How many folks here have trouble putting food on the table?

[slightlv]

4. We're having problems every month now, it seems.

We were doing okay on the SS budget for the first couple of years, but then everything went sky high in prices. We only have one credit card (thank goodness!), and only have about $2k on that to pay it off... but there's no way to budget any extra to do it. Taxes and Insurance are eating us alive. I just get out of the mess of making payments on two cars for insurance, and the property tax on the house comes due. A month after that, the insurance on the house is due. I even opened up a second savings account to try to stick away some extra by force, but end up transferring it back into checking when I have to go to the grocery store. And gods, what used to be a $50 or $75 grocery store trip is now $200.

I've been here before, tho... when I was young and just starting out I made about $14k a year supporting a kid on it. One thing we did often was cabbage soup. To this day, my daughter won't even LOOK at cabbage, let alone eat it! (LOL) But between that and refried bean burritos, we made it. Now, a can of refried beans is out of this world, price-wise. Also, being so much younger, I had more energy to do extra for extra money when we needed it. Now, my 2 chronic diseases eat at my body everyday, making it a chore somedays to just get out of bed. There have been nights when I've just said "never mind eating" and just went to bed. It was a heck of a lot easier that way. I do worry about the trainwreck of a future we have coming towards us, and tho I don't have a death-wish, I hope I'm not around when it hits full-force.