"At the end of her freshman year, my 15-year-old daughter, Talia, came to me and said, 'Mama, I don’t know how you did it.'"⁠ ⁠ "She proceeded to tell me about one of her ninth grade classes, where she’s learning about budgeting. All of the students in her class were assigned a job and salary, and they were also randomly assigned additional factors like kids/no kids, student loans/no student loans, etc. The students were able to make some choices, like 'marrying' a classmate and where to live in the country, and from there they had to create a monthly budget," writes HuffPost guest writer Emily Withnall.⁠ ⁠ "Talia was assigned an income of $29,000 a year after taxes, and she and her best friend, Teresa, quickly decided to get married. But even sharing expenses with someone, she was only left with $50 a month. Her budget did not allow for entertainment, eating out or savings beyond that. She and her classmate were not assigned kids."⁠ ⁠ "For the bulk of my life, I’ve made roughly $28,000 a year, with two kids, as a single parent. Talia knows this and was shocked that I have managed. Honestly, it is shocking for anyone to have to survive like that, and I know there are plenty of people who survive on even less."⁠ ⁠ "Early in my kids’ lives, I lived in a small town where the cost of living was relatively low. Still, daycare for one of my children was the same cost as my rent. For two years, I paid double my rent for childcare."⁠ ⁠ "I don’t come from money, but I do have a family who would take me in if a health crisis or job loss prevented me from being able to pay my rent. Many, many other families don’t have family or friends who would be able to take them in."⁠ ⁠ "I wondered then, and still wonder, how many people try to survive the winter without heat, or go without food or medical care, because the safety nets that could help are too difficult to access."⁠ ⁠ Read the full essay at our link in bio. // 📷️ Courtesy of Emily Withnall