When we’re kids, we all feel the same—little courageous adventurers ready to soak in the world with open arms. Children have no prejudice about the world, and no sense of disparity that only emerges later in life.
When looking back at your childhood years, mixed emotions may come up. For some it’s nostalgia of carefree days, for others it’s things that they didn’t notice back then that struck a chord. Like, eating chili beans for days in a row or taking it as a usual thing not to expect anything fancy for Christmas.
In fact, these are among the tweets that people shared when Twitter user Trevor Donovan asked people “Tell me you grew up poor, without telling me you grew up poor.” The thread is an eye-opening read about growing up impoverished as told by the little details that often stay unnoticed from an outsider's eye.
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Didn’t have enough food because mother spent our money on church. Paid tuition to parochial school. Put cash in 2 collection plates & an envelope for The Bishops Fund special collection on Sundays. Paid coins to light candles. Her piety kept her kids hungry & cold
I hate religion
One Christmas, all three of us kids each got only a letter from my mom. Beautifully handwritten with her ink pen. I still treasure it to this day, 45 years later. I can only imagine how painful that was for her, working so hard but still always broke.
Not a Christian or even someone from the west, but I find gift giving on Christmas kind of materialistic. I don't like the idea of expecting something from someone at a particular time. The best gifts are the ones given with genuine consideration ,when you least expect it.
Making lots of friends meant you could go to other kids houses and get invited to stay for dinner. I would always sneak something to eat back home for my mom. She never asked me to do that, but I knew she was hungry.
Day 1 chili no beans Day 2 chili with beans Day 3 add macaroni to the remaining chili Day 4 add tomato juice to day 3 leftovers with paprika, it becomes goulash! Day 5 spoon remaining goulash over a baked potato How to Stretch your groceries at the end of the month
And still make it taste good. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention.
Used to pray for clothing that my mom didn’t sew. Now that I’m older I look back and marvel at how she did all of those things for us and I just see so much love.
We had a school uniform, so that was fine. But the occasional 'non-uniform day' would be horrifically embarrassing. I often pretended to forget and turn up in uniform anyway. Now I earn a reasonable amount, I still can't believe I can buy stuff whenever, like a book or a coffee or a new shirt. Part of my 32 year old head of department brain is still a poor 8 year old waiting patiently for Christmas.
Every piece of produce I ate at home, from 8-18 was grown in our backyard (and trust me we had it all). Seeds are cheaper, and weeding is a great punishment that doesn’t involve hitting your kids…
That teachers and lunch ladies are godsends. My teachers always asked me if I was hungry, had clothes, etc. The lunch ladies always gave me my lunch and breakfast for free, with extra food, because they knew it was the best opportunity for me to eat that day.
Have you ever had a sugar sandwich? Because I have.
Nope, never. I was a "fat child"- but when I look to the old photos from that time, it wasn't that bad, as they considered it. My mother refused to give me food to school(because "nobody gets fat if they don't eat"), which meant I was too hungry when I got home, so I ate whatever I could find. So it worked the opposite way. She was so "afraid" about me getting fat that she lied about me, that I have diabetes (I don't and never did), so nobody can give me anything sweet.
How bad powdered milk tastes after you've had real milk, and how good powdered milk tastes when you're truly hungry.
I never even thought of this, but before we moved to the family farm? Powdered milk. Then it was that-day-from-the-cow milk. No comparison. but when hungry? Powdered milk it is!
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My mom use to mix the two and put in a milk jug so we were none the wiser. I’m 47 and still call my mom and dad, every single day, to thank them for all the sacrifices they made for us. My dad went on to open a food bank, meal on wheels for the elderly and an unwed mother’s home for teenagers. All because of our struggles growing up. I didn’t realize until I was 17 how incredibly poor we were. I moved 500 miles to help my dad and mom, when they opened all their charities. The best part is he ran them purely on donations from good hearted people. Why? Because if you get grants from the government for such things, they restrict who you can and can’t help. F that!!! My dad helped everyone. At times if it weren’t for hunters, donating deer meat, we wouldn’t of had meat to hand out. Yes, we told the people what it was and they could have cared less (sorry if that offends anyone but when you are hungry you are hungry and when you want to feed your kids, you don’t care where it came from.✌🏽
My mum used to make powdered milk so watery to stretch it out. It tasted horrible on cereal.
That's all we drank growing up. Ice cold. And if you forgot to make a new pitcher so it had time to cool....yuck!
You'd be surprised what you'd be willing to eat if you got hungry enough. Powdered milk is just the tip of the iceberg.
From the age of 7 until 18, powdered milk was the only kind of milk in our home. And we drank it out of the little glass jars which had formerly held Kraft Pimento Spread.
Grew up drinking powdered milk it didn't taste that bad. But now I could buy real milk, still long for powdered milk. The porblem is many of those milk are branded as milk for todlers. I am single and have no kids.
My parents used to make up a quart of powdered milk and mix it with a quart of regular (this was before 2% milk was available). Tasted fine to us and did save money, but these days dry milk is pretty pricey itself.
Living large when Mom mixed powdered and 2%. Knew something good happened when we got that. But always made going back to powdered milk that much worse.
In the 80s, the government, used to give away free food, like these giant blocks of cheese, and potatoes, and bread and stuff. I remember concocting some type of dish by frying the potatoes up with some butter and cheese. I still love this crispy cheesy mess to this day.
I used it quite often when my kids were little and I was a stay-at-home mom. I made some of their clothes and we made a dime stretch a long, long way. The kids never knew we were just barely making it.
Raising 6 kids, we turned to Powdered milk and we got used to it. Once the kids moved away from home, we could afford to buy fresh milk. I will never go back to that powdered stuff, unless it is for my Bath Bombs and soaps.
Oh yes I loved powdered milk we had it for everything unbtil mother married again and we got to drink real dairy milk it was lovely.
Powdered milk is now expensive as well , I learned this while researching protein sources for bodybuilding.
Remember the powdered milk that wasn't instant? It had to mixed with a whisk, mixer, or blender. And it had to be really cold to taste halfway decent, but it was better than tap water.
That's because powdered milk is skim milk. Find whole fat powdered milk, like Nido, and it tastes just like whole milk.
