She eats. I’m her mother. I let my daughter eat. Last night she was hungry and we had some peppers.

[FirstLight]

38. I think I have become a food hoarder of sorts...

My pantry is filled with "emergency" supplies , Even have a bin of dry goods, flour, rice, beef jerky and dried vegies for stew, etc in the garage. I tell myself it is just in case we have a snowstorm pr power outage and need to get by for a few days, but the reality is that I worry constantly about whether we will have enough to make ends meet.

Luckily, our food stamps usually cover us pretty well...I think by using coupons, going to Grocery Outlet often and freezing a lot, we usually make it through the tight week before the rollover.
It's cash that kills me... our TANF for the month for me and two kids is $490, my rent with HUD Section 8 is $420...
so ya, we stagger utility bills, often just barely keeping ourselves from shutoff. If I wasn't going to school and getting that extra income the feds can't can't touch - I'd be even more screwed. If I make anything on the side, it is usually docked from me the next month.
What also kills me is how FAST we can burn thru REAL money when we have it. It's like after going without for so long, we finally get to have a little 'fun' and then we're broke again for months. I often think it is my fault for not being able to manage my $$ but it's just a psychological thing...you know why shouldn't we go out to dinner at a normal restaurant for Mother's day or do something fun for a Bday for the kids?

I hate being poor, and yet it's been my lot for much of my adult life...even though my folks were pretty well off (middle class) when we were growing up. But we never took big spendy family vacations, never went out except for special occasions, my dad pinched pennies till they screamed, still does....