Dallas, USA – Melinda, a teacher at Dallas High School, has an easy way to predict whether or not a student will have a good day.
“If they show up and have breakfast, it’s a really good day,” said Melinda, who has worked as a Texas teacher for 13 years. Her students showed up to Fred and added, “It’s rarer than you think.”
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To help, Melinda spent about $45 a week on breakfast items and snacks last year. Such practices are common among our teachers, but she asked Al Jazeera not to use her real name. However, rising prices on groceries and school supplies could force her, especially since teachers in Texas are not keeping up to inflation.
When Melinda went to the store in late August, the same item cost $56 a week. That means that during the school year she was able to spend another $400 on the food her students rely on.
“I’m trying to figure out how to keep it on a budget. The price is just crazy and I like to keep it in (where it’s available to all students), so people aren’t chosen.”
Melinda’s concerns are just an example of a wider problem brewing in the US. After US President Donald Trump issues tariff onslaught in countries around the world, Americans are watching prices creep into their lives. The rising costs of groceries, bills, rent and essential baby items are creating new burdens for people across the country, with millions of people doing multiple jobs.
Pinch pennies
Tariffs are the rates importers have to pay to import goods, and some economists have pointed out that it takes time for us to take the full brunt of Trump’s tariffs.
That’s a bit less comfortable for Katie Bentre, a 37-year-old Long Island resident who oversees salary, finances and HR for her stepfather’s auto repair company. Her husband is the CEO of the company and together they are about to start a car rental service. The rising prices of grocery, especially the costs of fruit, eggs and milk, have been annoyed by families, Bentre told Al Jazeera, but the automotive business has been hit harder.
“We’ve had the worst two months in the last eight years,” she said in early September. To pinch the penny, the customer said they would either reduce the amount they spent or delay repairs completely. Meanwhile, Ventres has raised prices in an attempt to offset the costs of imported goods.
“We’re not the only ones,” Ventre added. “We have a towing company where we work. It’s seeing slowdown…and our vendors are all dealing with (customer duties) in their own way. Some are increasing prices.
Other companies aren’t waiting. Think Tank Groundwork Collaborative is tracking revenue calls, detailing that C-Suite executives have made about price increases, and a new report detailing that some companies are using tariffs as cover to raise prices.
“The indirect effect of tariffs is to give steel producers and factories and other manufacturers a significant cover to price increases in some cases,” Aaron Jagdfeld, CEO of power generation product company Generac Power Systems, said in a revenue call this summer.
Some of the people who raised prices include Fortune Brand Innovations Inc, a security and digital product company, Rocky Brands, and Hanesbrand from Appelel Company.
Russell Diez-Canseco, president and CEO of Vital Farms, said more succinctly in his recent appeal to investors.
Elsewhere, major brand names such as Walmart and household goods Titan Procter & Gamble have increased prices and are attributing the cost of tariffs. Several studies show that such an increase is already affecting the wallets of customers.
In a July 3 survey, nearly half of voters interviewed spoke basic cooperation and data on progress that Trump’s tariffs have negative impacts on their monthly finances, with only 16% saying they report a positive impact.
School season has exacerbated these issues. This is because everything from shoes to simple items like pencils has risen.
Saladic Carlos Economist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told a local television station. “If you look at a pencil, for example, you can see that wooden pencils are imported from Brazil. That’s where prices are expected to rise.”
Canary in the coal mine
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Economic Think Tank Groundwork collaboration, told Al Jazeera that in the fall of 2025, he will provide an even stronger picture of how tariffs are affecting the US economy.
“We’ve long been expecting some of the big priced hits to fall,” Owens said.
“Between school is like a canary in a coal mine, but we expect the prices to be high for Halloween items, costumes, etc., something that comes from China. Some of these effects are expected to flow over Christmas, whether they have toys or supply chain issues.”
Owens says price rises and cost of living have been the best economic issues for Americans since 2021. Now, tariffs have an even greater impact on what Americans buy, where they buy them, and in some cases jobs they work or pursue.
Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that nearly 8.8 million Americans work multiple jobs.
Kay Alexander, 30, of Austin, is one of the Americans who work in multiple jobs.
Alexander lost his job in the tech industry in the early 2025 round of layoffs. He cut his food spending significantly and began searching for cheap apartments that proved to be nearly impossible in Austin.
“Prices will skyrocket within a few months without notice,” he said.
Shortly after the layoff, he noticed “daily necessities” such as the more expensive groceries. BLS data shows that grocery costs have risen by 29% since February 2020, but another study shows prices have risen by almost 3% since this period last year.
Alexander and his partner cut out snack food and chose the cheapest possible option of items like eggs and milk, but they weren’t that cheap yet. He added, “You can taste the difference.”
“It definitely changed the way we shop and the way we eat,” he said of the tariffs. Even now, he finds part-time jobs and feels more comfortable eating and going to the bar, so he says he’s still focused on saving “as much money as possible.”
“It’s hard to put the trauma of unemployment in words right now when you know that one job might need to be replaced with the other two,” he said. “So I’m trying to save everything I can to avoid that feeling.”
He’s got used to buying low-quality groceries, but now he feels like his quality of life is getting worse. For example, he has grown to prefer one of his part-time jobs to project management work in the technology industry. But he feels he’s been pulled back into the unstable technical department if he just pays his higher bill.
“I really have to understand. I’ll go to work and be able to keep up with the bill, he said.
“Food is discretionary.”
Isabelle Dennis, 31, of Austin, Texas, agrees.
She was involved in social media marketing until the layoffs in late 2024, and in certain months she could have up to six side gigs to keep up to rent and other bills.
When she was interviewed for this story, she was selling clothes in an online marketplace location. He worked as a theatre stage and cut and stamped craft ice cubes for a cocktail bar. Soon after that, she picked up yet another job: Bail Bond Runner.
“I enjoy being not in front of the screen, and I actually get to meet people face to face and move my whole body, but I need three jobs to survive,” she said, adding that all of her friends have multiple jobs.
“It’s expensive to go outside,” she said. “The second one going outside is like, ‘It’s going to be $20.’ ”
That is, she is always considering eligibility as a discretionary expense.
“At this point, food was discretionary and she said, ‘Yeah, I’m sick, $42 disposable income. What are you going to do with 42 bones?” “I’m worried that the worst is coming.”
“I work so much that I don’t have enough time to focus on how absurd it is to me that I work so badly.