Powdered milk on generic cereal for breakfast. Blech. I'd skip it and go hungry.
omg..... I forgot how long I had to drink powdered milk. I could never seem to make it the same way twice
We never drank milk. Too expensive to drink. It was only used for cooking.
I can still taste it in memory, and call to mind the big orange box it came in.
Yes. My mom did this once in a while. We always had something to eat. Maybe no much or very good, but something. But she was always trying to stretch the food dollars. Powdered milk came towards the end of the pay period for my dad.
Going to bed hungry. Or purposefully leaving food so your parents could eat the leftovers since that would be their only meal... That hurts to think about, even now.
When we first immigrated here back in the early 80’s, my parents of course spoke no English, they worked then went to night school, I remember my parents would have all of us 5 eat first, then whatever was left they would eat, after seeing that I only ate less to make sure they had enough
Margarine and cinnamon on bread? Cinnamon toast! Ate that all the time growing up
McDonald's can be a place for special occasions only.
39, been to McD only once to meet with a friend. Never understood the hype.
Packages of socks and underwear and other necessities wrapped up under the Christmas tree. Funny thing was, I thought those were the standard Christmas gifts until I got married and my husband was like, what’s with the socks and underwear for Christmas?
For fun, I would go to the city dump with my grandpa to peel proof of purchase labels off cereal boxes to be redeemed for refunds or prizes. I still have some of the dolls my grandpa got for me.
I am not attached to the concept of "liking" everything I eat. My son hates it, because I'm like "It's what we're having, and if you don't like it, better luck tomorrow." He's never had to learn from actual experience to be grateful he was getting anything at all.
My classmates used to make fun of me because I would wear the same shirt every day and my sneakers had holes in them. This is one of the reasons why we started our charity, Alice's Kids. Thanks for raising this issue, Trevor.
The guilt and anxiety in adulthood when you buy anything for yourself.
The need to not feel like you could lose everything at any minute.
Limiting your processions on the chance that any moment you may need to gather everything and leave never to come back.
Got a cold? Grab a roll of toilet paper. I still feel like kleenex is a luxury item for the Queen of Sheba but my partner has chipped away at that, apparently it's not actually that expensive.
I still use toiletpaper. It's convenient and contains storage space for used paper.
Feeling guilty about getting Xmas presents as a child
Never answer the phone. It was always the bill collectors looking for money. Same with the front door. Go away nobody's home.
We reused aluminum foil.
I do this. Not because I'm so poor i have to, but to be less wasteful. Everyone should reuse foil if they can
Everything around you can be a toy. My action figure collection included a stick, a mason jar, an off brand Barbie given to me by an older cousin, and a bunch of melted green army men that looked like a giant. We had the best adventures.
And you can dress a dough-roller in dress for dolls (made by my grandmother) and pretend it is a doll. I brought it to preschool. We weren't that poor, but my great-grandmother came from really poor family and told me about how she dressed a roller as a doll. In my eyes in those days- everybody had at least one doll, but nobody had a dressed roller. I thought it was something special. And my parents were called to the preschool and asked, if everything is ok at home, if we cannot afford a doll.. it is funny today, but wasn't funny for my parents that day 🙂
The only cheese we could get was the government commodities cheese ( which made delicious grilled cheese sandwiches BTW ) and the peanut butter that came with the commodities made yummy cookies
This breaks my heart. 💔 All these were kids had to worry about the money and wanted to / felt the need to help their parents financially.
Drinking a lot of water before or during a meal makes you feel much more full
And the food digests slower so you're not feeling hungry for a longer time.
The generic isle at the grocery store. White boxes with black lettering.
Oh man memories, back then our Pathmark super market had their own black and white label brand , was called no-frills
My parents dumpster diving at the mall for birthday presents for us.
When you're at the end of your pay it is possible to live off instant coffee and biscuits stolen from the office tea room just so your cat can have food.
Two colleague from Poland was in London for training for a week. Company would pay for the food if you get receipt. Course-leader only said there's only 1 vending machine. So they never had lunch they just had some free biscuts from hotel. Day 3 I found a food truck and you'll get a receipt.
being excited to watch a Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network show at a friend's house
Picked up soda bottles from along the roadside to turn in for the deposit money.
Our Christmas toy was from the S&H Green Stamp store. New PJs & underwear completed the gifts. Fridays was soup Mom made from little bits left over during the week. It was pretty random. It emptied the frig, Sat was grocery day. She knew the price of everything in the store.
My mother was a faithful S&H Green Stamp saver! I remember her stamp books, and how happy she’d be when the6 were finally full.
Good hygiene isn't always an easy thing to have.
I want to refer to a deleted comment about how personal hygiene is not a difficult thing. For someone who does not know anything about poverty, it may be difficult to understand that it can in fact easilt become a difficult thing. Dental care for example can be expensive, and the fear of needing an intervention can keep people from making an appointment, leading only to more problems and more fear of the costs. People in poverty do not always have access to the necessary information that seems so obvious to those in a better situation. This lack of access (or even knowing you can access this information) can lead to all sorts of missed opportunities. Good hygiene is not always an easy thing to have, and that's a sad truth.
Used plain bread for hotdog AND hamburger buns. Also had a big container of powdered milk in the pantry for the kids to use.
We cut open the toothpaste to get every last drop out of the tube.
Did you have lettuce and mayonnaise sandwiches? On a good day we had bologna on it, too.
Nothing was name brand. Instead of Fruit Loops we had Fruity O's
Instead of Fruit Punch we had Red Juice (gallon with a sticker on it that said Red Juice), instead of Chip Ahoy we had Captain Chipleys.
How to invent foods based on the limited amount of what you already have
I will always admire my great-grandmother (that survived 2 world wars and a long period, when there was not enough of almost everything). She was scrappy, resourceful as nobody I ever knew. She made soup from carrot, beetroot and potato peels. She made spinach from early grass and nettles. She made "schnitzels" from elderflowers...and thats how we found I am alergic to them. Almost died, if she didn't ran to the nearest house with phone (not everybody had phone at home) and called for an ambulance. She was over 90yrs old that time, but ran for my life. Still miss her.
