Struggle Meals

When we found out that my pay would be only 53% of what it was last year, we started scrambling to see how we could cut $2800 from our monthly bills.

I used the feature of our banking app to see how our monthly spending broke down by category and I saw that we were spending $2800 per month on Target, Amazon, and McDonald's. Roughly.

So I thought, this will be easy. Cut out unnecessary purchases AND going out to eat, and we'll be good. Turns out that we buy a good deal of necessities from Target and Amazon. Boring stuff like toilet paper, tampons, and shampoo, among other things. And our kid was not a big fan of giving up McDonald's completely.

So we cut other things. Our zoo membership, our arboretum membership, our aquarium membership, our Disneyland magic key, our children's museum membership. It's not the cost of the membership that gets us, it's the fact that every time we go, we end up buying lunch, souvenirs, and snacks. It's not fun to go if we can't enjoy ourselves.

We cut any subscriptions we aren't loving. I haven't had a haircut in months. I started using shampoo and conditioner that I had in storage rather than buying new. 

We decided to limit McDonald's to three times per month. Our child decided it would be on the 9th, 19th, and 29th. We go to the store without our child, meaning one parent stays home with the child while the other parent shops from a shopping list and only buys what is on the list.

Now that my pay *might* be similar to what it was... More will be revealed on that by the end of this week ...we have started relaxing some of these restrictions. We also found that our local Chick-fil-A has a "kids eat free" night with purchase of an adult meal. It helped to know that we would get one night out every week guaranteed.

Another thing I did was eat at Costco food court once or twice a week. $2 Pizza or $1.50 hot dog. I tripped across the concept of a Struggle Meal. It's the intersection of many factors: low budget, few ingredients, quick to prepare, low skill, low energy, and with common (not rare) ingredients. I love this idea for working parents as well as college students. My favorite is spaghetti with butter and Parmesan cheese. Super simple, quick and easy.

Now I can reveal that my pay is only $200 less than it was last year. But remember prices of EVERYTHING have nearly doubled. And our rent increased 6% this month. Mike was scheduled to get a cost of living adjustment, which the CSU calls the "steps" program, but they flagged him for having an already inflated salary according to his years of service. So he didn't get a raise.

What will history say about this time? The government is shutting down, firing federal employees by the thousands, canceling programs that compromise our social safety net. While building a gold ballroom and giving subsidies to other countries that suck up to us. Are we heading for an economic crisis a la great depression? Who knows?

For now, we will be okay. But I do think that the use of #strugglemeal and #recessioncore are indicative of the true lived experience for people in our country. We are still working SO hard. But our daily lives are filled with fewer treats because our buying power is getting ever weaker.