Siouxland families struggle to make ends meet in a depressing economic climate
By Bret Hayworth, Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, March 27, 2005
Ryan Logemann spies a card similar to his mother's, Kimberly Logemann, as they play a learning game in their Sioux City apartment that is paid for with federal assistance. (Staff photo by Jerry Mennenga)
Choices, choices.
For many Siouxlanders struggling to make it from payday to payday, there are daily spending decisions that others don't have to consider.
Is $5-per-hour day care too costly?
Can the 150,000-mile car make it through another winter without continually dying?
For some low-income working families, the decision of whether to have cable television or own a cell phone isn't even a question. In the case of Kimberly Logemann of Sioux City, she made $15 stretch at Christmas to cover the presents for her two young children.
Living on one income that puts them below the poverty level, the Russ and Sandra Little family of Sioux City are doing the two-step dance -- two steps forward, two steps back.
Said Russ, "Every time you start getting a little ahead, then something comes up and puts you behind again, you know. A car breaks down, you have to put a new engine in your car, you can't go back and forth to work. It is always been something, I guess -- like take two steps forward, then two steps back, so you are back to the same point you are always at. ... There are times we feel strapped and at a loss, 'What do we do now?'"
That "sounds so depressing," Sandra said.
"Well," said Russ, "we are breaking even, is where we are at right now. We are not winning, not losing, just breaking even."
The unmarried Logemann says she's not alone in working a low-pay job as she struggles to fit her family in with work and school.
"It is becoming a reality for single parents," she said. "Some of them are like, 'I can't even go to school anymore,' because they don't have the assets or the money to keep going. They end up quitting, and they try to get a job, but they can't get a job, or they get a job that pays minimum wage, and they end up causing a bigger problem in the long run." Logemann said she increasingly hears friends talking about bankruptcy.
In his circle of Siouxland acquaintances, Russ said, "you hear the same story," people "living paycheck to paycheck." The worst examples, he said, are of those who hope for a gambling hit to make up the amount they're short on a mortgage payment.
"I know people who try to make the difference up at the boat (Argosy Casino)," he said. "Thank God, we've ended up never risking everything we have and gone to the boat to try to make ends meet."
'YOU DON'T LIKE THE PERSON YOU TURN INTO'
Russ, 30, and Sandra, 27, are raising five boys, ages 9 to 2, on his $15-per-hour job running a slicer/bagger at Sara Lee in Sioux City. After eight years working at MCI in Sergeant Bluff and two years in sales at Gateway, Russ joined Sara Lee in May. It's a good job, he said, but the family struggles to make it on about $31,000 for a family of seven.
The Littles could have a higher income if Sandra worked, as she did as a waitress until their fifth child was born. But when day care runs at least $300 a week, it didn't make sense to send their two youngest kids out of the home when Sandra would be hard pressed to make enough to cover the cost of day care.
But she thinks about working outside the home a lot. "I want to go out and get a job every single day," Sandra said. In some ways, life is better than when the two Littles worked. Essentially, one would walk in the door from work, the other would depart for their job, Sandra said, so they "never saw each other" as they swapped watching the kids and working.
Russ's regular work schedule is 2-10 p.m., but he covers other people's breaks to get in some overtime pay, and in May he plans to work his "vacation" week to make more money.
"All you want to do is come home and sleep," Russ said of the long days. "You wake up, you're crabby, you're yelling at your family all the time. But it is either that (working extra to make additional money), or you get kicked out of your house. You don't like the person you turn into when you do that, you know."
The Littles have one vehicle, a 1997 Ford Windstar van, to get the family around. "With five kids, it is either that, or a bus," Russ said with a chuckle. They own the mini-van clear without debt, but have struggled with car expenses. A previous vehicle lost its transmission, so they spent $2,500, to install a replacement with a one-year guarantee. One year and two weeks later, that transmission failed.
The Littles have lots of examples like this. They save up to $300 per month when things are good, but continually watch their savings drained for unexpected expenses. A $1,000 dental bill for two kids. Figuring out taxes and finding they owe the state of Iowa $400. The Littles currently have about $100 in savings.
The Littles have taken steps to improve their financial situation. They were buying a three-bedroom house on contract in Riverside, but the monthly payment with taxes and insurance approached $900. "It was just a money pit," Russ said.
Now they live in a "tight" two bedroom, he said, with two kids in cribs sharing a room with their parents, while the three older boys sleep in bunk beds in the other room. "It was supposed to be a temporary" move to the Morningside area apartments at 2514 S. Rustin St., Russ said, but since May 2002 the $400 rent has been too pleasing a payment to trade up. "It is small, you know," Sandy said, "but it is comfortable." They are attempting to get a Habitat for Humanity home to get back into a house.
