{{product.name}}
🛑 29 YEARS OLD, WORKING FULL-TIME IN MILAN. YESTERDAY EVENING I CRIED OVER A €48 PURCHASE 💳 My name is Hannah Roberts. I’m 29 years old, and I work full-time in an office here in Milan. People think life in Milan is all about going to cafés, having aperitivo, meeting new people, and enjoying the beautiful city life. But my reality was completely different: waking up in a small, cold apartment on the outskirts of Milan, taking a long metro ride to work, and staring at my banking app on payday, trying to figure out how I was going to make it through another month. When you take home around €1,500 and €900 of it goes toward rent, you’re not living. You’re just surviving. Add a transit pass, groceries, utilities, and a phone bill, and there was almost nothing left from my salary at the beginning of the month. To cover unexpected expenses, I used my credit card. Eventually, my debt grew to €4,500. Even the minimum monthly payments started to suffocate me. But what breaks you the most is the isolation. Two weeks ago, my best friend celebrated her 30th birthday at a restaurant. I lied and said I was sick. The truth was that I couldn’t afford to spend €40 on dinner, and I was too embarrassed to admit it. I stayed home, ate the cheapest pasta I could find, and felt like a complete failure. The final breaking point came last Tuesday at a store. I went in to buy toothpaste, shampoo, hygiene products, and a few other necessities. The total came to €48. I tapped my bank card on the terminal. Declined. I tried my credit card. Declined. There was a line behind me. People started shifting impatiently from foot to foot and sighing. The cashier looked at me with pity. My face was burning with embarrassment. I muttered, “I forgot my other card,” left the purchases at the register, and practically ran outside. I sat on a bench near the bus stop and opened my banking app. There was exactly €32 left in my account. “I work 40 hours a week. How did it get to the point
