Ms Ellis works full-time as a nurse’s assistant and has a second part-time job.

But she needs to economise. She has switched stores, cut out brand-name items like Dove soap and Stroehmann bread, and all but said goodbye to her favourite Chick-fil-A sandwich.

Still, Ms Ellis has sometimes turned to risky payday loans (short-term borrowing with high interest rates) as she grapples with grocery prices that have surged 25% since Mr Biden entered office in January 2021.

“Prior to inflation,” she says, “I didn’t have any debt, I didn’t have any credit cards, never applied for like a payday loan or any of those things. But since inflation, I needed to do all those things…I’ve had to downgrade my life completely.”

The leap in grocery prices has outpaced the historic 20% rise in living costs that followed the pandemic, squeezing households around the country and fuelling widespread economic and political discontent.

  • Zron@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The signup bonuses can be pretty large depending on your placement exam.

    When I was a young dumb 18 year old that wanted to be a doctor, I thought the army would be a good way to do that debt free.

    They offered me something like 25 grand if I signed up that day.

    That’sa lot of cash for an 18 year old.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      25k for enlisted is insane…

      When I was in, they didn’t even give that much to nuclear engineers to do 6 years…

      Was it like Sept 15th 2001 or something when you signed up?

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Oh I didn’t sign.

        Someone offers you a sack full of cash to do something, you better start finding a dentist to look at that gift horse.