'WE LIVE DAY TO DAY'
Raising one less child on considerably less income than the Littles are the Magdaleno and Rosa Loza family of Sioux City. The family of six squeaks by on the wage Magdaleno makes after 27 years laboring at Tyson Foods, $10.35 per hour. That's two adults and four kids living on roughly $21,500 a year.
The weekly Thursday paychecks can't come soon enough, said Rosa Loza. "It is hard because we live day by day," she said through an interpreter in the family's modest, but well-furnished home in one of Sioux City's poorer neighborhoods. "We wait for the check to buy food and to pay the bills. When only one works, we can't buy luxuries, just the basic things."
Rosa used to work in a meat packing plant as well, but after the birth of the family's second special-needs child six years ago, she began staying home full time. The children get free lunches at school.
The worst financial strain for the Lozas comes in winter, when they receive huge gas and electric bills in their older home. The worst was $350 two winters ago, and $305 this year. "Winter is really hard," Rosa said, adding that the $350 bill took the entire weekly paycheck of the family. The Lozas have applied for MidAmerican Energy's program that helps families with their utility bills, but Rosa said the family has not met requirements in the past and didn't try this year.
The Lozas have vans from model years 1993 and 1995, and are still making payments on one of them.
Medical expenses have been a drain on the family's finances, but it would be worse if they didn't have health insurance, Rosa said. When the first special-needs child was born 12 years ago, the bill was $20,000. Insurance paid $13,000, leaving them with the $7,000 balance. That took five years to pay off. Then a few months ago, a medical procedure costing $5,000 left the family with a $700 bill.
Area hospitals, Rosa said, have been good about "allowing us to pay monthly" on the outstanding bills, not demanding it at once. "As long as we are still paying, it is no problem," she said.
'I TRY TO LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS'
Logemann, 22, did not go out on the town in the first seven months after her youngest was born last year. But she worked hard to find $17 to go to the March 8 Saliva rock concert in Sioux City. Logemann would like to work in consumer financial counseling, but plans to get a University of South Dakota bachelor's degree first.
Logemann has two certificates in accounting and two associate of arts degrees in accounting and business. In choosing to focus on her education rather than give it up, she works only three days a week -- taking home about $200 every two weeks from her job as a Super Wal-Mart cashier. Logemann is entitled to get child support of $188 a month, and government assistance provides the rest of her resources.
"I try to live within my means, and if I get child support, that is a bonus," she said, although she only gets support for the oldest child. Marrying the father of her two children, Logemann said, is not the answer, not with the turmoil the children would experience.
She gets federal Section 8 housing support, and lives in Landmark Apartments, which she said are far from ideal. Logemann dreams of a bigger place, since she feels "like a caged animal" in the small apartment, and wants a backyard so her son can play. In spite of her low-income life, Logemann said it is of chief importance that her kids grow to be confident and well-adjusted, "to make a name for themselves." And she tries hard "to think positive," contending things will turn around once she gets her degree and a good job.
In the plus column for Logemann? Title 19 pays for Logemann's medical expenses, so she has few problems with medical costs. Logemann also has family help from her parents, who often watch the two kids so she doesn't have to pay more than $60 a week for about a dozen hours of day care. And her 1996 Pontiac has less than 100,000 miles and is reliable. But four new tires at a cost of $300 recently put a huge crimp in the budget.
Logemann said she won't look down on people who come through her checkout line with food stamps. Being on government assistance, she knows, is something recipients don't enjoy as they work to improve their lives. But, Logemann said, "people judge them or give them dirty looks or say something."
The Lozas have one big positive in their budget -- in December, they fully paid off their home at 1315 Virginia St. They bought it 12 years ago for $38,000. "Now, I say my house," Rosa said, beaming. That frees up $560 a month they used to pay for the mortgage.
Rosa refuses to get down over their lack of money, saying she came to America from Mexico "for better opportunities," something she's found. While Magdaleno isn't making big bucks at Tyson, the Lozas don't complain about that either. "He enjoys his job," Rosa said. "He likes the life system here."
And she looks optimistically to the future, when she can bring in a second income again: "I know this is going to pass."
On the upside for the Littles? The family has always had health insurance, and "we are lucky and have healthy kids," Sandra said. Plus they will have two incomes in just a few years when all the children are school age, when she can return to work.
