For the Mary Clara-Cantillo family, staying home during the coronavirus epidemic increased her monthly expenses, which the family would not have predicted.
Clara-Cantillo, a patient educator with a pharmaceutical company in New York who always worked from home, said her usual routine skyrocketing utility bill, with dozens of more meals to cook for her three children and extra childcare costs, has moved on.
“Since March, our gas and electric bills have really gone up … because every computer is on, every television is on, all the lights are on and the kids are chasing to turn off the lights,” he said.
About half of American workers recently entered their seventh month of working from home due to a coronavirus epidemic. As of June, 9% of American workers were working from home, while 5% of workers were reporting working individually, according to Stanford University.
“The cost of working from home fluctuates,” Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom told NBC News. “Of course, you have to pay more water and you have to pay more electricity … on the other hand, you have saved a lot of money on that trip.”
NBC News’ social newsgathering team spoke to many Americans, including working parents, who said they didn’t know if the savings on travel expenses were enough to cover the rising costs of their utility consumption. Some have had to find extra work to pay their bills, while others have had significant reductions in other areas of their budget.
Clara-Cantillo said her utilities have increased by about ડ 300 this summer, plus she has decided to enroll her six-year-old daughter in a half-week parochial school for a year at a cost of 6 670 a month so she can do some of her remote work routines. Keep up
“I’m lucky that I can pay, but it comes out of the extra savings you can maintain,” he said.
In September, a family in Norwood, Virginia, received an electricity bill of 600 600. Meanwhile, the family, residents of Norfolk, Virginia, saw their most recent water bill as $ 185 – usually $ 65 per month. Immediately after the 600 electric bill, Norwoods put their mortgage into tolerance for three months because they could not meet the monthly expenses.
“It’s been a struggle,” Norwood said. “We have to make some provisions with the electric company to spread the 600 600 bill over the next 12 months, because we definitely don’t have a 600 budget for that.”
Norwood, a mother of three who works as a human resource assistant, blames a spike in her family’s electricity bill for running three computers and a television all day, as well as for her children to open the refrigerator – sometimes mistakenly leaving the door open. Hours without her understanding.
Tiffany Hall Hall, who lives alone in Birmingham, Alabama, said her electricity bill has risen to $ 140 while working from home. Before the epidemic, it was between $ 70 and $ 90. Her water bill has also doubled from her usual $ 27. Most recently, his water bill was about ડ 57.
“At the end of April, I was like,‘ What’s going on? ’” Said Hall Hall Le, a Social Security Administration benefit officer. “I didn’t think about it at first, and then I was like, ‘Oh, that’s because I’m home using energy and water all day.’
She recently got another job as a caretaker, working 20 to 30 hours a week outside her home and using some of that extra income to help cover the extra utility bill.
U.S. According to the Energy Information Administration’s short-term Energy Reza Winter Outlook, homes are unlikely to be comfortable this winter, with electricity consumption expected to increase by about a percent. In these homes, those who use electricity for heating are expected to see an increase of electricity per cent this winter – on an average electricity bill of 1,209 electricity bills. The agency defines winter asons from October to March.
The report said that the increase in residential power consumption this winter is due to EIA forecasts, colder expected temperatures and changes in consumption as a result of efforts to curb the spread of COVID-1 of.
When Levi Bethune’s spouse divorced due to the epidemic, their household income was halved. Chicago-based Bethune tech startup works on Geobit. The company specializes in GPS location for parents to monitor their children’s location, but many children saw a decline in sales by remote learning, cutting salaries for Bethune and other employees.
“Our family suddenly had a two-income home and four children suddenly went to an income away from school, as well as adults working at home and four children trying to get home from school,” Bethune said. “And that was the thing of the night.”
Bethune said that before the epidemic, it was a “dream” for him and his partner to work from home.
“Now that we’re really doing it … it’s not everything we think it will be,” he said. “A lot of them come down for extra costs that we just haven’t seen.”
34, for the lever of Jessica-An, due to a sudden shift in remote learning, she left NYU. She was forced to quit her long-standing job as a medical assistant at Langone Medical Center to support her son’s first-class distance education.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do.” “Grocery alone kills,” she said, adding that more than $ 400 a month has been raised during the epidemic.
She said she and her husband, who works as a sanitation worker in New York City, are moving out of Brooklyn and looking for homes in Pennsylvania in hopes of reducing life costs.
In March, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 provided free school lunches for meals missed due to epidemic-related school closures. .
While both Lever and Clara-Cantillo received the P-EBT standpend, they said their grocery bills are still much higher than normal.
Meanwhile, coronavirus relief from Congress has led to uncertainty, with President Donald Trump announcing that negotiations will be off the table after the Nov. 3 election. However, he urged Congress to approve a new round of $ 1,200 stimulus investigations.
Norwood said his family is not counting the second phase of the stimulus test, but said it would make a difference if Americans recaptured them.
“It’s not a lot of money, but it will be enough to catch our bill, manage the car a little, manage the house and rebuild our emergency fund.” “If we’re lucky.”
