OCHO RIOS, St Ann—At 5:00 a.m. sharp, Anna-Kay Boswell Johnson’s day roars to life. Three school runs, a hardware shop ledger to balance, and an Airbnb turnover leave the 38-year-old mother of three with little time—or cash—to spare.
Yet one ordinary restock run to Rexo Supermarket flipped her budget script. While grabbing snack packs for incoming guests, Boswell Johnson dropped her name into Smirnoff’s “We Do Carnival” drawing. Hours later, a call came through: she’d secured a $50,000 grocery spree.
“Honestly, my first thought was, ‘That’s Sunday dinner sorted for a month,’” she laughed, recounting how she slipped out of a telecom queue to hear the news.
Raising a Household on Island Economics
Weekly food costs hovering near $40,000 JMD mean paycheques evaporate before they clear the bank. “In Jamaica today, you work double just to stand still,” she said. The sudden credit at the checkout feels, she admits, “like exhaling for the first time all year.”
First-Time Entry, First-Time Victory
Boswell Johnson had never bothered with promotions, assuming lightning never strikes busy parents. “Turns out you miss every shot you don’t take,” she quipped, already planning bulk buys of staples her family usually rations.
A Word for the Multi-Taskers
To caregivers juggling side hustles and skyrocketing prices, her advice is straightforward: “Rest if you must, but don’t park the dream. Pressure bursts pipes—or makes diamonds.”
For one relentless entrepreneur in Buckfield, that diamond came wrapped in carnival colours, right between the bread aisle and the dairy case.