Russ Little said things are better than they could be since he and Sandra partner well as a team. "You live it every day," he said. "You've got to talk about it, that is all there is to it. You're not going to make it unless you work together."
Bret Hayworth may be reached at (712) 293-4203 or brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com
For many Siouxlanders struggling to make it from payday to payday, there are daily spending decisions that others don't have to consider.
Is $5-per-hour day care too costly?
Can the 150,000-mile car make it through another winter without continually dying?
For some low-income working families, the decision of whether to have cable television or own a cell phone isn't even a question. In the case of Kimberly Logemann of Sioux City, she made $15 stretch at Christmas to cover the presents for her two young children.
Living on one income that puts them below the poverty level, the Russ and Sandra Little family of Sioux City are doing the two-step dance -- two steps forward, two steps back.
Said Russ, "Every time you start getting a little ahead, then something comes up and puts you behind again, you know. A car breaks down, you have to put a new engine in your car, you can't go back and forth to work. It is always been something, I guess -- like take two steps forward, then two steps back, so you are back to the same point you are always at. ... There are times we feel strapped and at a loss, 'What do we do now?'"
That "sounds so depressing," Sandra said.
"Well," said Russ, "we are breaking even, is where we are at right now. We are not winning, not losing, just breaking even."
The unmarried Logemann says she's not alone in working a low-pay job as she struggles to fit her family in with work and school.
"It is becoming a reality for single parents," she said. "Some of them are like, 'I can't even go to school anymore,' because they don't have the assets or the money to keep going. They end up quitting, and they try to get a job, but they can't get a job, or they get a job that pays minimum wage, and they end up causing a bigger problem in the long run." Logemann said she increasingly hears friends talking about bankruptcy.
In his circle of Siouxland acquaintances, Russ said, "you hear the same story," people "living paycheck to paycheck." The worst examples, he said, are of those who hope for a gambling hit to make up the amount they're short on a mortgage payment.
"I know people who try to make the difference up at the boat (Argosy Casino)," he said. "Thank God, we've ended up never risking everything we have and gone to the boat to try to make ends meet."
'YOU DON'T LIKE THE PERSON YOU TURN INTO'
Russ, 30, and Sandra, 27, are raising five boys, ages 9 to 2, on his $15-per-hour job running a slicer/bagger at Sara Lee in Sioux City. After eight years working at MCI in Sergeant Bluff and two years in sales at Gateway, Russ joined Sara Lee in May. It's a good job, he said, but the family struggles to make it on about $31,000 for a family of seven.
The Littles could have a higher income if Sandra worked, as she did as a waitress until their fifth child was born. But when day care runs at least $300 a week, it didn't make sense to send their two youngest kids out of the home when Sandra would be hard pressed to make enough to cover the cost of day care.
But she thinks about working outside the home a lot. "I want to go out and get a job every single day," Sandra said. In some ways, life is better than when the two Littles worked. Essentially, one would walk in the door from work, the other would depart for their job, Sandra said, so they "never saw each other" as they swapped watching the kids and working.
Russ's regular work schedule is 2-10 p.m., but he covers other people's breaks to get in some overtime pay, and in May he plans to work his "vacation" week to make more money.
"All you want to do is come home and sleep," Russ said of the long days. "You wake up, you're crabby, you're yelling at your family all the time. But it is either that (working extra to make additional money), or you get kicked out of your house. You don't like the person you turn into when you do that, you know."
The Littles have one vehicle, a 1997 Ford Windstar van, to get the family around. "With five kids, it is either that, or a bus," Russ said with a chuckle. They own the mini-van clear without debt, but have struggled with car expenses. A previous vehicle lost its transmission, so they spent $2,500, to install a replacement with a one-year guarantee. One year and two weeks later, that transmission failed.
The Littles have lots of examples like this. They save up to $300 per month when things are good, but continually watch their savings drained for unexpected expenses. A $1,000 dental bill for two kids. Figuring out taxes and finding they owe the state of Iowa $400. The Littles currently have about $100 in savings.
The Littles have taken steps to improve their financial situation. They were buying a three-bedroom house on contract in Riverside, but the monthly payment with taxes and insurance approached $900. "It was just a money pit," Russ said.
Now they live in a "tight" two bedroom, he said, with two kids in cribs sharing a room with their parents, while the three older boys sleep in bunk beds in the other room. "It was supposed to be a temporary" move to the Morningside area apartments at 2514 S. Rustin St., Russ said, but since May 2002 the $400 rent has been too pleasing a payment to trade up. "It is small, you know," Sandy said, "but it is comfortable." They are attempting to get a Habitat for Humanity home to get back into a house.
