The Cost of being Poor

I had wanted to write about Easter and all the fun we had but, seeing as the memory stick with all of the pictures is sitting on my dining room table inside of my camera, I'm going to write about an article I saw some time ago. 

The High Cost of Poverty:  Why the Poor Pay More

I think about this article everytime I stop at our local grocery store and I thought about it again this weekend when we took a trip to our local laundromat to wash the comforter from our bed. It's a king size and even though I do have an extra large capacity washer, it isn't quite big enough.   We saw a mom/dad/daughter family doing their laundry as well as a mom with 2 kids (5 and 2) and another on the way.  I was trying to imagine the cost for them to do laundry. 

$2 per single load washer.
$4 per double load washer.
$5.50 per triple load washer.
1 quarter per 7 minutes for the dryer - I typically run 50 to 70 minutes at home...yet their dryers run hotter.
75 cents for a single load of soap
another 75 cents for 2 dryer sheets - I pay $3.99 for 120 (3 cents per)

Now think about how much laundry you do in your home and how much that would cost you to have to take all of it to the laundromat!

I think of the ways I try to save money and those things I do, aren't even options for a lot of people. Imagine you didn't have a car to drive to a Big Box Store and you were forced to to pay the higher prices of a convenience store that most of us think of as simply that, convenience.  Can you imagine what a bottle of laundry detergent costs at the corner gas station!?!

I live in one of the largest/poorest counties in Michigan - at least it was before the economy tanked.  I thought about that  as I was writing my previous post thinking - You're not poor, you're just trying to save some money.  There are people who have it worse than you do!  I used to look at some of those folks and think - if they'd get a job, if they'd make an extra effort, if they'd this and if they'd that.  I thought I had all of the answers.