My family is a middle class American family. I am sometimes embarrassed to claim that. Why? because the middle class family of today, looks nothing like it did 20 or even 10 years ago.
10 years ago, We were very poor. my husband was in college and worked part time. I did daycare in our home because with six kids, I would have had to work just to pay for daycare.
Each month we made approximately $1500.00.We were also on food stamps and WIC. The sad part of it is, we were better off back then. We had a low house payment, we were able to pay off our mini van, we were able to keep groceries in the house with no worries.
We make so much more now but we are drowning in debt. We get by, but we are still paying on a house we haven't owned for 7 years because of a short sale. The sale was necessary so we had to take a loss. We still pay for student loans. We have doctor bills and credit card debt because at times all we have had was a credit card when something like a transmission went out. It is near impossible to keep money in a savings account when you struggle to make ends meet.
Nine people live in our house. We have six teenagers and an aging parent included in the mix.
Between 2012 and 2013 we had to go to our church for food many times because my husband's government jobs (civilian and military) just didn't cut it. I learned how to use foods we had never eaten before because my garden back then produced a lot of squash. I learned how to stretch our food into multiple meals. I also picked up free bread from the local food bank when it was available.
I would see signs on the highway about hungry children and it made my heart hurt because although we were struggling, we had someone helping us. During that time I was so grateful for my church, for the leaders that saw a need and didn't think twice to help. We would attend church potlucks and many times extras were given to us. I was greatly humbled because of it. I didn't want to be pitied but feeding my family was more important. I knew that the food was a blessing and it was needed. I admit also it was embarrassing that it had come to that because for goodness sake, My husband works for the government! He serves in the military and in 2003 had to leave his family to serve in a war!
Fast forward to now. We are doing better than we were. We have a little bit cheaper house payment since we moved from the Northwest to the east coast.Our grocery bill and utility bills are constantly on the rise. However, because of our experience, I have gained so much knowledge on stretching our budget. There are many dinners that include beans and/or rice and if there is leftovers, it rolls over to lunch for the next day.
I am lucky that we have great soil because if it weren't for my garden and chickens we would be getting very few vegetables in our diet and even less protein because the cost of even garbage filled meat and abused chicken eggs at the grocery store are ridiculous. I have been blessed with a kind neighbor who shares his garden's bounty. I have learned to preserve produce that we can't eat before it goes bad.
Our family is not alone.Government or non-government jobs, our country should not be struggling the way it is. With all the food waste, families should never have to wonder where their next meal is coming from. They should never have to worry if they will have enough to eat until the next payday and they should never have to worry if there will be something to feed their kids for lunch because they make "too much" for even reduced lunches.
If you know a family in need and are in the position to help, please reach out to them.
