Single mom, teacher struggling financially

Vanessa Samano is finding out what it's like to raise three children on a single salary in a worsening national economy.

Not easy.

"When I started living on my own with my children, I discovered you cannot survive on a teacher's salary alone," said Samano, a teacher in Brownsville.

While a starting salary of $39,000 a year might sound like a lot, it doesn't stretch as far as it once did - especially when gas was more than $3.50 a gallon and with food prices increasing so fast you can mark the difference in grocery bills between trips to the market.

"The child support," she said. "Without that, there's no way we would make it."

Samano has been divorced for about a year. Part of a close-knit family, she and her children had been living with her grandmother since her grandfather passed away several months ago. Then her grandmother came down with pneumonia and died suddenly in September.

As an illustration of just how expensive things have gotten, Samano said, her mother spent $450 in fuel alone attending to her grandfather's death. Her mom drives a Ford Expedition, so until gas prices plummeted during the past couple of weeks, it cost $80 to $90 to fill the tank.

She herself drives a Nissan Pathfinder and was spending $50 to $55 every time she filled up. That was roughly $20 every two or three days, even if she eliminated unnecessary trips as much as possible.

Samano basically lives from one paycheck to the next, she said. With a monthly payment of $300 on her student loans, an electric bill that averages $500 a month, childcare expenses and now all of the bills on the house, there's not a lot left for gas and groceries, let alone extras and entertainment.

"I always shop at H-E-B, they're the most economical, but it's still $200 every two weeks and that's just the essentials," Samano said. "You've still got to buy milk and juice every couple of days.

"We've cut down a lot on the ‘kid stuff' and we've gone to the cheaper brands," Samano said. "We've also cut down on the good stuff we used to get, the doughnuts ... and of course when there are specials, we go for that.

"I drive a lot less," she added. "I'm not everywhere like I used to be. It's mother's house, to school and back home."

All of which has left her feeling a little left out.

Both of her parents grew up poor, but sacrificed and became teachers. She grew up believing in the certainty that hard work and a good education would pay off in the form of a well-paying job and a higher standard of living.

She graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College with a degree in kinesiology, then became a teacher through alternative certification. She taught in Los Fresnos and Corpus Christi before joining the Brownsville district.

While she loves her job and "wouldn't trade it for the world," she also admits her standard of living has gone down - due both to living on one income and to the crumbling national economy.

"People talk about low-income families struggling," she said. "I graduated at 22 and went to work at 24. When I was married things were OK, we had two incomes."

Things have changed, though.

"Now we've just basically cut down on a lot of things - like shopping, eating out, going to the movies. All of that is just when there's extra money, which is practically never."

Samano tries to manage her money so there's a little left over unforeseen expenses. She has opened the savings account that financial planners recommend to provide a financial cushion. The only trouble is finding the money to save.

"It's hard to tell the kids ‘no,' and I feel bad when it's something they're used to," she said. Like a first-run movie at Sunrise Mall. "For all the family, tickets alone cost $47, for popcorn and drinks its another $25 to $30 - it's just so expensive."

Her father, retired after a 30-year teaching career, is now substitute teaching "because they have to have the extra money as well," Samano said.

"They tell me to ‘keep doing what you're doing,' " she said. "They're very positive with me."

In January, Samano will begin her work on a master's degree in science and math education and plans to go into school administration.

In light of the nation's recent financial turmoil, Samano said, she's all the more sure her decision to pursue an advanced degree was the right one.