Every spending decision Sandy and Peter Ouellette make these days weighs on their minds, even making the 20-mile drive from their Pittston, Pennsylvania, home to visit Sandy’s daughter.
“My daughter and her husband live in Harveys Lake, and she is into Pilates, and she said, ‘Mommy, why don’t you join me on Fridays for Pilates?’ I was going to go last Friday, but I wasn’t really feeling it, and my husband said, ‘You know, if you drive to Harveys Lake and back, that’s probably $10 worth of gas,’” Sandy recalled.
“How sad is that? I can’t even go and visit my daughter. Dollar signs, dollar signs, dollar signs everywhere,” she said.
For voters across Northeastern Pennsylvania, everyday expenses, from the pump to the pantry, have transformed into the primary benchmark for political accountability. In the November midterm election, voters will decide key federal contests, including the 8th Congressional District race between Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. and Democratic challenger and current Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, alongside the 9th District contest featuring Republican Rep. Dan Meuser and Democrat Rachel Wallace.
According to recent newsroom polling, affordability and the cost of living stands as the top issue driving residents to the polls, leaving candidates scrambling to demonstrate how their economic platforms will deliver immediate relief to fixed-income retirees and working families.
AAA reported the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.82 on Jan. 1. It shot up to $4.02 per gallon within a month of Israel and the United States launching attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 and Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz — a major shipping lane for oil from the Mideast. The price reached $4.40 per gallon on Friday — a 56% increase since Jan. 1.
Sandy, a retired teacher, and her husband, Peter, a retired engineer who at age 72 works part-time at a wine and liquor store to help make ends meet, are among a handful of readers who responded to a published invitation to speak about how affordability is affecting them and their vote, if at all.
“We both feel that any time we’re spending money, we contemplate it pretty deeply. I mean, it’s one of the main things that I think about a lot because our cars are old and they don’t get great gas mileage, but we can’t afford to go out and get something new,” Peter said.
This past summer when temperatures climbed into the 90s, Sandy said, she was hesitant to run their two small air conditioners.
“But, boy, I’m telling you, when it’s 94 degrees and the low temperature at night might be 80, you have to do that, so the electricity bill is a little higher than usual. And now, I’m worried about the winter. I could keep the thermostat at 65, but I also have arthritis, and keeping the house that cool isn’t a good idea,” she said.
Making sacrifices
But, the Ouellettes are tightening their belts as best they can.
“We don’t go out to restaurants. We don’t have takeout or delivery as much as I would like,” Sandy said. “We’re doing what we have to do and we’ll cut corners. I haven’t shopped for clothing in five years, and when I do, it’s at the Goodwill. And you know what? They have some nice stuff there, and it’s better for the environment because all that stuff doesn’t end up in the dump.”
Sandy admits she does splurge on one thing — her pets.
“I have a couple of cats, and I have an almost 19-year-old dog. They are the joy of my life, and I don’t know if I’d be around without them, because they kind of mollify me when I’m in one of my moods. I try to be a positive person, but I’m feeling defeated by the economy,” she said.
Peter thinks a lot of people are feeling the same way when they’re “standing over the meat cooler” in a grocery store.
“Looking at the prices of food, nothing is going down. There’s been some relief with eggs, but that has more to do with getting a handle on the avian flu virus,” Peter said.
In August, Sandy said, she responded to a knock on her door.
“The gentleman standing on my porch said he was there because I’m the only one in the neighborhood who talks to him. He told me that his wife was waiting for a check which hadn’t arrived all week and that there’s nothing in his refrigerator. He’s unemployed due to health issues,” Sandy said.
“I would have been suspect if he asked for money, but he asked for food. He has two daughters, a teen and an 8-year-old. I gave him what I could. The next day, my husband slipped two $20 bills under his door,” she said.
Working into retirement
Peter never thought he’d have to work a part-time job after retiring, but Sandy went through much of her retirement savings paying off a mortgage, and he lost most of his to a former spouse.
People might think a retired teacher and her retired engineer husband would have good savings to rely on, but Peter retired early from building motorcycles after a back injury, and Sandy spent her career at Wyoming Seminary, where teachers make considerably less than public school teachers.
“I taught little Bobby Bresnahan when he was in middle school. And you know, he’s a millionaire. He doesn’t have to screw the common folk out of a decent life,” Sandy said, referring to Bresnahan’s voting record.
She also taught Meuser’s three children, she said.
“He always struck me as being a decent, very intelligent, very successful businessman, and why he’s bowing to Mr. T, I can’t understand,” Sandy said, referring to President Donald Trump.
“You do have to vote because that’s basically the only thing we have left,” Peter said. “We are people who have spoken to our legislators on the local level through the federal level, and you feel like anything you say just falls on deaf ears.”
Tariffs and a war
James Bosha, like the Ouellettes, also is retired and points to political decisions he believes are making it hard for him to afford the basic necessities.
“The tariff wars have to stop. That is the most antiquated solution to a trade deficit. I mean, that was debunked in the 1800s as a solution, and that drives the cost of everything up,” Bosha, 68, of Scranton, said.
“Yesterday, I made my weekly run to the grocery store — $168 and change netted me about three bags of food, and those bag didn’t even qualify as heavy. And that’s just me. Having been a young parent of three at one time myself, my heart aches to imagine the strain of trying to feed even a middle-class family right now,” Bosha said.
Although Trump campaigned on lowering food costs when running for his second term, grocery store prices rose by 2.3% in 2025 compared to a 1.2% increase in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
So far this year, the cost of many food staples continue to rise, with whole milk up 13 cents per gallon (3.2%); ground beef up 17 cents per pound (2.5%); boneless chicken breast up 20 cents per pound (5%); and cheddar cheese up 28 cents per pound (4.9%), according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Some prices have fallen, with bread down 2 cents a loaf (1.1%) and eggs down $2.68 per dozen (54%).
Bosha said government officials “whose job it is to have a rosy outlook say maybe by 2029 we should be down to 2% in terms of inflation. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m probably going to need to eat before then,” Bosha said.
He intends to vote a straight Democratic ticket in November because the current administration’s policies are making his life harder, and a Republican majority Congress is supporting those policies.
Bosha said tariffs also are driving up the cost of car repairs because parts come from Mexico and Canada, if they’re available at all. And the Iran war is hurting him at the gas pump.
“I live in a walkable neighborhood and count myself fortunate because I typically do rather little driving. Fortunate indeed, because the last time I had to visit the pump, I was astonished to find that my modest little Corolla could carry (nearly $70) in regular gasoline. And I’m pretty confident that the tank hasn’t gotten bigger while I wasn’t looking,” he said.
Utility bills are another headache. He enrolled in UGI’s budget billing program when he received a gas bill for over $600. Even with the program, he’s now paying about $200 per month in the summer, when he would normally be paying about $20.
PPL Electric increased rates four times in the past two years, hiking the cost to residential customers by 31%. UGI Utilities raised its natural gas rates a total of 63.6% over that same time period.
“By the end of each month, my bank account makes a squeaking sound so loud they should be able to hear it in Washington,” Bosha said. “But clearly, this administration’s ears are buried under the ever-growing piles of their own personal profits. But they should listen, and listen hard.”