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Shopping at the Dollar Store Helped My Family More Than Once
I don’t know what we would have done without those stores.
Food insecurity — I’m sure you’ve heard of it, especially with the strain that came with the COVID-19 pandemic and recent rising food prices. (If you read too much about the current inflation scare, you’re bound to get a bit stressed and panicked while also tightening your grip on your wallet.) Going without or making do with very little has become a way of life for many families.
But the truth is that I never really realized how food insecure my family was until years after the fact.
Every two weeks, we went to the grocery store. But those trips never enabled us to stock the pantry with canned goods and box mixtures for later use: everything was for the here and now, and even essential items like milk, bread, and eggs lasted only so long. We lived hopelessly from paycheck to paycheck, to the point that my dad would run out of money anywhere from three to five days before his next pay day. When our refrigerator was empty, all we had were the condiments and spices that did nothing without actual substance as far as meal items.
Enter the dollar store — which became something of a lifeline during those in-between days when the only money left to our family was through my…
