It is understood that a relationship is a difficult and complicated thing even without absorbing the wave of price increases of the past year, but for Karin and Asaf from the center, parents of two small children, it was a kind of death sentence for a marriage that lasted more than a decade.
"Obviously we had difficulties long before," says Karin, "but the economic pressure cooker of the last period simply made the situation between us unbearable, and in the end was also what accelerated our inevitable separation."
How is this expressed?
"Since time immemorial, we have had difficulty managing a household financially. We are both employees who earn a relatively low salary. Barely 20,000 shekels together for a couple with a mortgage and two children - this is absolutely nothing in our country. Only our mortgage has become more expensive by 1,000 shekels in less than a year. There is a lot of pressure at home Bring in more money, and it just seeped into our relationship.
"We had to cancel vacations - because there is no money, we stopped going out to restaurants and movies - which was our quality time together, and we were constantly in a pressure cooker of how to bring in more money. The situation just kept getting worse, until we realized that it was better to break up the package before it really turned out to be much worse More".
The cuckolds might raise an eyebrow and say that because of a few hundred shekels a month they don't dissolve marriages - but for Karin and Asaf, the classic cliché of "when poverty knocks on the door, love escapes through the window" became a painful reality.
She is the one to determine, the Chief Rabbinate building, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
"I'm sure and I know that there are many couples like us, that because of the constant economic pressure in this country, their marriage is damaged, and they pay a very painful price - which may also lead to divorce in the end. It's very sad."
"We don't have money for private lessons"
One of the horror scenarios of every parent of children in school, is the situation in which they will have to rob their children of the possibility of receiving reinforcement - especially for children who are struggling.
This is exactly the story of Maayan Petach Tikva, a mother of three small children, whose cost of living that overwhelmed us last year forced her to stop the help her son receives outside of school hours.
"I have three children. My oldest is 10 years old, in the 5th grade, and at a young age he was diagnosed with ADHD, which means he needs help with his studies all the time - otherwise he gets lost," she reveals.
"I always managed to get him two private tutors, for math and English, and another meeting with a nanny who helps him once every two weeks. What happened in the last year is that the payments and the cost became so great - that we simply had to stop it at once, despite the heavy price the child pays.
"Both my husband and I are having trouble making ends meet. We have the necessary expenses, and right now tutoring for the child - and I say this with great sadness - is a kind of luxury that we cannot afford. It is a few thousand more shekels a month, and right now there is no possibility. , photo: GettyImages
"It's a shame that my child is paying the price, but right now we really have no choice. Life in this country has become so expensive that you meet it everywhere. The state and the government must wake up, because the middle class here is on the way to collapse."
"You pay a physical and mental price"
When every visit to the supermarket tears our pockets and the mortgage keeps getting more expensive, spending on unnecessary things are the first to fly out the window - even if it's sports and health.
For 45-year-old Rosie, who has struggled with her excess weight all her life, the cost of living is one of the sad reasons why her health has deteriorated, to the point of considerable weight gain.
"It's very simple," she insists, "I don't have the money to continue my subscription to the country club and pay a private trainer. These are luxuries, and I can't afford them when everything around me is so expensive. I'm a mother of four children, and I first concentrate on feeding them the table and make sure they have something to wear."
Is the situation that serious?
"Unequivocally. In the last year, since I stopped exercising, I gained ten kilos - which is very bad, both physically and for my mental feeling. I can't afford to spend a few hundred shekels a month on Country, where I had lots of sports classes and was active all the time Not to mention a personal trainer, which I had in the past - there's no way I'll be able to stand up to that.
"Once everything around you is expensive, you can't afford to splurge on things that aren't 'must', and it became a kind of luxury - so I gave up. Healthy food also costs a lot of money, which is also a factor.
"I know I pay a price for my health, but I really don't have anywhere to pay, and as a result I neglect myself. It's so sad that even when hard workers in this country have to literally survive by the teeth. There is also a layer here that is not high-tech and managers who do not count small expenses. I wish Someone pick up this glove already, because this cost of living is just crushing us."
"I fell into depression"
Usually, those who are in the headlines when it comes to the never-ending tsunami of rising prices are families with children - but the single community also pays a heavy price, precisely in areas they never thought about.
One of them is 31-year-old Dotan, a single guy from intelligence, whose fact that he is barely able to stabilize himself financially forced him to give up hobbies and pastimes, which directly led to the deterioration of his mental state.
"There will be those who will laugh, I'm sure," he hastens to apologize, "but I see a line connecting the fact that it's expensive here and that my mental state has simply gotten worse lately."
Detail and explanation.
"Unlike many of my friends who are high-tech, I work in art and earn a very low salary, which barely allows me to rent an apartment and own a car. In order to reduce expenses, I had to give up spending time with friends, the weekly poker games we used to play for years, and even dates With girls - because I simply have no where to get money.
"I was being treated by a psychologist once a week, and I stopped that as well. All of this led me to a kind of real depression. There is an unimaginable gap between what you see in Tel Aviv and in Benghazi, where everyone hangs out and flies, and the reality of someone like me, who does not have Help from the parents and he has no way to bring money.
So it is understood that entertainment is the first thing that comes off the agenda.
I don't see much hope of sustaining a life in this country at this rate.
It's a shame and sad to say it, but things just have to change."
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