CNN —
Until last year, Janet Albrecht could afford to eat roast beef sandwiches or tuna salad for lunch. But the widowed 78-year-old now has to skimp on her meals because her Social Security benefits haven’t kept up with the rising costs for food, housing and health care in recent years.
A retired graphic designer, Albrecht estimates she’s paying $100 more a month at the supermarket than she was before inflation started skyrocketing in 2021. Her landlord increased the monthly rent by a total of $65 over the past two years, her utility bills are larger and some of the seven medications she takes daily after suffering a heart attack have gotten more expensive. She hasn’t had a haircut in more than a year, though she doesn’t like to wear her hair so long.
“I’m down to eating ramen for lunch, which I never ate in my life until recently,” said Albrecht, an Indiana, Pennsylvania, resident, who relies primarily on $1,163 in monthly Social Security payments. “If it’s not marked down, I just don’t eat it. I haven’t eaten beef since I don’t know when. I can’t afford it.”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/14/business/social-security-buying-power-inflation/index.html