Living paycheck to paycheck gets harder

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer Fri Oct 19, 3:36 PM ET

NEW YORK - The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder.
完全靠工资的日子越来越难过了。

What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.
原来够过4天的钱现在只能用2天了。缴燃气费，那就不吃早餐。午餐少吃点可以让孩子们的晚餐更营养。

Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It's starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc.
由于房租，食品和能源价格上涨，越来越多的美国等不到发工资的日子钱就花完了。这已经影响到中等收入家庭和贫困家庭。

Food pantries, which distribute foodstuffs to the needy, are reporting severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking their help.
给穷人分发食品的Food pantries面临严重的食品短缺，更多的人需要帮助的时候政府拨款减少。

While economists debate whether the country is headed for a recession, some say the financial stress is already the worst since the last downturn at the start of this decade.

From Family Dollar to Wal-Mart, merchants have adjusted their product mix and pricing accordingly. Sales data show a marked and more prolonged drop in spending in the days before shoppers get their paychecks, when they buy only the barest essentials before splurging around payday.
从Family Dollar到Wal-Mart, 商家已经调整了货品和价格。

"It's pretty pronounced （明显）," said Kiley Rawlins, a spokeswoman at Family Dollar. "It seems like to us, customers are running out of food products, paper towels sooner in the month."

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said the imbalance in spending before and after payday in July was the biggest it has ever seen, though the drop-off wasn't as steep in August.


And 7-Eleven says its grocery sales have jumped 12-13 percent over the past year, compared with only slight increases for non-necessities like gloves and toys. Shoppers can't afford to load up at the supermarket and are going to the most convenient places to buy emergency food items like milk and eggs.

"It even costs more to get the basics like soap and laundry detergent," said Michelle Grassia, who lives with her husband and three teenage children in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Her husband's check from his job at a grocery store used to last four days. "Now, it lasts only two," she said.

To make up the difference, Grassia buys one gallon of milk a week instead of three. She sometimes skips breakfast and lunch to make sure there's enough food for her children. She cooks with a hot plate because gas is too expensive. And she depends more than ever on the bags of free vegetables and powdered milk from a local food pantry.

Grassia's story is neither new nor unique. With the fastest-rising food and energy prices since the 1980s, low-income consumers are stretching their budgets by eating cheap foods like peanut butter and pasta.

Industry analysts and some economists fear the strain will get worse as people are hit with higher home heating bills this winter and mortgage rates go up.

It's bad enough already for 85-year-old Dominica Hoffman.

She gets $1,400 a month in pension and Social Security from her days in the garment industry. After paying $500 in rent on an apartment in Pennsauken, N.J., and shelling out money for food, gas and other expenses, she's broke by the end of the month. She's had to cut fruits and vegetables from her grocery order — and that's even with financial help from her children.

"Everything is up," she said.

Many consumers, particularly those making less than $30,000 a year, are cutting spending on nutritious food like milk and vegetables, and analysts fear they're further skimping on basic medical care and other critical services.
许多消费者，特别是年收入少于三万的人，减少在营养食品如牛奶，蔬菜方面的开销。分析家们担心这会波及到基本的医疗保障和其它关键服务。

Coupon-clipping just isn't enough.

"The reality of hunger is right here," said the Rev. Melony Samuels, director of The BedStuy Campaign against Hunger, a church-affiliated food pantry in Brooklyn.
BedStudy反饥饿运动的负责人Meonly Samuels说：饥饿的现实已经摆在我们面前。

The pantry scrambled to feed 5,000 new families over the past 12 months, up almost 70 percent from 3,000 the year before.
在布鲁克林的一家有教堂资助的food pantry在过去12个月勉强救济了5000个新家庭，比去年的3000个家庭上升了66.7%.


