Driving on fumes, stretching food budgets: Inflation has Texas families struggling to get by
A few days ago, on his way home from work, my husband helped push a stranger’s car into a gasoline stall.
The driver had run out of gas just as she was entering the station, several dozen feet from a pump.
Driving on empty was something I frequently did in my 20s, but back then, gas never approached $5 a gallon.
The incident perfectly encapsulates the ethos of the present moment: We are all trying to stretch what we have as long as we possibly can.
According to AAA Texas, as of Friday morning, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.68. That’s 12 cents more per gallon than what I paid to fill my tank Thursday.
I texted my husband from the station to report my amazing gas price find.
“Only $4.56!” I wrote.
“What a bargain!” he replied, unironically.
At karate this week, which a friend offers to home-school kids free of charge, we learned that one of the regularly attending families had decided to drop the class because gas prices were making the drive too costly.
I read later that day how local first responders, locked into fuel contracts when the price of gas was less than half of what it is now, are digging into reserves to ensure that they can continue to serve their communities without interruption.
NBC5 reported that MedStar, the ambulance provider for Tarrant County and other surrounding areas, spent over $100,000 more on gasoline, year over year, in May.
The increased fuel costs haven’t forced MedStar or other local law enforcement to begin handling some calls by phone, as has happened in some parts of the country, but significant budget adjustments are underway.
Those financial re-calibrations are underway for ordinary families, too, as food costs are beginning to stress even those with money to spare.
A text thread of local friends, usually used to share interesting articles and our kids’ childhood antics, has recently been devoted to exchanging tips and tricks for making food purchases last longer.
Try adding more beans to each meal. What about a little extra starch — rice or potatoes?
We’re going to add another container garden for growing vegetables.
Don’t make anything new until all the leftovers are completely gone.
None of these women is part of a family currently living paycheck to paycheck, although each of us has at one time or another.
But we’re all trying to feed families of two, three or four kids — some of them teenage boys — and struggling to keep our grocery budgets from exploding right along with food prices.
The federal cash infusions of the COVID era (which ironically have been a contributing factor to our current runaway inflation), have all been spent. How difficult is life getting for families without a little cushion?
In some ways, Texans are lucky. Because we live in an energy-producing state, gas prices are not as high as in coastal states. The national average is now $5 a gallon, but prices have reached $6 in some areas.
And food costs in Texas are also comparatively lower. But so are incomes.
Feeding Texas, the state network of food banks, reports that food Insecurity is already a concern for 1 in 8 Texans. Given the increased demands on food banks, more families will probably start to meet that definition.
Indeed, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, a family of four in the Fort Worth/Arlington metro area can now expect to spend $728 on food per month, or a total of $8,734 in 2022.
Sounds like a lot, but it pales in comparison to transportation costs, which it currently estimates will cost $13,919 this year.
And we’ve only just entered the summer driving season.
Indeed, it’s going to be a season of stretching things to make them last.
So make sure you’re looking out for your neighbor in case they need a little help, like a push to the nearest gas pump.
