I should be excitedly packing my suitcase and getting ready to hit the road because tomorrow night I leave for a quick extended weekend trip. I long for a vacation away from here because my summer has been non-stop work, and I’m tired. For months, I’ve dreamed of driving up the east coast, spending a week exploring places I’ve always wanted to see….and then life got in the way.
The first hiccup was that my oldest is a senior in high school and didn’t want to miss the last two days of band camp. I decided that was fine and adjusted my dream. Then, I mistakenly planned a work gig for the third day so what started out as a six day trip is now a two day trip. I can write about it calmly because I pretty much have an “it is what it is” attitude, but the truth is that I couldn’t have afforded my week long trip in the first place without making some precarious choices, such as not paying a bill.
Vacations always stress me out. I’ve been able to pull off a few throughout the years but not without robbing the piggy bank. The most lavish vacation was covered by the girls’ grandma six years ago. I had to pay for the gasoline to get us to Georgia, which was doable. One other time we left for Philadelphia with $500 in my pocket. The tolls took about a third of my money so that was a “let’s see how many free things we can do” trip. We also stayed at a friend’s place, which was the only way we could swing it in the first place.
Using Benefits on Trips
Planning and budgeting for a vacation never works out for me. There’s always some emergency that pops up that makes me laugh at the word “savings.” Lodging is expensive and the cost of eating out, especially once you leave the valley, is impossible. Much to my kids’ dismay, we always have a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread in the car when we travel. We’ve also used my food stamps on trips because you can use them anywhere in the U.S. We’ve had impromptu cookouts galore. In fact, I used to carry a portable charcoal grill in the trunk for that purpose. The entertainment part of trips has always been the one hardest to say no to, so we stopped at random city pools we spotted or lakes and made the most of it.
I was doing some research the other day and ran across an article about how state lawmakers at one time raised concern that West Virginia residents were using their SNAP benefits in other states. A part of that is a given when we are bordered by states that have no sales tax on food. The part they had a huge problem with was people going to the beach, for example, and using their SNAP benefits. I’m sure it seems like a valid complaint to some of you, but it’s really just more judgment and bias toward the poor.
Vacations are a pretty normal thing for families to do. Almost everyone I know has traveled somewhere this summer, whether it was to a lake or an ocean. Summer is the time to get outdoors and travel for most of us, probably because work schedules are the only ones that have to be rearranged with the kids out of school. The costs associated with travel are ginormous, but why does one’s financial situation have to dictate their experiences? Why shouldn’t a family on SNAP be allowed to experience the ocean? And why shouldn’t they be allowed to treat their kids to the peanut butter and bread feast to make the trip more doable? I’ll never understand how allowing someone the dignity to feel as if they’re worthy of normalized things is bad.
Vacation time almost feels as punitive for poor people as tax time. Instead of hearing how they should have paid off their bills and invested the money instead of buying a tv or gaming system, they are being told that their kids don’t deserve a nice trip to experience something new, something different. Financial struggles control every decision, believe me. But sometimes, the view from your front porch grows stale. Sometimes, the stress of working low-wage jobs and barely getting by is a lot and an escape is nice. Because life is still going to be hard when they get back. The stressors don’t take vacations. And imagine spending all of your days in the same place. You’d probably want to buy a new tv to watch the Travel Channel.
Here’s to road trips, peanut butter, and bread.
Onward,
Amy Jo