Boiled wieners for lunch... wiener water soup for dinner
I think I threw up in my memory just now. My sister would drink the hot dog water on egg noodles. ....
Every day from age 7 to 14, Breakfast & Dinner were cooked cereal & milk. Lunch didn’t happen. I ate fruit or vegetables when the friendly produce vender tossed me a treat on my way to & from school.
(@ 14 I ran away bc of Aunts psychotic behavior- not bc of the food/poverty)
In retrospect all things considered, I was very lucky to have that supply of milk. Many people living in poverty who manage sufficient caloric intake, may still lack a steady source of protein- potentially leading to grave nutritional deficiencies.
For the milk, I am grateful.
Eating the same thing every day. My SO can't believe I can eat one meal for days and not get sick of it. It was mostly spaghetti. Thankfully I love spaghetti.
I hate wasting food and still do the same. When visiting extended family and I do that there, they look at me weird, because they must have freshly cooked food everyday and they don't even give the leftovers away, they throw it. That makes me both angry and sad
That a ramen noodle packet with the flavoring plus cut up hotdogs with canned corn, carrots, and peas or some other combination of caned vegetables was the best dinner ever. Makes me truly appreciate my parents all that I have now and I treat my parents or cook dinner for them every chance I get.
2 meals a day were beans and rice and we skipped the third all while the foster parents ate chicken and steak as did their kid.
To this day I can’t stomach the thought of beans and rice
You’re still 12 for three years after you actually turn 12.
Being on free lunch and the shame that goes along with it. It's not like the kids with money didn't know. It's basically an "I'm poor" label.
We didn't have free lunch when I was growing up, but they did have a program where students could help with setup and teardown of the lunch room and those students would get a free lunch. I signed up for this whenever I could. The down side was that it ate into recess time.
my dad skipped lunch once a week so he could save $1 and get my 3 siblings and I a $.25 vending machine drink after church on sundays
I feel guilty for buying anything more than the cheapest version of whatever thing it is I need to buy.
Sometimes the cheapest thing is actually more expensive because it's worse quality. Try to reframe it like that in your head to get rid of the guilt; you don't deserve to feel bad because you can afford to buy better quality that will last longer or support your health!
Your mom having to borrow money from you to pay for food/bills.
Also the embarrassment of people comparing Christmas gifts with you when they got expensive electronics and toys. I used to hate when teachers asked the class what they got for Christmas.
I've worked in primary schools and in a lot of them teachers weren't allowed to organize any activity that would reveal how rich or poor the parents were. I think it should be an official rule instead of a rule set by the school. We're all about inclusiveness but often the children from poor families are overlooked and excluded.
When we were super poor and getting Koolaid or pop was a rare treat. Sometimes we’d get iced tea powder from bulk at the grocery store as well. I remember asking my dad if we had anything to drink either than water and he dug through the cupboards and he found some iced tea powder - just enough for a glass. I was so excited! He mixed it up and noted that it wasn’t mixing super well but finally he gave it to me and I took a big chug. It was beef bouillon powder :(
Funny looking back now but I remember how disappointed I was.
The crushing fear of asking for anything, even when it was a necessity. My thighs have always rubbed together and I’d only have one pair of jeans that fit, so I’d wear through the thighs in a couple months and end up chafing my thighs for weeks, and try to patch them by crummily sewing socks over the holes. It was a nightmare.
Now that I’m financially secure and have like 6 different pairs of well fitting jeans, I’ve had them all for well over a year and none have worn through yet.
I'm lucky the repair shop in Russia will reinforce them. Jeans are expensive and they do rub right through. I was supposed to take a pair to be fixed today but my cat decided she would pull them down and pee on them last night, so they have been washed and now have to dry.
Finding our mum crying in the kitchen counting pennies when you can't afford a loaf of bread. As the eldest of three (at the time, now four) I was the confidant. Up until I was seven it was a constant struggle to afford food, worse between the ages of five and six.
How embarrassing it was when friends would ask for your phone number (or a teacher) and you didn't have a home phone. It felt like everyone in the world had a home phone but us.
Also, not wearing trendy clothes. I got made fun of for that. Kids are mean.
In 5th or 6th grade, we were supposed to write an essay about our family’s car. When I told my teacher we didn‘t own a car, he told me to 'just make something up'. We had never owned a car, my mother didn’t even have a driver’s license and the essay was to include things like how many kilometers a year your family was driving etc. One of the few times I skipped school by pretending to be sick...
I knew that you had to pay an extra fee on top of your bill if your electricity got turned off for non payment.
lunchables, fruit rollups and dunkaroos were the most incredibly luxurious school lunch items, fit for a saudi prince
My dad could only go to work 4 days a week because he couldn’t afford the gas to get to work. My house didn’t have heat so I slept next to a fire place to keep warm.
Never having any new clothes of your own, but only worn hand-me-downs from your older siblings.
I’ve hated the government since i was 9 bc i wasn’t allowed to get tampons, rotisserie chicken or any premade item cause food stamps didn’t want us to eat a lot of certain things. Reasoning? None, they just hate poor people. I coined the term “register anxiety”
The “check engine” light really isn’t that important.
Beans and rice are everything.
Parents can be really, really good at hiding how bad it is financially.
There are so, so many alternatives to buying brand new household items.
But by ignoring the "Check Engine" light the costs of the repairs will just go up. So poverty leads to more financial troubles.
Kraft mac and cheese and boiled hot dogs is a good quality dinner.
Me and one other kid had to stay at school and draw pictures of clowns while the rest of the class went to the circus.
I feel like the school should quietly pay for the kids who can't afford to go. Or send a letter home with all the kids, asking for extra for kids who can't afford to attend field trips
Your location isn't certain. You might be here for another month or several. You will be uprooted and dragged along soon. You will lose all the friends you have made. You will lose any sense of security. It is all about how long you can hold this place before you get evicted.
we never made it any place longer then a year... once i started to make friends- we would pack up and move... it was terrible
Going to your extended family’s houses usually resulted in leaving with bags full of tinned food.
My parents used to buy expired canned goods in bulk.
Most canned food is still good months after the official expiration date. General rule of thumb: as long as the can isn't starting to expand, the contents is safe to eat.
