I don’t know how anybody is surviving these days.
- There are so many challenges working against us, including our own mental health issues after these past years of chaos.
But on a very practical level, everything has gotten so expensive that I honestly don’t understand how families are managing to scrape by each month. Personally, I am struggling to keep up with my utility bills and pay over price trends. After that, there’s not much money to spare for groceries or other comforts… Such as my extremely expensive heating, cooling, and ventilation system. You see, I live in a two-bedroom apartment with a centralized indoor air quality control system. All of the heating and cooling is managed through a single thermostat and an extensive set of ductwork which circulates the air from the air quality control machinery throughout every room. This has become a problem because the climate has been absolutely ridiculous lately. It seems like it is hotter and more humid everyday. Meanwhile, my central air conditioning system is not especially efficient. I’m the only person in the apartment, and yet I am paying to provide cool air to every nook and cranny. The centralized cooling system costs a lot of money to utilize, but without it the apartment is too hot and stuffy to make do. The solution? Use smaller AC window units to manage individual rooms. This makes me hurt for all of the other people who must be struggling to pay for their energy bills in this oppressive heat. If you had a full family, you would be stuck with a centralized HVAC system to service every room. With inflation raging, a lot of folks probably have to choose lately – AC or groceries?