How rising costs are pushing Chicago-area residents to the brink

NBC 5 Responds How rising costs are pushing Chicago-area residents to the brink Getting creative in scraping together money is becoming more common, and NBC 5 Responds asked how you’re getting by in our Affording America Survey By PJ Randhawa and Leigh Lesniak • Published November 9, 2026 • Updated on November 9, 2026 at 12:47 pm With costs soaring, Americans are having to get creative to afford every day essentials, and NBC 5 Responds learned more about their experiences in an unscientific survey of more than 1,200 Chicagoans. One of those respondents is registered nurse Kammi Fox-Kay. Showing the NBC 5 Responds team around her garden, she explained all the hacks she’s picked up over the past two years in order to help make ends meet. Stream NBC 5 for free, 24/7, wherever you are. WATCH HERE Her expertise for cultivating flowers and vegetables blossomed while working at a gardening center in Chesterton. It’s one of the side hustles for Fox-Kay, who works in the oncology field and has been a nurse for 38 years. “I mean I make a decent living, but it still makes it hard for me to make ends meet,” Fox-Kay explained from her kitchen table while sitting down with NBC 5 Responds reporter PJ Randhawa. Another side job took the oncology nurse to an orchard in Hobart. “That was $12 an hour. You can get your donuts there. They got me cheaper, let's say, than you can buy a dozen donuts," she said. All this hustling comes outside of her full-time nursing job to pay for the essentials. Fox-Kay said she realized it was time to pick up part-time side work when her NIPSCO bills kept increasing. In the last two years, regulators have approved NIPSCO rate increases, which the company anticipated would raise the average residential customer’s bill by roughly 28%. Local Evanston 46 minutes ago Suburban 17-year-old killed in tragic Deerfield crash: Coroner NBC 5 Investigates 2 hours ago Chinese espionage scandal raises questions for Illinois universities and Nvidia Fox-Kay is far from alone in those struggles to make ends meet, and she was one of more than 1,200 people who took our NBC 5 Responds unscientific survey about affordability in greater Chicagoland. The results showed: -Nearly 68% of Chicagoland respondents said they’ve limited use of utilities because of cost. -About 34% said they’re just getting by financially. -Nearly 40% said groceries are their biggest expense. -Just over 10% of respondents said they’ve used a food pantry. Food pantries may be underutilized by people who took our survey, but the demand for free services has tripled in the past year at the Friendship Center Food Pantry in Lincoln Square. Nadia Jimenez, the executive director, told NBC 5 Responds the pantry is stocked with resources for the whole family including babies and pets. “It's also just unbelievable to me to see professionals even coming in," she said. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana says they’re also experiencing unprecedented demand. Kammi Fox-Kay says she visited the pantry several times in recent months when she was out of work to care for a family member. In the past, she’s donated items to the pantry. And she plans to once again pay it forward when she can. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana and The Greater Chicago Food Depository have programs and locations available all over Chicagoland. This article tagged under: NBC 5 Responds