I stood in the cereal aisle doing maths in my head

Dear Delyara, Two boxes on offer. One more expensive but better value. One cheaper but would run out faster. One child likes this one. One won’t eat that one. Breakfast isn’t optional. Money isn’t comfortable. And there I stood in the supermarket under bright lights feeling absurdly reduced by a decision no one else around me would have known was emotional. That’s what gets me about money strain. Not only the big bills. The small public calculations. The private arithmetic attached to every ordinary thing. The way a woman can be choosing cereal and simultaneously feel her own dignity tightening around the week. I picked one and moved on. The body didn’t quite move on as quickly.