Mom Cries After Only Having $200 Left After Paying Bills, Gets Criticized For Being Out of Touch

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Dec 2, 2023 3:00 PM EST

Everyone has a different idea of what it means to "live paycheck to paycheck." It drives me crazy when I see posts from people making $200K a year, claiming that they still live paycheck to paycheck after completely filling up their 401Ks and spending $5000 in rent. Most of us think of ourselves as middle class regardless of whether we actually are or not, and it makes sense because the lines between poverty, middle class, and upper class have utterly blurred in the years since the recession.

One mother of two recently went viral on TikTok and Twitter after sharing her financial struggles. After paying all of her bills, she only has $200-$300 leftover. On one hand, that is a scary amount of money to have. If a medical emergency happens, you're going to need more than that. On the other hand, there's a big difference between stretching $200 over a couple of weeks and $50 over that same period of time. This inspired some Twitter discourse that everyone's feeling opinionated about.