will go without this time around and fighting off the fear that you'll come home with your electricity cut off because you couldn't afford to pay the bill in time...

[Purveyor]

16. Yet Social Security recipients will get the smallest cost-of-living adjustment since 2003 of 2.3% nt

[whistle]

18. Especially when the real inflation rate reduces each paycheck by 4% to 5%

...every two weeks

[David__77]

19. I don't know how people get by.

I recently got a really job, and so I'm doing ok, but I honestly have no idea how people can make it these days.

[entanglement]

28. This winter will be brutal

The high likelihood of record heating and fuel costs, an economy in recession and an enfeebled dollar with reduced purchasing power will combine to deliver a crushing blow to working class people and those living on fixed incomes.

[tom_paine]

20. "While economists debate whether the country is headed for a recession"

:rofl:

The country is IN a recession, and if someone would simply analyze the Bushie Job Creation Numbers (themselves likely overstated half-truths, at best) the 4% unemployment figure would breakdown as fast as a Stalinist-era Five-Year Agricultural Production Report.

It's 1937 again, the lies are everywhere again, and the shadow of totalitarin darkness casts over the world again.

[UncleSepp]

21. Dollar's down, fuel's up, grain's up, and Atlanta's running out of water

Any one of these things would be bad news, but all put together, it looks like a disaster. I wouldn't say a "recession" is what we're headed for. I think the dreaded D word is on the way, complete with dust bowl.

[Xenotime]

24. You mean Depression. I think you are right.

[Daphne]

25. I'm not an economist...

But learning to like Ramen is becoming an art to me.

[CRK7376]

26. I left teaching 9 years ago

mostly because of the pay issue. We were a family of 5 with just my teachers salary and Army Reserve income. We could not make it, were going to check advance stores, my truck was on it's last legs, wife's car was ok, but she was taking kids to school etc...we were always behind on bills and even with a low mortage could not make it. SO I went back int he Army. Army salary much better, but due to poor credit (teacher's salary and late payments)we still have trouble sometime. We constantly remind ourselves that we are now getting a check every two weeks and not having to go to check advance sharks...Scray how we lived. But it's still a struggle and gas is outrageous....I shudder to think how we would be living today if I had continued to teach. Trailer living probably...

[entanglement]

27. The ruling class is utterly oblivious to the plight of working folk

They are too busy plotting away to expand their empire and increase their ill-gotten gains to give a f**k.

[DiverDave]

29. Welcome to my world...

somethings gotta give, and it'll probably be me...