Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Durham, NC

THE SITUATION:

This group represented a single woman with no children but who had just found out that she was pregnant. She was 4 months along. She was healthy, but she needed prenatal care immediately. She had no reason to believe that something was wrong with the baby, but her previous situation did not allow her to seek prenatal care, so she felt an urgency to get checked out soon.  She was excited about having a baby, but she was also scared that she  would not be able to handle the responsibility alone.

She had no car because she couldn't afford the payment, insurance, and gas on her monthly income, so she had to take public transportation to and from work. She had to make time and arrangements for doctor’s visits during her pregnancy.  She had to go to the doctor once a month for the next 3 months and then twice a month until the baby was due. She thought she should check out the W.I.C. program.

The baby would also need daycare once it was born. She thought she should start checking for available daycares in the area before the baby was born.

She had a high school diploma and one year of college where she was a work-study student in a position that allowed her to gain the skills necessary to do the work required of the new job. She dropped out of college when she found out she was pregnant. Her boyfriend was abusive and didn’t know she was pregnant. She left him before he found out and moved several cities away. She wanted nothing to do with him.

She left rather abruptly, so she brought with her only the barest of essentials (some clothes, some toiletries, and a few personal items).  She had only $1000 to get herself set up before she got paid for her first month’s work.  She would need everything necessary for the baby when it arrived as well as new clothes for herself as her body changed with the pregnancy.

She had to begin work within 2 weeks of arriving in town, so time was essential. She had to figure things out pretty quickly. 

THE PRELIMINARY BUDGET & NOTES:

  • RENT        
  • UTILITIES
  • GROCERIES
  • PHONE
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • DOCTOR'S VISITS
  • TOTAL
  • $400.00               
  • $57.00
  • $100.00 plus WIC & FNS Aid
  • $35.00
  • $36.00
  • $MEIDICAID
  • $628.00
 
Group 4 Preliminary Budget & Notes
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LIFE'S CURVEBALL:

This young woman has just had a baby boy!

She does not get maternity leave with her job, but her boss is nice to work with and has promised to work with her as much as she can.  The woman misses only a week of work to have the baby, and she had planned meticulously before the baby arrived, so the week's pay she had to miss didn't completely derail her situation.  However, she didn’t plan on the baby being born ill.

The baby has a heart condition that requires him to go for treatments at the hospital once every other week for the next several months.  The treatments are an all day affair, and the woman has to miss a day of work for each treatment.  Here’s a description of the woman's pay with the two days of work missing each montht:

        Working 39 hours per week at $7.50 per hour brings in roughly $292.50 per week (for 2 weeks).  Working 31 hours per week at $7.50 per hour brings in 
        roughly $232.50 per week.  Therefore, she brings in roughly $1050 per month before taxes.  Based on average tax deductions for any North Carolina
        worker, she can expect approximately $210 taken out of her monthly pay for taxes.  So, her NET pay is now roughly $840 per month. 

Her new monthly pay is about $100 less than it was and now she has a baby to care for.

THE REVISED BUDGET & NOTES:

  • RENT
  • UTILITIES
  • GROCERIES
  • PHONE
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • CHILD CARE
  • TOTAL


  • $400.00
  • $57.00
  • 130.00
  • $35.00
  • $36.00
  • 126.00
  • $784.00 (Leaving only $56.00 at the end of each month)
Group 4 Revised Budget & Notes
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FINAL EVALUATIONS:

Many low-skilled workers rely on government aid to help make ends meet. It is even safe to say that without that aid, many low-income households would not get their basic needs met.

North Carolina (and the country at large) is in a budget crisis. The Federal Government threatened a shut-down recently because it could not come to a consensus about appropriate spending. Aid for low-income families could be cut, and many are in favor of doing just that.

In this group’s evaluation, the students had to address this issue by commenting on the following statements and questions:

This group more than any other took advantage of the government aid made available for the low-income earner. Imagine if that aid were not available or if you were not eligible to receive it because of new, stricter regulations. For the vast majority of low-income earners, what would life be like if government aid were severely cut? What happens when income plus aid are just not enough?

Their comments follow:

This project has shown all the members in our group that our person can make it on minimum wage. The one thing our group has taken advantage of is Federal Government Assistance. With that being said, if the government assistance were to be cut, then our hypothetical person would not make it. That would mean no help with housing, Medicaid, childcare, food stamps, and WIC. All of these things have helped her get by every month with some to money to spare at the end of the month. With all the looking around our group has done, we are all very familiar with the Federal Government Assistance, and all the different loop holes. The question is what life would be like without the help. When we encountered the curveball; our group had a hard time finding childcare that would accept a disabled child. There are some out there but none that were close to her job, forcing her to move to a possibly higher rent apartment. If the government cuts its aid, then it is telling people that it does not care about their needs. When income and aid are not enough for people to live off of, then crimes will happen more often, and that would make our society unsafe. Looking at some of the budget choices that the government seems to be willing to make shows how low skilled workers rank on the government’s priority list.