On Going Hungry and Not Being a Victim

Have you heard? According to a Gallup poll just released, over 18% of Americans nationwide have experienced difficulty buying needed food at some point this year, as well as last year.

Sometimes, when people talk about what they think are "difficulties", I laugh inside, because they honestly have no idea.

I took these photos a few minutes ago, literally.

Empty freezer. There are no meat products, 3 eggs in that carton and the milk expires today. There is no bread in my cupboards to maybe make a grilled cheese sandwich, but there are tortillas, so maybe we'll make American Cheese quesadillas. Or eat that leftover cheese enchilada sitting up in there. I could mash up those garbanzo beans and season them and fry them on the stove. There isn't even oatmeal in that giant thing, enough for one serving possibly. 

I don't know where I'm going with this.

Yes, I do.

I don't cook for me, I don't get to cook for me. I've got three little girls who need the food more than my fat ass (not trying to put myself down, I AM fat, but my body can feel free to eat itself any day), so I go without.

This isn't meant to be a pity party. Don't feel sorry for us. Because honestly, we're fine. We aren't living on food stamps, or WIC, or welfare. Our fridge and cupboards don't always looks like this. But right now, things are good one day and tough the next.

Since Rudy is currently in his externship for school, the ONLY income we have is my shop. If you want a truly eye-opening experience, just see how many sales I have and you can see exactly how much money we have to work with. Roughly $15/day. After gas, and electricity (we have a pre-paid box, so when it's empty, lights-out), there is sometimes not enough to get food. We won't even get into the bills.

OK, we will. Because immediately, people are going to think "how can they have internet and phones but no food?" It really is easy. We HAD the money for everything, and we keep it basic. No cable TV, we keep the AC turned up to 82 except at night, and we have the lowest of the low in phone plans and $1 iPhones. Seriously, they were $1. Now we wait and hold off on paying those bills. Everything could get shut off tomorrow, maybe even today. It's happened before. We lived through it.

And we will live through this.

So, when you hear about that 18%, remember that hardship isn't not being able to buy your organic chicken and veggies, or having to downgrade your Ultimate Satellite TV package to Gold or whatever. Hardship is having to feed your kids whatever you can find in your empty fridge and cupboards. Hardship is having shake-y hands because you haven't eaten in almost 24 hours and your blood sugar is totally out-of-whack. Hardship is having to turn everything off and sit in a tomb-like house trying to conserve every penny because you might not have enough electricity to make the 6pm cutoff.

And remember, hardship is having it worse off than me. So be thankful for what you DO have every day, because I am thankful for what I DO have. My health, my family, and a roof over our heads.