Hundreds of thousands of Mainers will receive $300 checks from the state government over the next several weeks. Many already have.

The “affordability checks,” which came from the state’s rainy day fund, were a pet policy for Gov. Janet Mills’ final state budget and are in the mail to Maine residents who met income requirements and filed state taxes for 2025.

All told, it’s a $150 million-plus injection into the state’s economy. For some, the check is trivial, a drop in the bucket on monthly bills. For other Mainers, it’s a small, but mighty lifeline.

We asked Mainers to tell us how they were spending their $300 affordability checks. Here’s how five of them responded.

STEVE HOAD, 75, WINDSOR

He’s a self-described math guy. So when Steve Hoad saw heating oil bills skyrocket this spring after the start of the war in Iran in February, he started running the numbers.

The math led to a daunting conclusion: Hoad’s old Windsor farmhouse was suddenly going to cost a lot more to keep warm. Thousands of dollars more, in fact.

He’s thinking of this $300 affordability check — which he originally saw as a campaign ploy from Mills, who was running for U.S. Senate when she announced the checks — as a subpar reimbursement for heating oil he spent on from February through May. And with his dealer’s prices now at $1.70 more per gallon than at the start of the year, this winter’s going to be expensive, too.

“I’m just one of these math people that look at it and say, ‘Well, I’m not gaining. Maybe the oil companies are,'” Hoad said.

MARY FOSNOUGH, 64, OAKLAND

Mary Fosnough really, really doesn’t like Janet Mills.

The 64-year-old retiree from Oakland blames everything from increasing property taxes to the perceived harmful impacts of illegal immigration on Maine’s outgoing Democratic governor.

So she plans to use her check to stick it to the Mills administration.

When her $300 arrives, Fosnough is going to donate that amount to Bobby Charles, the Republican nominee for governor, who’s running against Mills-endorsed Democrat Hannah Pingree.

“As far as anything coming from Janet Mills, I would do everything I could to do the opposite of what she’d want me to spend it on,” Fosnough said. “I don’t like her, and I support Bobby Charles.”

FRANK SANBORN JR., 50, LEWISTON

For years, Frank Sanborn Jr. has struggled to make ends meet.

Lately, it’s gotten more difficult. He’s behind on his Central Maine Power Co. bill and he can’t quite afford the lease payment on his 2017 Hyundai Accent, nor the annual registration, nor the gas to get to Augusta for doctors’ appointments to pain-manage his twice-fused spine.

At a recent appointment, the 50-year-old, whose sole income is a Social Security Disability check of $1,486 per month, a doctor told him he’d lost 30 pounds. That didn’t surprise Sanborn; he’d gone a few days that week with little more than beans and toast because he simply couldn’t afford his groceries.

“People are complaining,” Sanborn said. “I mean, I don’t agree with Mills and stuff like that, but they say they’re going to get rid of their $300. I’d ask them, can I have it?”

As of Monday, Sanborn hadn’t gotten his $300 check. But when he does, he said, it’ll be a lifeline.

And, while he’s at it, he said he might spend $5 on an ice cream cone, or maybe on a late birthday gift for his grandkids. When you’re struggling, it’s the little things, he said.

KALLIE CYR, 26, WESTBROOK

Kallie Cyr’s plans are pretty straightforward. She’s putting the $300 check into a high-yield savings account to buy out the lease on her 2024 Kia Seltos SUV.

This expense has been looming over her since she began leasing the car in late 2023, and she’s been able to focus on saving since she began renting her mother’s basement suite at a discount. In fact, that’s been a great way for her to save money — she and her partner are looking to buy his family’s Saco home soon.

“It’s still very helpful to have it, like, I would never say no to it,” Cyr said. “And I think I’m using it well, but it’s not something that I felt like I needed. I’m investing it, versus … struggling right now and needing it right now.”

She wasn’t planning on the check when she made her spending plans for the year, but she’s grateful for a little bit of help.

ERIC GOLDEN DANA, 29, CARIBOU

“Not that I’m not appreciative of money, but $300 is like handing me a cheeseburger and expecting me to feed a whole family, comparatively,” Dana said. “$300 is pocket change at this point.”

Dana said he doesn’t like to say he lives paycheck-to-paycheck. It upsets him to think about. But if he’s honest, he does — and this $300, while comforting, isn’t nearly enough to break that cycle.