PALM HARBOR, Fla., Aug. 20, 2008
Learning The Value Of A Dollar
CBS Evening News: With Her Family's Home In Foreclosure, 16-Year-Old Steps In To Help Out
-
Play CBS Video Video A Mother's Economic Hardship Seth Doane visits a financially-strapped Florida woman and her 16-year-old daughter, who must help her mother pay the bills as they face the almost certain foreclosure of their home.
-
Like an estimated 2 million other kids across the United States, 16-year-old Shelby is directly impacted by the foreclosure crisis. (CBS)
-
Interactive Eye On The Economy In-depth features on U.S. markets, taxes, employment and the Federal Reserve.
-
Timeline Credit Crunch Feeling the squeeze? Here's a look at actions and statements from key players in Washington.
- Painful Lifestyle Changes
- The Restaurant That Needs A Miracle
- Learning The Value Of $1
- Life In A Tent City
- Family On The Brink
- Commuter Costs Hurt Home Health Aides
- When Basic Dental Care Isn't There
- Small Kitchen; Big Heart
- Summertime Lunches For Kids In Need
- Food Stamp Crunch Intensifies
- When Disaster Strikes - Twice
- Snapshots Of Struggle In The Food Line
- Going South Of The Border For Diesel
She and her family are about to lose their house.
"When you got the foreclosure notice, what went through your mind?" CBS News correspondent Seth Doane asked Shelby's mother, Melody.
"It was just devastating," she said.
Melody has taken pay cuts to keep her job at an electronics distributor. And the bills have piled up - as her ex-husband owes them $88,000 in unpaid child support.
"It just washes over you, just thinking, how did we get here. And you're going over everything in your mind and just, you know, it's like it's surreal. It's not really happening," she said.
Like an estimated 2 million other kids across the United States, Shelby is directly impacted by the foreclosure crisis.
"Was there a time when your mom sat you down and said 'Look, we're having a tough time?'" Doane asked Shelby.
"She never really had to do that. I could tell on my own. She was getting bills she couldn't pay; she was crying when she would get the bills. And so she never really had to. I just kind of got it."
Shelby "got it" - and then she got a job.
As a server at a retirement community, she earns about $7 an hour - or $100 a week.
"Where does that money you make go?" Doane asked. "Where do you spend it?"
"I give half to my mom, pay for my phone and school clothes and toiletries and things like that," she said.
It goes fast.
"Yes," she said.
With her paycheck in hand, and her friends together in their car, they head to the mall for some back-to-school shopping her mother can't afford.Learn more about Shelby, her mom, and "The Other America" series at Couric & Co. Blog.
Her friends, using their parents' money, are the first to buy. Shelby takes her time and hunts for bargains.
"Ok, so, grand total is going to be $56.71," a clerk says.
Does Shelby feel like she can make a difference?
"I know it's making a difference," she said. "Because it has to be. I mean, I'm spending all my paychecks, but sometimes it feels like it's not making any difference."
But, it is making a difference at home - even if it won't stop the foreclosure.
"How is it, realizing that you need your 16-year-old daughter to help pay the bills?" Doane asked Melody.
"It's hurtful, it's devastating, it's humbling," she said.
But it's also a life lesson for Shelby - learning the value of a dollar and the value of helping out, any way you can.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
More From CBS Evening News
The secrets of tennis legend 
It means wearing clothes that may be out of style. It means learning to be thankful, It means the toss it and use once was not cool to begin with. It means an older computer that gets things done. It means sharing..Oh that ye can''t do but were taught as children to do.. Bad business they say. It means one car or using the bus..It means we have to pay this,this and that. It means we learn our value,, It is not me, myself and I.. We..
This is a case where the parents divorced and the father refuses to pay child support. When they prchased the home together they were probably well qualified to afford the payments. The loss of the fathers check, the cut in pay for the moither, the inflation of everything today. A person can only do so much.
By Barbara Ann M
Yes it has the face of Washington.
Yet It buys so little
Yet things get more costly
Why..
I really don''t know.
A few live like king/queen in the US of A.
I know what it used to buy.
Can we blame anyone for this.
Yes and No.
The Value of a Dollar
Just got smaller
And smaller.
This mother is devestated and hurt that her 16 year old has to work to buy her school clothes and pay for a cell phone! That is the way it should be. Her daughter is learning that she doesn''t need designer clothes or a new sports car etc. This is probably the best thing that can happen to her daughter to learn how to value what she has.
Why doesn''t CBS do stories on people who are in the lower middle class that face foreclosure? This to me was not a heart breaking story. It was a story of someone who has to learn to live with less then they are accustomed to.
- by jerry45618 August 20, 2008 11:01 PM EDT
- This story sucks! I can give you a 1,000 examples of families facing mortgage foreclosure due to being screwed by banks and mortgage companies issuing loans with ARMs and Balloon payments. Why didn''t you focus on the deadbeat ex-husband and the state''s lack of effort and enthusiasm to prosecute him so this woman wouldn''t be in this position? She''s there only because of him. Millions of others are there because banks and mortgage companies put them there. Quit protecting corporate America and go back to actually doing your job reporting news, real news.
- Reply to this comment
See all 15 Comments