Naomi Estes opened her fridge in her Chugiak home in early October and pulled out an 18-pack of off-brand eggs.
"I don't buy the free-range anymore — sorry chickens!" she said, laughing. "I used to and now it's just — we're surviving out here."
It's a small compromise, but for the single mother of two, every dollar counts. Estes makes $70,000 working at the Anchorage School District.
According to the federal government, she's not poor. But, in reality, it's been hard for her to make ends meet since her divorce three years ago. Her expenses just keep rising, like the gas for the 20-minute drive home to Chugiak and food for her growing boys. She has medical bills. After-school care for her kids costs nearly $1,200 a month. It adds up fast.
So Estes cuts corners everywhere. She thrifts whatever she possibly can. She's learned to repair her house and change her oil. She and her sons eat frozen veggies instead of fresh, and in the summer they grow their own. She buys off-brand groceries, like those eggs, which cost $2.99. Sometimes, she and her sons have to make "cupboard meals" with whatever they have on hand.
"We're constantly problem-solving," she said. "That's so exhausting that I'll just – I'll crash out. It's unsustainable."
Earning too much for assistance
For decades, the United States has measured poverty using the Federal Poverty Line. But now it's becoming clear there's another big chunk of people, like Estes, who are just scraping by, even though the federal government doesn't consider them poor.
A new study in Alaska looked at that group — those who are earning above the poverty line but can't afford the basics. It found that nearly one-third of households fall into that category. Jon Bittner is with the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation and consulted on the study. He said wages have not kept up with rising costs, pushing more people into financial hardship. "People were living this experience but being told, 'No, you're not actually in poverty, there's just something wrong. You're drinking too many lattes or something,'" Bittner said.
The federal poverty line doesn't reflect the true cost of living, he said. That means many struggling households fall through the cracks, because the measure is often used to decide who qualifies for assistance programs like food stamps, subsidized childcare or rental assistance.
That's the case for Estes. She got turned down for food stamps. She joked that she considered asking for a pay decrease so she could qualify for childcare assistance.
Instead, she's cutting costs and making hard choices. According to Bittner, that's what a lot of people are doing.
"You shouldn't have to live with 12 other people," he said. "You shouldn't have to have three jobs. You shouldn't have to work 80 hours a week. You shouldn't have to make choices between prescription drugs and food for your family."
High costs drive hard choices
In Fairbanks, Ginger David said it's heating her home that's pushing her towards the edge. The cost of heating fuel has skyrocketed, she said. It's now six times more expensive than when she bought her house a few years ago.
"I know I'm not poor, and I know I show up for work eight to five every single day," David said. "I know that I'm far better off than other people. But at the same time, it's so discouraging."
She has a good job, she said, but between her mortgage and her utilities, she's barely getting by.
Like Estes, she cuts costs where she can. She pinches pennies at the grocery store. Her dad, brother and son pitch in to help haul her heating fuel. That saves her the $150 delivery fee.
David's family helps in other ways too, she said. She can call her parents any time.
"Their love carries me through the worry of: 'Am I going to run out of heating oil? Or the boiler went bad, the boiler broke down,'" she said. "Just talking to them allows me to have the strength to face the problem."
Estes, in Chugiak, relies on friends and family too. Much of her life is made possible by people just stepping in because they see she needs help, she said. They pick her kids up from childcare, or watch them over summer break. They chip in to cover the cost of Christmas presents or a birthday party.
It's such a hard balance, Estes said. She gets anxious about leaning on her friends and family too much, but she appreciates the help.
"I'm grateful that I'm able to do it in the moment," she said. "But also my grandma is 80, and my friends – I just hope that I can keep such great friends because they increase my – all of our quality of life immensely. They make us richer."
She wants what's best for her two boys. She worries about being able to provide for them.
"I think about the future a lot," she said. "I don't know what that's going to look like."
She knows that watching her work hard will help them be thankful for what they have. They're already such good kids, she said, but she wishes she could give them more.
"I don't think it'd be feasible, but I'm always dreaming up what it would be like to take a vacation, to take my kids on a vacation to Hawaii," she said.
Estes paused, tearing up a little bit.
"I think they deserve that."
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