Any car 10 years old or newer is new
Since the quality of cars have improved there's nothing wrong with driving an old car. My last car was 20 years old when I traded it in 2 years ago because I had to pay a shedload on taxes because it was a diesel. Not because it drove or handled badly. It was bought by some Polish bloke who exported it to Poland and took it back to the Netherlands. Because it's a Polish car now he doesn't pay any taxes in the Netherlands....
Milk was mixed with powder milk
I used to think fried baloney was bacon
I love fried baloney! Makes great sandwiches as well as being a side meat with eggs for breakfast.
Staples aren’t necessary if you just fold the top left corner of the stack of papers, make two small tears on the folded part, and fold the piece in between the tears. The method starts to fall apart when the stacks get too large though, but it’s great for school papers and minor projects. Just don’t hand in your PhD thesis using the method.
There's even a gadget that does this. It's called , wait for it, the stapleless stapler. https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/japanese-stapleless-stapler
This is going to wipe the competition
It's strange, I didn't realise how poor my family was when I was growing up until reading all of these and recognising so many of them as very common things we did. Just goes to show how much your parents can hide from you or make into a fun thing to do when you're little.
I didn't know I was homeless until my friend's mother was dropping me off at the homeless shelter and said "Oh, your homeless." I told her no, that we were just waiting on our new place to get set up, this was the in-between place. She argued with a 9 year old to make sure I knew I was homeless. When we did get a place to live I had my first and last birthday party, it was my last because she convinced all the other parents that our trailer park wasn't safe and all of the parents wouldn't let my friends stay, so I ate my birthday pizza while watching my first and last ice cream cake melt for my 10th birthday. Kids don't know they are poor until someone shames them for it.
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A lot of people react with "I also do this" and "I enjoy eating Y". A huge difference is in the "why": Some people have the luxury of CHOOSING to do/eat certain things. It doens't compare to the situation of people who HAVE to go dumpsterdiving, or only wear secondhand clothing, or eat bread with lettuce as a meal.
Exactly. If your ONLY option is a five-year-old shirt already worn half-transparent by an older sibling... that isn't thrift. And if you want to eat like crap, fine, but kids should never have to eat poorly.
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My mother had me when our country was still under Russian reign. We gained independence in 1991 (in August, and January next year my sister was born) and times were really really hard for several years. Nobody knew that this was going to happen. Things were stabile until then and basically changed overnight. The whole system took time to rebuild. We actually had almost nothing to eat sometimes. I remember one birthday. My mother asked if I wanted cake or present and I said cake, because that was something we could all share. I remember how she redesigned her skirt for my first class beginning so that I had something fancier to wear. Things got gradually better with time and we could afford travelling, better life standards etc. But yeah, I remember hard times.
I will never understand the mentality of a country that throws money in the trash by invading other countries, rather than taking care of their citizens. It's not like the government doesn't have the money. They just don't care. No matter who the president is. Some people in the U.S have worse quality of life than people in south american countries... Also, I will never understand what kind of parent doesn't teach their kids that not everyone has the same things, and that it's never acceptable to laugh at your "poor" classmate, nor is it cool to worship or envy the ones who have more than you do. My mom had that talk with me when I was 4 or 5.
My kids can tell you the sacrifices made when they were kids. I was a single mom and broke af, but they always had a roof, electricity and food. Was it steak? no. But they went to bed full every night, I may not have, but they sure as hell did. I work in a prison and I would eat the inmate meals (not like from the inmates, but what was being served that day) just so my kiddos could have more at home. Clothes came from thrift stores and garanimals at Walmart (cheap and cute) I refused to go to a brand name store when they'd grow out of it once they sneezed. Payless for shoes until they stopped growing. Why they closed that store I'll never get it. It saddens me to look back at those times but I made it work and for that I'm proud, now my kids are almost grown and they understand money, and we are way better off. I can say yes more than I say no now. They still won't eat their supper until I take the first bite because they remember all the times I skipped meals for them.
At lot of comments about how sad and depressing this thread is but as a former poor child, there are lots of positives we took into adulthood! I'm super good with money, I save up for whatever I need, I can make a packet of mince last a week and I never break anything because in the back of my mind I still have the mindset that I can't afford to replace it. And I still get excited about visiting the dump 'for fun' in my 30's :)
Frankly, I'm glad I grew up poor. More people should. We learn so much more and seem to have a greater appreciation, empathy and understanding. Not to mention the ability to create awesomeness from little or nothing
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Well that was sobering. Did/still do at least 1/3 of those things and thought "Hey, gotta try that" multiple times. Don't even consider myself poor. I know I am, if you look at the numbers, but I don't "live" poor. A home, with heating enough to eat.. There are always people who got it worse. And then you see multi-million dollar assholes telling you bulshit about "poor life choices" and avocado toasts. Yeah, sorry I didn't choose to have rich parents and instead work 40 hours a week to feed my family. And on the same time I am thankful that here where I live 40 hours are sufficient to feed my family while people in other places can't. Beeing "poor" isn't that bad. But seeing people live in luxury and mocking others for beeing poor although thy work... That makes your train of thought run in "french revolution" direction...
My brain has trended to 1789 since I was about 10-11 years old. Sometimes you get left behind and it's nothing about your work ethic, etc. It's *luck*. And how many of these rich people got that way by taking advantage of the poor? Too many. (Payday lending is a crime, IMHO.) Et cetera.
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We were homeless and lived in a mcds parking lot. They let us play on the playground and when food was made wrong, gave it to my mother. We washed up in the sink and slept in a lil tiny car called a rabbit. Ahhh the 80s lol.
This level of poverty doesn't exist in my country any more but most of these look like they're in the US and from people much younger than me. America seems more like a developing nation than a superpower
They just have a much larger wealth gap. Next to these poor people you'll find some insanely rich and wasteful ones.
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I was forced to live in my car with 2 cats for 7 months. I had to lie about my address just so I could get a job. Moved into a new place just before winter hit, lost my car the next day, lost my job 3 days later.
It's all good now, I am now disabled but I have a home and an income. And no abusive ex to take it all away again.
