By DELILAH GUTIERREZ
Staff Writer
As we are nearing the end of October, we are entering our eighth month of quarantine. Everyone had to change their routines and quickly adapt to the sudden change. Over these seven months, the population has been forced to stay home. Positive and negative effects have impacted their lives.
People have had to change their budgets due to the increase in monthly expenses. Due to many people working at home, their utility bills have skyrocketed. A woman named Marie Clara-Cantillo has said that her routine has been up-ended due to her increased utility bills, dozens more meals to cook for her three children, and child care costs. Every computer in her home is on, including the television and all of the lights, which is driving the electricity bill higher.
Although people are having to pay more in monthly expenses, they are saving money on the daily commute to work. Since people are working from home, they no longer have to pay for gas or the subway in order to get to work. However, the savings on commuting expenses is not enough to cover the rising utility costs. People have resorted to getting another job or extra work to pay their new monthly expenses; some have made significant cuts to other areas of their budget. A family in Norfolk, Virginia had to put their mortgage into forbearance for three months because they couldn’t afford the monthly expense.
No one knows how long this quarantine is going to last, but hopefully it ends soon. Once quarantine ends, everyone can go back to their old routines and we’ll look back upon the time when we were miserable being stuck at home.