When the tires on their Dodge Caravan had worn so thin that the steel belts were showing through, Don and Florence Cherry couldn't afford to buy a new set.
So they decided to rent instead.
The Rich Square, N.C., couple last September agreed to pay Rent-N-Roll $54.60 a month for 18 months in exchange for four basic Hankook tires. Over the life of the deal, that works out to $982, almost triple what the radials would have cost at Wal-Mart.
"I know you have to pay a lot more this way," said Florence Cherry, a 57-year-old nurse who drives the 15-year-old van when her husband, a Vietnam veteran, isn't using it to get to his job as a prison guard. "But we didn't really have a choice."
Ken Bensinger of the Los Angeles Times reports: Link (Photo: Mel Melcon/LA Times)
It really does cost more (time and money) to live poor thus making it a vicious circle. (milk at a corner store in a low income area is more expensive then a nice super market in the burbs, if you don't have a checking account then you have to pay your bills with money orders which cost money and time because you have to go out of your way to get them.