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Ironically enough, my grandparents were young adults at the time of the Great Depression. They learned how to be frugal. So it wasn't that their family was poor, just scared of a repeat of history. Their fear was instilled on my Dad. He never threw out old paperwork, he had an unhealthy obsession with Costco even after us kids had grown up and were out of the house. His basement would be packed with canned food and a large freezer stuffed to the brim with food even though he lived alone. He also kept every box for every counter top appliance and electronic he owned. The only good thing that came from it was, when he passed after a long bout with Alzheimer's, my sister (his caretaker) had enough food to last for a few months while she worked at cleaning up his affairs.
My Mil is the same way. However, in the nineties , her 20year old hot water heater, that she had a life time warranty on, died. The company required original paperwork, receipt and box. Guess who had all of that. Still using the replacement hot water heater, that she still has the paperwork and original box for.
Load More Replies... As a child me and my siblings all slept on the blankets on the floor, or couches if we were lucky.When my mom finally was able to get a house she also bought us all beds, but me and my siblings were still trying to lay on the couches in the living room.. it took us awhile to get used to sleeping in beds.
I am a very successful 32 year old who owns their own home and can easily pay all of my bills, but I still can't answer a phone and have anxiety attacks when someone knocks on my door after spending most of my life in poverty and having bill collectors threaten me, being evicted, homeless, and having the cops come out to serve us court summons. No matter how successful I become, I still can't overcome my fear of a phone ringing. I refused to even own a phone for years and years because they cause me to have panic attacks.
One thing I didn't see posted was expired food bank food. Every time my mom came home from the food bank or if a church dropped off donations we would have to go through and find the expired stuff, some was many years expired and would make you sick or could kill you. I'm talking about bubbled out cans. To this day I'll never understand how someone donates that and can't comprehend how bad it can be.
Having a mild existential crisis now - is my family poor but my parents simply hid it really well or are they just frugal?
Sometimes, if one generation is poor the next will be really frugal, is my guess.
Load More Replies... Some of these are not evidence of poverty, but of being sensible with money and resources. Not buying branded cereals, reusing foil - these things are good sense; I do them even though I can afford not to.
You aren't grasping the concept. Yes, you can do them by choice. But when you *have no choice*.... see?
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Based on my experience and what I see today, the things in this list are quite common. I do not know if that means people are getting poorer, or that this is simply the way life is for most of America.
I had to live off 10 euros a week for groceries, it was always a challenge. I made a lot of stews with cheap vegetables and instant mashed potatoes since I could live on that for three days. Baked beans with rice, ragout with rice, cheap spaghetti sauce in a jar with cheap veggies and pasta for another three days. The rest of the day I ate bread with lettuce or sugar. If asked for gifts, I'd ask for socks or underwear since I couldn't afford those and I'd get a pair of shoes for my birthday from my mom. It has certainly made me grateful now and I never take anything for granted.
I was the youngest of three kids, and the only girl. My brothers could share clothes and hand me downs, but I couldn't wear their clothes. The solution? My family's friends with daughters would give their daughter's old clothes to me. I'm sure it was a godsend to my parents, but wearing the neighbor girls' clothes to school was really no fun at all.
I grew up poor, I used to eat just lettuce dipped in Miracle whip, at the end of the month there was very little food in the house, I used to try to arrange to stay the weekends at a friends house so I could eat. And we NEVER had paper towels or tissues in the house that was too much money. All my clothes came from K-mart and was always put on lay-away. I worked really hard to pull myself out of that situation and now I HAVE to have paper towels and tissues in the house at all times.
My grandparents were quite poor when they were young, and even though they weren't later in life, they still had that mind-set. My grandfather regularly made me his 'favorite sandwich when he was a boy' which consisted of two slices of strange bread (thinner than regular sliced bread, and with no discernable "top," like there was no round puffy bit, it was completely square), bologna and margarine. I can't find anything that resembles that bread, and nobody knows what I'm talking about when I ask. I assume it was the very cheapest bread available in the early '90s. Every now and then I make one as close as I can, and get a bit teary thinking about it.
Once upon a time the US used to give out commodities, this was before food banks. It was a big box of basics-dry beans, peanut butter, eggs, milk, powdered milk and some of the most amazing American cheese I have ever tasted. Most folks who remember the commodity boxes remember that cheese. It took me years to find anything even close. (It's Kroger American that they cut to order in the deli) I can't remember if there was bread in the box, but it sounds like something that would be
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My family was on the run, we lived a lot in a VW camper van. It was four people, my mother, two brothers, and myself. S*** on a Shingle (S.O.S) was a luxury. If you don't know its whatever protein you have on toast. To make sure we had weight she would give us all saltiness with margarine. I'm still impressed with her.
I still snack on saltines with mayo, mustard or margarine. The 3Ms
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Sugar and butter on white bread. Government cheese shared from my grand mother's wic. Bag cereal not boxed. Can concentrate oj. Bikes made from scrap from dump. Play in the yard or at friends house. No trips. Dad was on strike. Mom worked part time. Mid 70s gas hike/shortage. Pile on pile of troubles. Hurricane an power out for weeks. Extension cords from neighbors because we were on separate line. Found out it was in a few days later but dad was trying to save on the bill. Always have a gas stove. You will have hot water an food can be cooked.
Blizzards, not hurricane, and my mom worked f/t for all the good it did us. No gas stove. Cold enough the wood stove was smarter all around. OJ was a luxury even frozen.
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My husband said that when he was growing up in a family of 11 kids. They had to have lard sandwiches with salt and pepper. The whole family had to use the same bath water.
I was born poor, adopted and raised with everything I could want except for a good parent as she was too busy with career and drinking. When I was finally of age and back living in my original home town (LONG STORY) I was an out gay living in Bradenton Florida. I had a job at a car dealership and was so poor I ate ketchup sandwiches and fried onions (like a whole onion, breaded with flour and deep fried). Then a little while later I was out of a job, my own stupidity, and went to live with a friends mom in their Trailer and for food I would clean the house and help with shopping. She did make this one thing once a week, it was pork, sauerkraut, potatoes and the usual veggies like onion, carrot and celery, salt and pepper. Sounds yummy to some, gross to others, but when your hungry and that's the only good meal you have for an entire week, it's heaven! So been there, done that! I live in California now, retired and have a roof over my head and food in my belly. I survived!
