Arithmetic -

€35 left in my bank account and a full week before payday, minus €12.50 for powdered milk, €9.75 for diapers, and daycare fees left to pay. My brain feels like it’s running on a Texas Instruments calculator – but this equation is impossible to solve.

At the bookstore where I work, my boss always repeats, “You’re a numbers genius! You never make a mistake at the cash register.” Here at home, though, it’s a different story – it’s total bankruptcy. The daycare bill will have to wait, **but I must find a way to put food on the table**.

Mathéo is growing so fast and flat-out refuses to wear his sister’s old Pokémon sweaters. “Not nice, Mommy.” 18 months old and he is already speaking like a little revolutionary. A friend gave me a tip – she buys her children’s clothes at the Vintage Mo(o)d thrift store run by the Red Cross. I will check it out, apparently, you can find some great deals there.

I need to get new clothes for the season and a pair of shoes – everything times two! What a struggle.
My children are my world, but when you are handling everything alone at the same time, it sometimes feels like you are drowning.

The days seem endless. I’m off to count the sheep on my makeshift bed. They will surely be more plentiful than the cents left in my bank account.

In 2023, one in five residents in Luxembourg was at risk of poverty. For children under 18, that number increased to one in four.

The Red Cross urgently needs your help.

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Episode 3 – Hunger

3

Tous les épisodes

1

Episode 1

Oxygen

After cutting leisure budgets and little extras, the fall continues and seems vertiginous.

2

Episode 2

Arithmetic

My boss keeps telling me: ‘Lucie, you’re good with numbers, you’ll never make a cash register error! Here at home, there’s nothing I can do, I’m bankrupt.

3

Episode 3