Living from Paycheck to Paycheck in America

[Wags]

A recent article on CNN.com talks about the "poor stretching paychecks to breaking point." The article was dated 18 Oct 07.

Poor stretching paychecks to breaking point - CNN.com

It is a interesting read.

Some of us are truly BLESSED.

GOD BLESS

 

[dex]

Just imagine what the stories will be like when a recession takes hold.

 

[Wags]

Just imagine what the stories will be like when a recession takes hold.

Yes, I can only imagine how bad things will get for all of us if there is a recession. With the housing markets decline it appears that a recession might be in our near future.

If I recall correctly there was a news account in which the COLA for Social Security this year will be one of the lowest in quite some time. For people who's only source of income is the SS system it is NOT good news.

There is an AARP article on the Social Security Meltdown AARP Bulletin: The Line Starts Here

The reality is that the $$$$ and one's paycheck just does not buy what it once did. It is unfortunate that the varmints in Congress and the White House do not see or do not want to see the economic despair that is the reality for some of our people.

GOD BLESS

 

[Texas Proud]

I know there are a lot of people who actually do have a problem.. but there also are a lot of people who create their own...

I remember drinking powdered milk growing up... and 'old' fruit that was on sale... and 'guess what' cans (they used to sell them if the labels were removed for only pennies)... we got the cheap hot dogs... day old bread from the bread shop... and actually grew some of our own green beans on the side of the house...

There are many ways to stretch a dollar...

But, as you say, we are blessed and I am glad I am not in that predicament.

 

[Wags]

I know there are a lot of people who actually do have a problem.. but there also are a lot of people who create their own...

I remember drinking powdered milk growing up... and 'old' fruit that was on sale... and 'guess what' cans (they used to sell them if the labels were removed for only pennies)... we got the cheap hot dogs... day old bread from the bread shop... and actually grew some of our own green beans on the side of the house...

There are many ways to stretch a dollar...

But, as you say, we are blessed and I am glad I am not in that predicament.

Yes, it is true that SOME create their own .......

I remember those times too, Mama used to make every penny count and we were happy with whatever homemade meal she made. I can remember getting vegetables from my great grandparent's garden, milking cows, feeding the chickens, Mama buying items in bulk when they were on sale, the homemade tortillas made by great grandmother and Mama, etc...., etc.... It was such a wonderful time in OUR lives.

Yes, most of us who live in America are truly BLESSED.

GOD BLESS

 

[Gumby]

I remember drinking powdered milk growing up...

God, I hated powdered milk; my mother made me drink a glass every day. I swore that when I left home, I would never drink another glass of milk, and in the past 30 years, I have not had a single one.

 

[Wags]

God, I hated powdered milk; my mother made me drink a glass every day. I swore that when I left home, I would never drink another glass of milk, and in the past 30 years, I have not had a single one.

I too do not like powdered milk.

Here is to hoping that a lot of our fellow Americans do not lose their homes due to higher mortgage rates, the higher cost of keeping one's home warm (here in Tx the price of propane is up to $2 a gallon), higher cost of food, etc...., etc..... Having to decide whether to eat or pay one's utility bill is hard decision to make when one has a family.

GOD BLESS

 

[dex]

I didn't want to go there but in the arricle it was saying that people were buying cheaper foods such as "peanut butter and pasta". I had past every night growing up and peanut butter for many lunches. We didn't have much but I never thought we were eating that way to save money. What were these people eating before the pasta and peanut butter?

 

[Texas Proud]

God, I hated powdered milk; my mother made me drink a glass every day. I swore that when I left home, I would never drink another glass of milk, and in the past 30 years, I have not had a single one.

LOL.... I have not had a glass in maybe that long... I have ate cereal and drank it at the end... but not a glass...

And to make it worse for me... we hated the powdered milk so my mom made it 'stronger' buy using more powder which made it even worse...

 

[Gumby]

My mother's other preferred method of torturing her children was to force us to drink cod liver oil every day. Yuuuck! Another thing I have never done since.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

while filling up with gas just the other day i was approached by two beggers. the first guy says to me: "how would you like to buy a rock." i looked in his hand and sure enough there was a good sized stone. i got out of my car to show him that i was quite a bit bigger than he and i'm thinking to myself "dude, for your own sake, you better knock me out with the first throw." i said to him "are you nutz? go away." he tried insisting again on some money. my voice got a little more insistant and pronounced each word carefully: "i told you to go away." he went away.

i turned my back to him and continued filling the car. just as i'm getting back into the car yet another guy comes over to me and tries to get a dollar for gas for his new, huge pickup truck nearby. i looked at him, my chartitable patience already worn thin, and said "are you f*ing kidding me with this. that last guy just tried to sell me a rock and now you want money too?"

i couldn't decide if it was the downturn in the economy or just tourist season kicking in. we tend to get a lot of drifters here when the weather turns.

 

[Cattusbabe]

I am coming to the defense of powdered milk. I use it a lot...in cooking, I also mix it with my coffee creamer half and half. We have a bread machine ans we use it when we bake bread. It is a great was to stretch a dollar as well as cut fat and cholesterol in the diet. Would I drink a glass of the stuff. Only if my Mamma makes me which she did when I was a kid. We used to get it government surplus. For a long time I thought food came in olive drab boxes with black lettering. We got cereal and cheese that way too. It got us through some hard times. My parents were raising five kids on one paycheck. Mom later went to work and then number six and seven arrived. Good Catholic family ya know. I can honestly say we did not feel poor. We were just like everyone else on the block. Oh my Mom God love her did the cod liver oil bit with us too. Called herself hiding in the the orange juice. There it would be all thick and slimy floating on top of the OJ. I remember her saying drink it, it will make your bones strong. Ya know all this talk about the good old days I think I'll give the old girl a call. I still have both of my parents near. Now that is a blessing.