𝑫𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒎𝒂 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 & 𝒎𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 & 𝑰 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒌•𝒐𝒓•𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 - 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑺𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 & 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑷𝒂𝒑𝒂 𝑺𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒇, 𝒍𝒐𝒍. 𝑩𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔 - 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒌𝒊𝒅𝒔. 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌, 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕. 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔.
When I first moved out of home and "managed" my own finances. I always kept flour and a jar of Jam in the pantry for when my pay ran out before pay day. Flour/Water/salt kneaded into dough and cooked in the oven made great filling Damper (flat bread) that I would have with Jam. Lifesaver with no money and no groceries in the house.
Ya know what bad as it was I really didn't know it then we still had a good time!
My dad is an elementary school head master.. So we are technically wealthier to the other family. But I still remember that we are too considered poor by today standard in my country. Things like milk is a novelty. Books is inherited for years. I still remember that some of our friend in class only have one uniform given by their neighbor.. We all love to go fishing because then get extra food.. And also it is common that fruit plant in someone yard stolen in the night..
I just learned this: my parents got food stamps when I was really tiny. And I had to get my finger pricked to make sure I was getting enough nutrients. But, we have a house now! From not having my own room for the first 10-ish years in my life, I have one right now! (I have 3 siblings and both my parents were broke an unemployed when my older brother was born)
Grandma made tortillas with water and flour. The made gravy with flour and water, salt and pepper. Dinner. Flour was our savior for a long time back then. No plumbing but an outhouse on the side of a hill and forget going to the bathroom at night. rattlesnakes, black widows and scorpions at night so you held it til morning.
Grandma made tortillas with flour and water then made gravy with flour and water with salt and pepper...dinner. Flour was our savior for a long time.
Months ago on BP there was a Hey Pandas & I talked about how if I didn't like something & refused to eat it, it was a war of the wills because my dad would make me sit there until I ate it. I was incredibly stubborn & I would sit there until my mom told him I needed to go to bed & I went to bed hungry. A lot of Pandas thought that was pretty sick. But here's why that happened. My father grew up during the depression. Nuff said there. But after getting his mom & brother out of an abusive home & running to the other side of the country, my dad, who had to quit school at 15, the only way they occasionally ate meat was if he went out & killed some squirrels. I didn't realise that before I was 9 we were poor.. Food wise, what I have read here is so familiar. He had lived not knowing if the next meal might come. So now we had money & for sure 3 meals a day, I was going to eat it, come hell or high water. Dont blame him. I laugh now. He never understood that I was ALWAYS going to win.
Frankly, whenever I look at all I learned from being poor, I don't mind it. I actually wind up feeling sorry for those who didn't learn the same lessons. I learned to cook amazing food from nothing, to reuse and turn trash into something beautiful. I have compassion and empathy that I might not have had with a more "normal" life. I may be in the minority, but I am actually grateful for growing up poor. It even made 2020 easier to handle
I remember when I was a kid I had to make milk from powder and water so I could have cereal in the morning, I thought that was normal till one day my Mom started buying jugs of milk. Turns out we were dirt poor till my Dad got a better job.
Lots of soups... lots of porridge.... mind you. 6ft 2 and 17 stone so I don't think it stunted my growth!
Went to a field trip in 2nd year of school. Were told to use our worst clothes cause we will get really dirty. Used my best clothes and still managed to be the worst dressed. I learned to saw by hand at the age of 7, cause my clothes couldn't bear to stay together.
My mom was pretty inventive with food- Spam fried with maple syrup was delicious! That government cheese was awful. Using tomato soup as sauce for pasta. To this day I hate tomato soup, no matter how you dress it up. Peanut butter that tasted like burned peanuts. Mustard Mayo & ketchup sandwiches. When I was a teenager, my mom's friends would give her clothes for me to wear. I remember the orange sneakers for 99 cents. Cutting out old copy books to put inside your shoes after you get holes in the soles.
The government cheese was either the best or the worst depending on who you talked to. I loved it and hunted for anything close to it for years
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All my toys were second-hand (and broken/parts missing) - either hand-me-downs from slightly better off cousins or picked up for dirt cheap from yard sales etc. If I wanted the latest toy that was only available from shops, my mother would draw a picture of it on cardboard, cut it out and I would play with that.
Don't have children when you can't afford them. "Love" is not enough to raise a kid on. You're setting them up for a hard life and for what? So you can spread your genes? As if that is useful somehow.
Don't be a stupid bitch. How's that? In the US, people die because they don't have medical insurance. Getting birth control is difficult because if you don't have medical insurance, you can't see a doctor, and even if you could, there's no money for prescriptions. Planned Parenthood is a good resource, but the Republicans hate women so much that they're determined to shut down the clinics who gave out birth control for free.
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Grew up poor because you used off-brand cereal? That doesn't sit right with me
You need to re-read that post. They didn't have enough money to buy brand cereals, like Fruit Loops and Cheerios.
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Actually, people in America can be poor. My birthdad is poor, and he lives in America. Not everybody on this post may have grown up in a third-world country.
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It's strange, I didn't realise how poor my family was when I was growing up until reading all of these and recognising so many of them as very common things we did. Just goes to show how much your parents can hide from you or make into a fun thing to do when you're little.
I didn't know I was homeless until my friend's mother was dropping me off at the homeless shelter and said "Oh, your homeless." I told her no, that we were just waiting on our new place to get set up, this was the in-between place. She argued with a 9 year old to make sure I knew I was homeless. When we did get a place to live I had my first and last birthday party, it was my last because she convinced all the other parents that our trailer park wasn't safe and all of the parents wouldn't let my friends stay, so I ate my birthday pizza while watching my first and last ice cream cake melt for my 10th birthday. Kids don't know they are poor until someone shames them for it.
Load More Replies... A lot of people react with "I also do this" and "I enjoy eating Y". A huge difference is in the "why": Some people have the luxury of CHOOSING to do/eat certain things. It doens't compare to the situation of people who HAVE to go dumpsterdiving, or only wear secondhand clothing, or eat bread with lettuce as a meal.
Exactly. If your ONLY option is a five-year-old shirt already worn half-transparent by an older sibling... that isn't thrift. And if you want to eat like crap, fine, but kids should never have to eat poorly.
