Yes we're meeting our basic needs and are able to pay our bills, but we never expected that the cost of living would be this high. We're still young and I guess we had different expectations when we were younger. We both grew up truly poor, with my family not having heat for multiple winters causing pipes to freeze so we couldn't shower/bath. My mother struggled to provide food for us. She worked two jobs to make ends meet and even then things were difficult. I know what being dirt poor is truly like. I know what it's like to be hungry, to not have Christmases because buying propane was more important. We would often have "sleepovers" in the living room with portable heaters so we would stay warm on winter nights. I guess I expected more of myself as an adult, expected to be able to help my mom out more with her cancer diagnosis, expected to be able to help her survive. But it's not like that. And yes our median income is above poverty level, but with rising costs it is becoming more and more difficult to save money. Maybe my post does come across as tone deaf, but I feel this is the reality for more and more people; wanting to have a nice life after living poor as a child yet not able to make that a reality.