They work multiple jobs, donate plasma and use AI for recipe planning: How 6 Utahns are stretching their dollars

In Southwest Utah, where red cliffs meet a high cost of living, some families are finding that their current income no longer guarantees financial security.

St. George News, in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune and other Utah media outlets, recently conducted a survey concerning the financial struggles residents in Southern Utah and other parts of the state are facing.

Responses collected paint a portrait of economic survival in one of Utah’s fastest-growing regions. The following are responses and interviews from individuals and families in Iron and Washington counties.

Soccer in Arizona: the new family Christmas

Nate Barker, a 40-year-old construction supervisor from Toquerville, supports a family of six and said his household has had to make tough decisions — cutting back on sports for his children, relying on coupons, bargain groceries and embracing thrift stores.

“My oldest had an opportunity to play in a soccer showcase in Arizona,” he said. “That was our Christmas. That one event was our entire holiday.”

Barker said his family avoids using the Utah Food Bank out of concern for others in greater need, but they do receive groceries through a local school program. Extended family members chip in when they can, though Barker is quick to acknowledge the shared burden.

He has also taken on side jobs to help fill the gap between paychecks.

“You always find a way,” Barker said. “Even if that means working a second or third or fourth job.”

Barker noted how taxes, electric rates and home insurance premiums continue to climb.

“It’s just nonstop,” he said. “Every utility company does an annual increase. Every year, it gets harder.”

Even though his family qualified for a sweat-equity program to build their own home, the ongoing costs of ownership weigh heavily on them.

“It’s not any single issue,” he added. “But something needs to be done. There’s not really a great answer for that.”

Despite the pressures, Barker said his family doesn’t plan on going anywhere.

“We’re not planning to leave,” he said. “We love it here, the area, the people. We’ll find a way.”

Work in Provo, home for the weekends

Parowan resident Spencer Kohler has spent the past 20 years working in education, primarily higher education. His current position is with an institution in Provo.

“What I do is I travel up there, and I spend the week with my mom, who lives in Midway,” he said. “And then I come down to be with my family on the weekends in Parowan.”

“I’ve been doing that for almost a year now. It’s kind of hard,” Kohler said, adding that he and his wife still have teenagers living at home.

“But I don’t think I’m alone in my lifestyle,” he said. “I’ve known people who’ll work in Vegas or they’ll work in California because they get paid better, but then will just be here on the weekends. I have a friend of mine who goes up north (in Utah) to work at a different school district. The cost of driving is a whole lot less than it is to move and relocate.”

Kohler said he’d like to see more companies open to having their employees do more work remotely, even in a hybrid situation.

“I think that could really help out rural Utah,” he said. “There are people that wouldn’t mind, you know, traveling up to a job for two or three days out of the week and then working remotely the other half. It makes it a bit more doable.”

Kohler said he realizes that employers are struggling with many of the same challenges that their workers are facing.

“I think a lot of companies are strained,” he said. “They would love to do more for their employees, but they’re stuck too in many regards.”

A retiree going back to work

Jodie LeCoque, a 60-year-old retiree living in the Cedar City area, said she is going back to work for the summer to help make ends meet.

LeCoque said she and her husband both retired a year and a half ago, although neither has reached full retirement age.

“My husband just turned 63, so we’re currently exclusively living on his early Social Security,” she said. “We’re taking a small amount out of his 401K, so we’re kind of waiting for his pension to kick in at age 65.”

LeCoque says she depleted her own retirement savings to pay for the health care of her elderly mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease and lives at a care center in Cedar City.

“My mom’s care last year was $90,000 out of my retirement,” she said. “We’re still not on Medicaid. I’ve been trying to get her on Medicaid for a year and a half.”

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” she added. “It’s very stressful. It’s like there’s no more money to come in, and because of us being on affordable health care, I can only work a little bit, otherwise we have to pay $31,000 back if I go over a certain amount (of income).”

LeCoque said she agreed to go back to work for her former employer. She’ll spend the summer traveling to Texas and other locations to provide specialized training on X-ray equipment.

“We need the money,” she said. “Our savings account is empty. I don’t know what the answer is here, or for our government, but the prices for stuff are ridiculous.”

LeCoque said she now spends more than double what she used to spend on groceries.

“When I’d go grocery shopping, I’d spend $100 to $150 a week,” she said. “Now, I buy the exact same items, and it’s over $300.”

“We just cannot eat out anymore, which then hurts local businesses,” she added. “We just can’t afford it.”

LeCoque said that on a recent work trip to Dallas, her flight was delayed, and she purchased a baked potato at the airport.

“It was the smallest baked potato you’ve ever seen — for $20!” she said, adding that, thankfully, her employer pays for meals as part of her travel expenses.

On the positive side, LeCoque noted, she and her husband don’t have any outstanding debt on their property or vehicles.