Load More Replies... My mother had me when our country was still under Russian reign. We gained independence in 1991 (in August, and January next year my sister was born) and times were really really hard for several years. Nobody knew that this was going to happen. Things were stabile until then and basically changed overnight. The whole system took time to rebuild. We actually had almost nothing to eat sometimes. I remember one birthday. My mother asked if I wanted cake or present and I said cake, because that was something we could all share. I remember how she redesigned her skirt for my first class beginning so that I had something fancier to wear. Things got gradually better with time and we could afford travelling, better life standards etc. But yeah, I remember hard times.
I will never understand the mentality of a country that throws money in the trash by invading other countries, rather than taking care of their citizens. It's not like the government doesn't have the money. They just don't care. No matter who the president is. Some people in the U.S have worse quality of life than people in south american countries... Also, I will never understand what kind of parent doesn't teach their kids that not everyone has the same things, and that it's never acceptable to laugh at your "poor" classmate, nor is it cool to worship or envy the ones who have more than you do. My mom had that talk with me when I was 4 or 5.
My kids can tell you the sacrifices made when they were kids. I was a single mom and broke af, but they always had a roof, electricity and food. Was it steak? no. But they went to bed full every night, I may not have, but they sure as hell did. I work in a prison and I would eat the inmate meals (not like from the inmates, but what was being served that day) just so my kiddos could have more at home. Clothes came from thrift stores and garanimals at Walmart (cheap and cute) I refused to go to a brand name store when they'd grow out of it once they sneezed. Payless for shoes until they stopped growing. Why they closed that store I'll never get it. It saddens me to look back at those times but I made it work and for that I'm proud, now my kids are almost grown and they understand money, and we are way better off. I can say yes more than I say no now. They still won't eat their supper until I take the first bite because they remember all the times I skipped meals for them.
At lot of comments about how sad and depressing this thread is but as a former poor child, there are lots of positives we took into adulthood! I'm super good with money, I save up for whatever I need, I can make a packet of mince last a week and I never break anything because in the back of my mind I still have the mindset that I can't afford to replace it. And I still get excited about visiting the dump 'for fun' in my 30's :)
Frankly, I'm glad I grew up poor. More people should. We learn so much more and seem to have a greater appreciation, empathy and understanding. Not to mention the ability to create awesomeness from little or nothing
Load More Replies... Well that was sobering. Did/still do at least 1/3 of those things and thought "Hey, gotta try that" multiple times. Don't even consider myself poor. I know I am, if you look at the numbers, but I don't "live" poor. A home, with heating enough to eat.. There are always people who got it worse. And then you see multi-million dollar assholes telling you bulshit about "poor life choices" and avocado toasts. Yeah, sorry I didn't choose to have rich parents and instead work 40 hours a week to feed my family. And on the same time I am thankful that here where I live 40 hours are sufficient to feed my family while people in other places can't. Beeing "poor" isn't that bad. But seeing people live in luxury and mocking others for beeing poor although thy work... That makes your train of thought run in "french revolution" direction...
My brain has trended to 1789 since I was about 10-11 years old. Sometimes you get left behind and it's nothing about your work ethic, etc. It's *luck*. And how many of these rich people got that way by taking advantage of the poor? Too many. (Payday lending is a crime, IMHO.) Et cetera.
Load More Replies... We were homeless and lived in a mcds parking lot. They let us play on the playground and when food was made wrong, gave it to my mother. We washed up in the sink and slept in a lil tiny car called a rabbit. Ahhh the 80s lol.
This level of poverty doesn't exist in my country any more but most of these look like they're in the US and from people much younger than me. America seems more like a developing nation than a superpower
They just have a much larger wealth gap. Next to these poor people you'll find some insanely rich and wasteful ones.
Load More Replies... I was forced to live in my car with 2 cats for 7 months. I had to lie about my address just so I could get a job. Moved into a new place just before winter hit, lost my car the next day, lost my job 3 days later.
It's all good now, I am now disabled but I have a home and an income. And no abusive ex to take it all away again.
Load More Replies... Ironically enough, my grandparents were young adults at the time of the Great Depression. They learned how to be frugal. So it wasn't that their family was poor, just scared of a repeat of history. Their fear was instilled on my Dad. He never threw out old paperwork, he had an unhealthy obsession with Costco even after us kids had grown up and were out of the house. His basement would be packed with canned food and a large freezer stuffed to the brim with food even though he lived alone. He also kept every box for every counter top appliance and electronic he owned. The only good thing that came from it was, when he passed after a long bout with Alzheimer's, my sister (his caretaker) had enough food to last for a few months while she worked at cleaning up his affairs.
My Mil is the same way. However, in the nineties , her 20year old hot water heater, that she had a life time warranty on, died. The company required original paperwork, receipt and box. Guess who had all of that. Still using the replacement hot water heater, that she still has the paperwork and original box for.
Load More Replies... As a child me and my siblings all slept on the blankets on the floor, or couches if we were lucky.When my mom finally was able to get a house she also bought us all beds, but me and my siblings were still trying to lay on the couches in the living room.. it took us awhile to get used to sleeping in beds.
I am a very successful 32 year old who owns their own home and can easily pay all of my bills, but I still can't answer a phone and have anxiety attacks when someone knocks on my door after spending most of my life in poverty and having bill collectors threaten me, being evicted, homeless, and having the cops come out to serve us court summons. No matter how successful I become, I still can't overcome my fear of a phone ringing. I refused to even own a phone for years and years because they cause me to have panic attacks.
One thing I didn't see posted was expired food bank food. Every time my mom came home from the food bank or if a church dropped off donations we would have to go through and find the expired stuff, some was many years expired and would make you sick or could kill you. I'm talking about bubbled out cans. To this day I'll never understand how someone donates that and can't comprehend how bad it can be.
Having a mild existential crisis now - is my family poor but my parents simply hid it really well or are they just frugal?
Sometimes, if one generation is poor the next will be really frugal, is my guess.
Load More Replies... Some of these are not evidence of poverty, but of being sensible with money and resources. Not buying branded cereals, reusing foil - these things are good sense; I do them even though I can afford not to.
