No money for extras or saving after paying rent, food, utilities

The following is a first person account by one of the families that will be helped by this year’s Be An Angel campaign.

I certainly don’t write much. I don’t read well either. It has held me back in trying to get higher-paying work. But I’m a hard worker. And I am reliable. So, once I get a job, they always want to keep me.

My problem is, even though I have a good job now as a janitor, I can’t ever get ahead. And there is just me and my eight-year-old daughter. It feels hopeless to me most of the time. I barely scrape by and we buy at thrift stores, cut our own hair, don’t have a car, don’t go out to eat, ever. I don’t have a cellphone. I don’t smoke or drink alcohol.

All of my money goes towards rent, utilities and food. All of it. So, I scrimp on food. And I don’t buy expensive fast food either. I cook from scratch. I buy bigger bunches of things on sale when I can. Scrimping on food is really not good for my eight-year-old girl. She needs three full meals every day. She gets oatmeal and milk in the mornings, her school lunch luckily, and then a piece of meat and a vegetable at night. When I do it really basic like that we can eat all the way through the month.

It isn’t too bad when I work. That’s the truth. I’ve gone to the food bank quite regularly this past year since meat went up in price so much. Even though I don’t like to write, I wanted to write this for the paper because there must be other people out there in Penticton who are trying so hard like me and getting depressed because they can’t save a penny for their kid’s future.

I saw a Salvation Army ad on TV and I said, that is me. It was about a single mother wanting to get a good job so her kid would see her success and then have more success in their lifetime. It is true too. I think food, rent and hydro prices are just out of line with what people like me earn.

I’m smart enough, just not well educated for these times. And I don’t want to get married just because I can’t make it on my own without a husband.

What’s that teaching my daughter?