“We weren’t millionaires by any means, but we were doing fine. COVID hit and my life changed,” shares Sara.
Prior to the pandemic, Sara worked as a bartender four nights a week. She made a good living and was able to pay all her bills and build up her savings. Bartending gave her the flexibility to homeschool her eleven-year old son and also worked well with shared care-giving with her son’s father.
During the first shut-down of restaurants, Sara received unemployment and used some of her savings to help cover bills. “I felt a little uneasy moving through my savings so quickly, but then everyone thought it would be over soon,” she shares.
As restaurants began opening up, Sara was able to go back to work, but it was not the same. She says, “At 25% capacity and with all the new mandates, it felt like we were working just as hard, if not harder, but we weren’t making the same as what we had before. People were unsure about going out and when they were, many were not tipping in the same way they used to. I was hoping to put money back into savings, but was really only breaking even.”
Then there was a second shutdown of restaurants. The amount Sara received from unemployment was not even close to what she had been making and she went through the rest of her savings. “By December, my economic situation had gotten extremely rocky, and there was no end in sight,” she says.
She considered supplementing her income with gig work while she looked for alternate work, but childcare was an issue and she didn’t want to bring her son with her. She remembered that when she had called 211 several years ago for referrals for dental work, they had asked her about rental assistance.
Never having needed rent assistance previously, Sara didn’t know where to turn, so she called 211 again and was referred to MSC. She filled out an online application for rent assistance and was able to get the help she needed to stay current on her rent payments. She also learned about other ways MSC could potentially help her during this time, such as energy assistance.
“I understand the need to keep people safe, but unfortunately, that causes instability for those of us working in the restaurant industry. Bartending was lucrative for me, but that’s not an industry I can rely on now when I have so many other responsibilities. I have a kid and he wants to eat every day,” says Sara.
Sara started a new position in early January in the commercial food distribution industry. While she is making less, she feels comfortable knowing that her employment won’t be affected by any further shut-downs. She’s hoping to supplement her income with occasional bartending work.
“One thing I learned while going through this is I can live on less. It is really easy to spend money when you have it. Even though I wasn’t super frivolous, I wish I would have saved more money up even though what I had got us through almost a year,” shares Sara. “I didn’t realize how quick things could change.”
