Times are hard. I've heard that phrase ever since I was a little girl but didn't really understand its meaning until I became an adult who had to pay her own way. With the current economic status of this country, I now find myself using the phrase all the time. I know people who have been laid off after years of service to an employer. I have coworkers who have lost their homes and I am among a plethora of my contemporaries who now find robbing Peter to pay Paul a part of daily existence. Yeah, it's definitely rough out there.
I find the situation is most noticeable when I'm in the grocery store. When I write my list I am always thinking about how I can get the most food for the least amount of money and what dishes I can cook that will last a minimum of 3-5 days. In keeping with the more bang for my buck goal, I often travel down the same aisles each month. A few days ago I noticed something very telling about how American's pockets are being emptied by this crisis; the noodle aisle was sparse. Boxes had been emptied and turned over, noodle remnants were all over the floor, and there was a large crowd of shoppers congregating around the remains. Knowing the flavor of Top Ramen and its copycats, I can't imagine those people were gathered there for the decadent taste explosion that is the cheap noodle. Instead, these people were on the noodle aisle as a means of surviving.
With pay cuts, furloughs, a diminishing job market, and rising costs in housing, it is no wonder we've been reduced to using the ramen noodle as a culinary staple. I know things are bad when even peanut butter and jelly has become a delicacy. It all makes me wonder how long I'll have to live this ramen existence and what the "better" version of this current situation will look like. In the meantime, I'll keep the water boiling.
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