 

[Wags]

I am coming to the defense of powdered milk. I use it a lot...in cooking, I also mix it with my coffee creamer half and half. We have a bread machine ans we use it when we bake bread. It is a great was to stretch a dollar as well as cut fat and cholesterol in the diet. Would I drink a glass of the stuff. Only if my Mamma makes me which she did when I was a kid. We used to get it government surplus. For a long time I thought food came in olive drab boxes with black lettering. We got cereal and cheese that way too. It got us through some hard times. My parents were raising five kids on one paycheck. Mom later went to work and then number six and seven arrived. Good Catholic family ya know. I can honestly say we did not feel poor. We were just like everyone else on the block. Oh my Mom God love her did the cod liver oil bit with us too. Called herself hiding in the the orange juice. There it would be all thick and slimy floating on top of the OJ. I remember her saying drink it, it will make your bones strong. Ya know all this talk about the good old days I think I'll give the old girl a call. I still have both of my parents near. Now that is a blessing.

Yes, you are truly blessed to have both of your parents near by.

Surely you must remember the raisins that came in the white boxes with the black lettering. I can still remember when my great grandparents use to get their monthly allowance of these wonderful foods. As a small boy I looked forward to getting my hands on the raisins.

Keep your parents close to your heart and give them a "I Love You" for the rest of us.

GOD BLESS

 

[Cattusbabe]

Remember that "no frills" stuff the supermarkets were selling back in the day?
Look there are ways to make that paycheck make it to the end of the month. Most people do not budget so they do not know where their money is going and they do not LBYM. Things are harder in the sense that there are more ways and more people out to separate you from your dollar. You have to learn to turn the nonsense off and stick to your guns.

 

[Wags]

The price of gas is up 60 cents from the same time last year and is expected to go up. Gas prices edge up to $2.80 a gallon - Oct. 21, 2007

If the price goes up it will surely hurt everybody's pocket book. The one's that will be hurt the most are the poor, people on fixed incomes, and our small businesses.

GOD BLESS

 

[dex]

The more I think about it the more I worry about the next recession - for a couple of reasons.
1. People haven't experienced one recently - so they don't know what it is about.
2. The media will blow it out of proportions
3. The mentality of entitlement
4. People living paycheck to paycheck don't have saving to get them through the bad times.
5. The rise in crime

 

[citrine]

Those are some good points dex....I cannot even imagine what it would be like....

 

[Cattusbabe]

It is very survivable....so long as your debt load is low, you know how to economize and you have and emergency fund. It is not like recessions have not happened before.

 

[chrisdut]

I also had to drink powdered milk as a child...it is nice to know I am not alone! I successfully repressed that memory until reading some of the above posts . Our family was old fashioned...dad worked and mom stayed home with the kids (all 5 of us). We looked forward to every other Friday (dad's payday), because it was pizza night. We would order two large pizzas and got to wash it down with Pepsi (the only time we could drink soda). To us it was a huge deal.

I really feel for the truely poor people who live paycheck to paycheck out of need. My experience however is that a fairly high percentage of middle and upper class people also live paycheck to paycheck. Several years ago our payroll provider (an outside company) made a mistake and payroll did not go through. I arrived at work at 7:30 a.m. and was greeted by a host of irate employees who already checked their bank accounts online that morning (I am the company treasurer). After contacting our payroll provider, and determining that the money would not be deposited to our employee's accounts until Monday, we notified all employees of the situation and advised them to see me if they needed a stipend to get through the weekend. I spent most of the morning trying to reassure everyone that the ship was not sinking and writing manual checks to the people who could not wait until Monday to get paid. I had to write checks for roughly 25% of the employees. Around lunchtime one of the employees came to see me to get a check and give me some grief about the situation. I asked him what he would do in the case of an emergency and suggested it would be a good idea to have some money set aside in an emergency fund...it was like throwing gas onto a fire. He ripped into me stating that his personal finances were none of my business (he was right). Later, I found out that many other employees (roughly another 25%) could not get through the weekend but were too embarrassed to admit they needed a check. Perhaps the strangest part of the story is that some people could not repay the stipend that we provided until several weeks later (everyone should have been able to pay us back the following Monday ). In any event, it was a real eye opener to learn that almost one half of the employees at our firm could not make it for three days without getting paid

 

[Texas Proud]

Chrisdut...

It is not unusual if they are blue collar workers.. almost all of the ones I have ever known (except for one of my BIL), they were paycheck to paycheck...

And of course they could not pay it back.. the money was spent... and all you did was give them some more money to spend... why think about paying it back.. heck, they are not paying their other bills so why your company?

Now, this is a very very old stat... maybe someone can get a new one (when I say old, I think it was about 15 years ago)... but, the AVERAGE checking account balance was $300... yes, that was the average balance of the average checking account... so, you can see that there are many people who can not even fill up their gas tank without hitting their finances big time...

 

[chrisdut]

Texas:
Most of our employees are white collar (engineering firm). That is what I found to be most surprising...many of the people who could not get through the weekend without being paid would be classified as middle to upper class.

 

[Texas Proud]

Texas:
Most of our employees are white collar (engineering firm). That is what I found to be most surprising...many of the people who could not get through the weekend without being paid would be classified as middle to upper class.

Now that is a surprise...