Living on $25,000: ALICEs who live paycheck to paycheck explain how they scrape together enough food to get by

Many households living paycheck to paycheck have to rely on thinly-stretched grocery budgets, food pantries, or employer meal discounts for food.

• Many low-income Americans can't afford groceries despite working full-time jobs.
• Some families rely on food pantries and alternate income sources to get by.
• SNAP benefits are based on the federal poverty threshold, leaving ALICE households without help. 

The discounted employee meal that Cherie Tobias gets at Applebee's is usually the only time she can eat every day.

A resident of Hastings, Michigan, the 48-year-old does her best to make ends meet on her full-time server salary of $25,064 a year. She's the main household income earner for her 19-year-old and her fiancé.

Tobias previously told Business Insider that she hasn't been grocery shopping in over a year because she can't afford it. Typically, she has to rely on Applebee's or the few stand-alone ingredients she occasionally gets at the store to eat. Even then, Tobias said she often is limited to one meal a day.

"I don't want to be rich," she said. "I just want to be able to get by comfortably without the stress. That would be my wish: being able to open the cupboard and know that there's food there for the day."

Tobias is one of over 40 million Americans who are food insecure. She's also what economists call ALICE — asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed. At least 29% of US households live paycheck to paycheck but have an income that is too high for most government assistance, per Census Bureau data and cost-of-living estimates analyzed by the nonprofit United Way. This compares to 13% of Americans who live at or below the federal poverty line, which is $31,200 for a family of four.

Many ALICEs, like Tobias, are also out of reach of America's financial safety nets. SNAP benefits or food stamps, for example, base criteria on the federal poverty threshold, which is not adjusted based on location or cost of living. A family of four must make less than $39,000 to qualify and then would receive a maximum allotment of $973 a month for food.

However, this criteria leaves low-income households who don't qualify relying on thinly stretched grocery budgets, food pantries, or employer meal discounts. Many ALICEs worry their family will go hungry, but they're running out of options to put food on the table.

Tobias said she's tried applying for SNAP — she just needs "a little bit of help with food." But her fiancé receives disability checks and her son is no longer a minor, so she might only receive $18 a month worth of assistance.

"That's not helpful," she said.

Many ALICE families face a 'scary' level of food security

Melinda Binkley, 56, shared a similar experience. The Stillwater, Minnesota, resident previously told BI her household income is usually less than $100 too high to qualify for programs like SNAP. She is sometimes able to buy basic and perishable goods like bread, milk, and fruit from the grocery store but often relies on her local food pantry.

Still, Binkley said she had more food pantry options during the pandemic when "everybody was having issues." Lately, she said there are more limits on how often she can visit pantries and how many canned goods she can take, even if she needs the food. She has even considered traveling to multiple pantries to ensure she can feed herself and her husband.

Right now, she describes her level of food security as "scary."

"It'll be interesting to see our food situation here in the near future," Binkley said.

Food banks and pantries across the US saw a major rise in demand as millions of Americans experienced financial hardship during the pandemic. And, when emergency SNAP ended in February 2023, millions of families were left without benefits or had their allotments drastically cut. Some local banks and pantries have also reported budget challenges and a decline in donations in recent years.

With limited options, ALICEs have sold plasma and filed for unemployment to afford food

Some ALICEs told BI that they've had to scrape together additional incomes to eat.

With a tight budget and no SNAP support, Cincinnati resident Lisa Kelley, 47, told BI she has started selling her plasma in order to afford food, rent, and utilities for herself and her mother. It takes a toll on her body, but Kelley said she can earn between $65 and $125 each time she donates.

Kelley also said she doesn't live near many food pantries and has to drive long distances to reach a grocery store or Walmart. Her budget is limited when she can shop, even with her extra plasma income.

"It's been rough," she said. "We have to make that stretch as much as possible, and the quality of the food is not the same. We have to get cheaper things and less meat and vegetables."

Melissa Hedden, a 41-year-old living in Wilmington, North Carolina, said she made the decision to quit her job during COVID because her children needed care and support with online school. At the time, she realized she could earn a higher income through filing for pandemic reemployment assistance. Documents reviewed by BI show she took home $15,901 in 2020.

The reemployment money — which she received from summer 2020 to summer 2021 — gave her whole family the extra funds they needed to afford expenses and buy nutritious food. Hedden herself said she felt physically and mentally healthier, was able to better support her family, and she even went back to school.

"I lost over 80 pounds, I went from a pre-diabetic to completely healthy because I was able to change my eating habits," she said. "I didn't have to buy so many processed foods."

But, since Hedden stopped receiving the checks, she said it's become difficult for her to maintain her health in the same way. In addition to facing housing insecurity, she worries about affording groceries again.

She has tried to qualify for SNAP in the past, but isn't currently enrolled. Her household income is now considered too high because her teenage son works a part-time job.

"I went from being approved for $600 a month on food stamps, to 'Oh wait, your son is 17, he makes money, so we're counting that against you,"' she said. "And I'm not taking his money from him."

Do you live paycheck to paycheck? Are you open to sharing how you afford food, housing, and other expenses? If so, reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.