Missing Simple Pleasures

Our family use to take day trips to the zoo, or go on small road trips to go hiking, now we sit at home bored most of the time. Not because we cant get in the car and go but because it is cheaper to stay in. I don't ask for much anymore. Sometimes I can get new clothes but not often. Wearing baggy and ill-fitting clothes. Not having good bras for support, not having good shoes for when I take the kids out. Getting cheaper items to save money. What am I saving for? That's the thing, I'm not. We have to pay thousands of dollars just to survive.

Do you want water to drink and food to eat? More money spent. Do you want to flush your toilet after you go to the bathroom? More money. Want to work and make money? Don't forget to pay your taxes- to pay someone for the money you've earned. Want to buy a house? Don't forget to pay property taxes on the land you own. Survival puts us in debt, and it's not just about good or bad budgeting anymore.

Cities raise their water and sewage costs, and electric companies are raising their prices. The poor are getting poorer, Lower-middle class is living in poverty and ineligible for any kind of help because they "make too much". My son can't go to preschool because its $130 a week- that's about $1000 a month for the 9 months he'd be attending. $9000 for my son to attend school for 1 year. If I were making $15/hour, I'd make $22,880 before taxes, after taxes that drops down to $21,164. Now subtract that $9000, and you're left with $12,164. That leaves barely over $1000 a month.

That's all you have left is $1000 for gas, electric, rent, water, food, and other basic necessities. Need a car, good luck. Saving will be hard to just buy a car outright, life will get harder if you have to get a loan. No experience or new to your field? Good lucking getting a job making a livable wage.

My husband works a traditional 9-5 job making decent money, I want to work but the problem is with no experience and two children I can't make enough money to send my youngest to preschool while my oldest is in Kindergarten. I can't afford to pay $20 + a day for a babysitter because that's nearly as expensive as preschool without all the benefits that preschool provides. I don't even have family willing to watch my son so I could work.

We're fighting for survival while missing all the simple pleasures in life.