'WE LIVE DAY TO DAY'
Raising one less child on considerably less income than the Littles are the Magdaleno and Rosa Loza family of Sioux City. The family of six squeaks by on the wage Magdaleno makes after 27 years laboring at Tyson Foods, $10.35 per hour. That's two adults and four kids living on roughly $21,500 a year.
The weekly Thursday paychecks can't come soon enough, said Rosa Loza. "It is hard because we live day by day," she said through an interpreter in the family's modest, but well-furnished home in one of Sioux City's poorer neighborhoods. "We wait for the check to buy food and to pay the bills. When only one works, we can't buy luxuries, just the basic things."
Rosa used to work in a meat packing plant as well, but after the birth of the family's second special-needs child six years ago, she began staying home full time. The children get free lunches at school.
The worst financial strain for the Lozas comes in winter, when they receive huge gas and electric bills in their older home. The worst was $350 two winters ago, and $305 this year. "Winter is really hard," Rosa said, adding that the $350 bill took the entire weekly paycheck of the family. The Lozas have applied for MidAmerican Energy's program that helps families with their utility bills, but Rosa said the family has not met requirements in the past and didn't try this year.
The Lozas have vans from model years 1993 and 1995, and are still making payments on one of them.
Medical expenses have been a drain on the family's finances, but it would be worse if they didn't have health insurance, Rosa said. When the first special-needs child was born 12 years ago, the bill was $20,000. Insurance paid $13,000, leaving them with the $7,000 balance. That took five years to pay off. Then a few months ago, a medical procedure costing $5,000 left the family with a $700 bill.
Area hospitals, Rosa said, have been good about "allowing us to pay monthly" on the outstanding bills, not demanding it at once. "As long as we are still paying, it is no problem," she said.
'I TRY TO LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS'
Logemann, 22, did not go out on the town in the first seven months after her youngest was born last year. But she worked hard to find $17 to go to the March 8 Saliva rock concert in Sioux City. Logemann would like to work in consumer financial counseling, but plans to get a University of South Dakota bachelor's degree first.
Logemann has two certificates in accounting and two associate of arts degrees in accounting and business. In choosing to focus on her education rather than give it up, she works only three days a week -- taking home about $200 every two weeks from her job as a Super Wal-Mart cashier. Logemann is entitled to get child support of $188 a month, and government assistance provides the rest of her resources.
"I try to live within my means, and if I get child support, that is a bonus," she said, although she only gets support for the oldest child. Marrying the father of her two children, Logemann said, is not the answer, not with the turmoil the children would experience.
She gets federal Section 8 housing support, and lives in Landmark Apartments, which she said are far from ideal. Logemann dreams of a bigger place, since she feels "like a caged animal" in the small apartment, and wants a backyard so her son can play. In spite of her low-income life, Logemann said it is of chief importance that her kids grow to be confident and well-adjusted, "to make a name for themselves." And she tries hard "to think positive," contending things will turn around once she gets her degree and a good job.
In the plus column for Logemann? Title 19 pays for Logemann's medical expenses, so she has few problems with medical costs. Logemann also has family help from her parents, who often watch the two kids so she doesn't have to pay more than $60 a week for about a dozen hours of day care. And her 1996 Pontiac has less than 100,000 miles and is reliable. But four new tires at a cost of $300 recently put a huge crimp in the budget.
Logemann said she won't look down on people who come through her checkout line with food stamps. Being on government assistance, she knows, is something recipients don't enjoy as they work to improve their lives. But, Logemann said, "people judge them or give them dirty looks or say something."
The Lozas have one big positive in their budget -- in December, they fully paid off their home at 1315 Virginia St. They bought it 12 years ago for $38,000. "Now, I say my house," Rosa said, beaming. That frees up $560 a month they used to pay for the mortgage.
Rosa refuses to get down over their lack of money, saying she came to America from Mexico "for better opportunities," something she's found. While Magdaleno isn't making big bucks at Tyson, the Lozas don't complain about that either. "He enjoys his job," Rosa said. "He likes the life system here."
And she looks optimistically to the future, when she can bring in a second income again: "I know this is going to pass."
On the upside for the Littles? The family has always had health insurance, and "we are lucky and have healthy kids," Sandra said. Plus they will have two incomes in just a few years when all the children are school age, when she can return to work.
Russ Little said things are better than they could be since he and Sandra partner well as a team. "You live it every day," he said. "You've got to talk about it, that is all there is to it. You're not going to make it unless you work together."
Bret Hayworth may be reached at (712) 293-4203 or brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com
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