"I am shocked to see such numbers," Samuels said, "and I am really concerned that this is just the beginning of what we are going to see."
看到这些数字我很震惊。我担心这才刚开始。

In the past three months, Samuels has seen more clients in higher-paying jobs — the $35,000 range — line up for food.
在过去三个月，Samuels看到更多的工资稍高 - 年薪35，000美金 - 的人来申领食品。

The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, which covers 23 counties in New York State, cited a 30 percent rise in visitors in the first nine months of this year, compared with 2006.
负责纽约地区23个县的纽约东北区Food Bank称申领救济的人数较2006年上升了30%。

Maureen Schnellmann, senior director of food and nutrition programs at the American Red Cross Food Pantry in Boston, reported a 30 percent increase from January through August over last year.
波士顿的美国红十字会Food Pantry的负责人Maureen Schnellmann说：去年一月到八月申领救济的人数上升了30%。

Until a few months ago, Dellria Seales, a home care assistant, was just getting by living with her daughter, a hairdresser, and two grandchildren in a one-bedroom apartment for $750 a month. But a knee injury in January forced her to quit her job, leaving her at the mercy of Samuels' pantry because most of her daughter's $1,200 a month income goes to rent, energy and food costs.
几个月前，家政服务助理Derllria Seals和她的做理发师的女儿和两个孙子住在一个一房的公寓里，房租每月750美金。但是由于膝盖受伤她必须辞去工作，她女儿每月1200美金的工资只够房租，水电和食品。因此她来到Food Pantry求助。

"I need it. Without it, we wouldn't survive," Seales said as she picked up carrots and bananas.
Seales在挑选胡萝卜和香蕉是说：我需要这些东西，没有我们不行。

John Vogel, a professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, worries that the squeeze will lead to a less nutritious diet and inadequate medical or child care.
Dartmouth学院的Tuck商学院的教授John Vogel担心家庭经济困难可能会导致饮食营养不够，医疗和儿童保健不足。

In the meantime, rising costs show no signs of abating.
然而生活开销的上涨根本没有减缓的迹象。

Gas prices hit a record nationwide average of $3.23 per gallon in late May before receding a little, though prices are expected to soar again later this year. Food costs have increased 4.5 percent over the past 12 months, partly because of higher fuel costs. Egg prices were 44 percent higher, while milk was up 21.3 percent over the past 12 months to nearly $4 a gallon, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
劳工统计局的书籍显示：今年5月底汽油价格创全国记录的平均3.23美金每加仑。尽管汽油价格有所回落，但年底可能又会飙升。过去12个月，食品价格上升了4.5%，鸡蛋价格上升了44%，牛奶价格上了了21.3%，接近4美金每加仑。

The average family of four is spending anywhere from $7 to $10 extra a week — $40 more a month — on groceries alone, compared to a year ago, according to retail consultant Burt Flickinger III.

And while overall wage growth is a solid 4.1 percent over the past 12 months, economists say the increases are mostly for the top earners.

Retailers started noticing the strain in late spring and early summer as they were monitoring the spending around the paycheck cycle.

Wal-Mart and Family Dollar key on the first week of the month, when government checks like Social Security and public assistance generally hit consumers' mailboxes.

7-Eleven, whose customers are more diverse, looks at paycheck cycles in specific markets dominated by a major employer, such as General Motors in Detroit, to discern trends in shopping.

To economize, shoppers are going for less expensive food.

"They're buying more peanut butter and pasta. And they're going for hamburger meat," Flickinger, the retail consultant, said. "They're trying to outsmart the store by looking for deep discounts at the end of the month."

He said the last time he saw this was 2000-2001, when the dot-com bubble burst and the economy went into a recession after massive layoffs.

For now, low-price retailers are readjusting their merchandising and pricing.

Wal-Mart is becoming more aggressive on discounting. It announced Thursday it is expanding price cuts to 15,000 items, ranging from Motts apple juice and Progresso soups to women's fleece tops, heading into the holidays.

Family Dollar, whose food offerings were limited to candy and snacks until two years ago, has expanded its mix of groceries like fruit cups, cereal and such refrigerated items as milk and ice cream while cutting back on shoes. This summer the chain began accepting food stamps.

Food pantries are also getting creative. Samuels said her church, Full Gospel Tabernacle of Faith, just started offering free cooking classes to teach clients who are diabetic or have other health conditions how to prepare vegetables like squash. It's also offering free exercise classes.

"We are trying to make them health conscious," Samuels said. "It's not right to give them just anything. Our mantra is eat well and live well."

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Associated Press Writers Geoff Mulvihill in Mount Laurel, N.J., and Terry Tang in Phoenix, Ariz., contributed to this report.