“We are very fortunate that we do not owe money on anything,” she said. “It’s a good feeling when you pay that last house payment. Our house was a 15-year mortgage, and we paid it off early, so we haven’t had that for like, five years now, and that allowed us to pay off everything else. So that’s a positive for people, if they can work it.”

Despite the challenges of the current economic situation, LeCoque said she remains optimistic about the future.

“Things are not really positive right now, except that we do have some money rolling in because I went back to work for the summer,” she said. “But I do know it will get better. It always gets better.”

Single mother, aging parents and special needs children

Another survey respondent was Morgan, a single mother of two children with special needs, ages 13 and 9.

“I can barely work full-time as it is, given their needs,” said Morgan, who requested that her full name not be used.

“And so, I’ve had to move in with my parents and share one bedroom with just me and my two kids,” she said. “I’m kind of like what they call the sandwich generation, where I’m also taking care of my parents and my kids.”

Morgan said she makes too much money to qualify for food stamps, so she finds assistance in other areas.

“I’m going to food banks. I use social media to see if people have any extra food, and obviously, the kids get free or reduced lunch at school,” she said. “Now that school is over, I’ll be utilizing that summer plan for lunches for my kids.”

Morgan shared a few other ways that she stretches her food budget.

“If I get groceries during the week, I get whatever’s on sale,” she said. “I’ve been even using AI with the ads to help me generate meals that are under a certain budget, to try to help me mitigate costs. I have even been looking up old recipes from the Great Depression and what they used to make it go a little bit further.”

Morgan, who is in her mid-30s, said she’d like to return to school and complete her degree in hopes of earning a higher salary.

“Unfortunately, with the economy, even with people that have multiple degrees, they’re still struggling,” she said.

Divorced student getting by

Cedar City resident Josh West is a recently divorced student working part-time while pursuing a psychology degree online.

“I’ve got about a year left, and I plan to go through the master’s program,” West said. “I do want to become a licensed therapist and work with youth. Specifically, I want to help children and teens that are going through hard times and dealing with trauma.”

West hopes his pursuit of a higher education degree will increase his potential earnings.

“Granted, it’s still quite a ways off,” he said. “There’s no quick fix to it, but that is my long-term goal.”

In the meantime, West says he supplements his income by donating blood plasma a few times each month.

“I’ve also been looking for a second job in terms of doing the same kind of work that I’m doing right now,” he said. “It’s really hard to work around the hours, because a lot of places want to do swing shifts or graves, and I’m already working a kind of swing shift, it’s like a mid shift.”

West said he’s hoping to see housing costs become more affordable again.

“It’s sort of leveled off, but it’s still, it’s just ridiculous,” he said. “I used to have a two-bedroom house for $600 a month, and now I’m renting just a bedroom for $400. It’s just crazy.”

West said he’s also made the switch to cheaper phone and car insurance plans.

“These are generally good ideas anyway, but you just have to do more of it,” he said, adding that he has also found himself shopping at dollar and thrift stores more often to find what he needs at the cheapest prices.

“A lot of times, I just find myself foregoing things that I want,” West added. “You know, if I want to go out and do something nice, well maybe I just don’t get to.”

A retiree’s worry for the next generation

At 80 years old, Tim Martin has the kind of retirement many Americans hope for — comfortable housing, substantial savings and a peaceful community. Yet even as he lives in pleasant circumstances, he said his thoughts are on his children and grandchildren, and whether they’ll be able to survive the economic uncertainty.

“I think I worry about it more today than I did a year ago,” Martin said in a recent interview with St. George News. “If one of them loses their job, there’s a higher likelihood I’ll need to help.”

Martin and his wife recently relocated from St. George to a retirement community in Taylorsville. He said the decision was influenced by both personal and economic factors. His former home required too much upkeep and had become more of a burden than a blessing. Deeper than that was a growing realization that St. George had become too expensive for his children or grandchildren.

“We had hopes that our children would come to St. George,” he said. “But none of them could afford the housing or get a good job there. That’s the other dynamic; expensive homes and a lack of industry.”

A lack of industry and upward mobility in the region has long been an issue that local elected officials have struggled with. In recent years, they have sought to diversify the local economy by drawing more manufacturing and technology-based jobs to the county.

Area institutions, like Utah Tech University and Dixie Applied Technology College, offer programs and degrees that, in part, are intended to cater to local employer needs. Despite this, the costs of buying or renting a home, along with the general cost of living, continue to stress and strain families trying to get by.

Two of Martin’s six children have required financial help in recent years. Another two have federal jobs, and with the political climate, he fears their employment could be at risk, too. One grandson lost three tech jobs in two years due to shifts in AI investment.

“We just have a lot of unknowns from the Trump administration and I think it’s a scary time,” Martin said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. … I think the unknown is adding to the turmoil.”

Whether it’s the mounting cost of housing, the burden of inflation or the slow pace of economic diversification, residents are calling out — not for handouts, but for sustainable answers. For many, the choice is no longer between comfort and luxury, but survival, shelter and stability.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.