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I'm definitely not. Raises have been less than the rate of inflation and one year there weren't any at all. I saw 10 to 12 of my coworkers get laid off (those are the people I knew personally.. there were 500 layoffs altogether). I saw three neighbors go for a year without work and they are trying to catch up on bills that they couldn't pay during that time. They are all making about half what they had been making. The escrow portion of my mortgage payment has gone up $160 a month (they say due to 9-11 and the stock market problems). I'm paying at least $.50 more a gallon for gas. I'm spending twice as much on my prescription co-pay and doctor visit co-pays. My ER co-pay increased from $5.00 to $50.00. I am now paying part of the premium for health care insurance (for an HMO that the health care system I work for OWNS). One year(2002), our raises were 2% and didn't cover the increase in the cost of our benefits, so I brought home less money that year even though I'd gotten a raise. On my drive to work, there are 5 "mini-apartments" set up under freeway overpasses. In 20 years of working in Detroit, I had never seen that before until this year. My retirement plan at work is no longer increasing. I don't expect the 110% return I had in 1999, that was a fluke, but 5% would be nice. The price of beef has skyrocketed. My car insurance has almost doubled (granted I had one accident). My car is 4 years older and I can't afford a new one so I'm pouring tons of money into that one to keep it going. Day care costs have also increased tremendously. Back then, I was paying $40 a day for summer day care, now it's $50 a day. My cell phone plan is the same cost, but I get less minutes than I used to. My monthly cable bill goes up $10 every year. So, in the past 4 years, my monthly expenses have increased by about $800 and my take home monthly pay has gone up by about $400. And, that's a problem.
My mom is not. I am in shock today as I picked up 10 of my mom's 14 prescriptions yesterday and wrote a check for $531 for her. I am totally in shock. She gets $793 in Social Security and $650 from her pension and 10 of 14 prescriptions cost $531. She only has to buy the other 4 every other month. I shudder to think what those cost. I wanted to cry for her. She traded a mortgage payment for prescription payments.
Now I'm depressed.
Dee
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