A mum has gone viral after she outlined her financial struggles as a mother-of-two.
Mackenzie, who goes by the username @mackmoan1988 on TikTok, took to the platform earlier this month in floods of tears.
In a clip, captioned ‘Normal people are struggling. Something has to change’, the American woman spoke at length about how her wage wasn’t getting her very far. Have a listen:
She opened the candid conversation by describing her and her partner’s current career situation.
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“I feel like my husband and are doing everything right. We both have good jobs," she said.
“I’m a nurse - a registered nurse, I work full time. He works full time.”
She explained that after getting paid, the pair put their wages towards the mortgage, bought groceries, and put petrol in their car.
However, after forking out for essentials, Mackenzie claimed that the family of four only had $200-$300 to last them until the following week.
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She explained: “I don’t know what to do. I’m in school full time, I work full time, he works overtime every week.”
After stating she was ‘so stressed out’ with her finances, the nurse claimed that ‘this wasn’t how it was supposed to be’ for her family.
“We don’t live above our means. I don’t know what [living] less than paycheck to paycheck is. Poverty?”
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Mackenzie said that in school she believed her financial situation would improve once she started working.
However, she admitted that if her children want to ‘go to the movies’ she has to ‘check her bank account’.
“I know there’s been a lot of videos on TikTok talking about the economy and how out of control prices are right now.
“We’re all talking about it. But I feel like none of the people who talk about it - because we live it - have any influence or power or anything to change things.”
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The mum-of-two pressed on and said that she wasn’t interested in politics, and didn’t want to get into an argument about Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
“It’s not about that,” she explained. “Maybe it is about that but either way I don’t want to hear about it. I just want to share our struggle and maybe someone else can relate.”
Since posting earlier this month, the Pennsylvanians' video has gone viral and racked up over 19,000 comments.
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One TikTok user wrote: “Overtaxed and underpaid. It’s harder every year to survive financially.”
While a second viewer said: “Together my wife and I make over 200K and the economy is why we decided to put having kids on pause indefinitely.”
And another, who was empathetic to Mackenzie’s situation, said: “I don’t have kids and every time I go to the store I ask myself ‘How do people do it with kids?’”
Someone else questioned: “Why is food so expensive? Nothing else in my budget is exploding that fast.”
In a further update, Mackenzie said that she was ‘blown away’ by the kindness and that she was grateful for people sharing their own struggles with her.
“Everybody is struggling right now,” she added.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can find more information about where to get help from Turn2Us via their website
Ella Scott