You aren't grasping the concept. Yes, you can do them by choice. But when you *have no choice*.... see?
Load More Replies... Based on my experience and what I see today, the things in this list are quite common. I do not know if that means people are getting poorer, or that this is simply the way life is for most of America.
I had to live off 10 euros a week for groceries, it was always a challenge. I made a lot of stews with cheap vegetables and instant mashed potatoes since I could live on that for three days. Baked beans with rice, ragout with rice, cheap spaghetti sauce in a jar with cheap veggies and pasta for another three days. The rest of the day I ate bread with lettuce or sugar. If asked for gifts, I'd ask for socks or underwear since I couldn't afford those and I'd get a pair of shoes for my birthday from my mom. It has certainly made me grateful now and I never take anything for granted.
I was the youngest of three kids, and the only girl. My brothers could share clothes and hand me downs, but I couldn't wear their clothes. The solution? My family's friends with daughters would give their daughter's old clothes to me. I'm sure it was a godsend to my parents, but wearing the neighbor girls' clothes to school was really no fun at all.
I grew up poor, I used to eat just lettuce dipped in Miracle whip, at the end of the month there was very little food in the house, I used to try to arrange to stay the weekends at a friends house so I could eat. And we NEVER had paper towels or tissues in the house that was too much money. All my clothes came from K-mart and was always put on lay-away. I worked really hard to pull myself out of that situation and now I HAVE to have paper towels and tissues in the house at all times.
My grandparents were quite poor when they were young, and even though they weren't later in life, they still had that mind-set. My grandfather regularly made me his 'favorite sandwich when he was a boy' which consisted of two slices of strange bread (thinner than regular sliced bread, and with no discernable "top," like there was no round puffy bit, it was completely square), bologna and margarine. I can't find anything that resembles that bread, and nobody knows what I'm talking about when I ask. I assume it was the very cheapest bread available in the early '90s. Every now and then I make one as close as I can, and get a bit teary thinking about it.
Once upon a time the US used to give out commodities, this was before food banks. It was a big box of basics-dry beans, peanut butter, eggs, milk, powdered milk and some of the most amazing American cheese I have ever tasted. Most folks who remember the commodity boxes remember that cheese. It took me years to find anything even close. (It's Kroger American that they cut to order in the deli) I can't remember if there was bread in the box, but it sounds like something that would be
Load More Replies... My family was on the run, we lived a lot in a VW camper van. It was four people, my mother, two brothers, and myself. S*** on a Shingle (S.O.S) was a luxury. If you don't know its whatever protein you have on toast. To make sure we had weight she would give us all saltiness with margarine. I'm still impressed with her.
I still snack on saltines with mayo, mustard or margarine. The 3Ms
Load More Replies... Sugar and butter on white bread. Government cheese shared from my grand mother's wic. Bag cereal not boxed. Can concentrate oj. Bikes made from scrap from dump. Play in the yard or at friends house. No trips. Dad was on strike. Mom worked part time. Mid 70s gas hike/shortage. Pile on pile of troubles. Hurricane an power out for weeks. Extension cords from neighbors because we were on separate line. Found out it was in a few days later but dad was trying to save on the bill. Always have a gas stove. You will have hot water an food can be cooked.
Blizzards, not hurricane, and my mom worked f/t for all the good it did us. No gas stove. Cold enough the wood stove was smarter all around. OJ was a luxury even frozen.
Load More Replies... My husband said that when he was growing up in a family of 11 kids. They had to have lard sandwiches with salt and pepper. The whole family had to use the same bath water.
I was born poor, adopted and raised with everything I could want except for a good parent as she was too busy with career and drinking. When I was finally of age and back living in my original home town (LONG STORY) I was an out gay living in Bradenton Florida. I had a job at a car dealership and was so poor I ate ketchup sandwiches and fried onions (like a whole onion, breaded with flour and deep fried). Then a little while later I was out of a job, my own stupidity, and went to live with a friends mom in their Trailer and for food I would clean the house and help with shopping. She did make this one thing once a week, it was pork, sauerkraut, potatoes and the usual veggies like onion, carrot and celery, salt and pepper. Sounds yummy to some, gross to others, but when your hungry and that's the only good meal you have for an entire week, it's heaven! So been there, done that! I live in California now, retired and have a roof over my head and food in my belly. I survived!
𝑫𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒎𝒂 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 & 𝒎𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 & 𝑰 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒌•𝒐𝒓•𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 - 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑺𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 & 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑷𝒂𝒑𝒂 𝑺𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒇, 𝒍𝒐𝒍. 𝑩𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔 - 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒌𝒊𝒅𝒔. 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌, 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕. 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔.
When I first moved out of home and "managed" my own finances. I always kept flour and a jar of Jam in the pantry for when my pay ran out before pay day. Flour/Water/salt kneaded into dough and cooked in the oven made great filling Damper (flat bread) that I would have with Jam. Lifesaver with no money and no groceries in the house.
Ya know what bad as it was I really didn't know it then we still had a good time!
My dad is an elementary school head master.. So we are technically wealthier to the other family. But I still remember that we are too considered poor by today standard in my country. Things like milk is a novelty. Books is inherited for years. I still remember that some of our friend in class only have one uniform given by their neighbor.. We all love to go fishing because then get extra food.. And also it is common that fruit plant in someone yard stolen in the night..
I just learned this: my parents got food stamps when I was really tiny. And I had to get my finger pricked to make sure I was getting enough nutrients. But, we have a house now! From not having my own room for the first 10-ish years in my life, I have one right now! (I have 3 siblings and both my parents were broke an unemployed when my older brother was born)
Grandma made tortillas with water and flour. The made gravy with flour and water, salt and pepper. Dinner. Flour was our savior for a long time back then. No plumbing but an outhouse on the side of a hill and forget going to the bathroom at night. rattlesnakes, black widows and scorpions at night so you held it til morning.
Grandma made tortillas with flour and water then made gravy with flour and water with salt and pepper...dinner. Flour was our savior for a long time.
Months ago on BP there was a Hey Pandas & I talked about how if I didn't like something & refused to eat it, it was a war of the wills because my dad would make me sit there until I ate it. I was incredibly stubborn & I would sit there until my mom told him I needed to go to bed & I went to bed hungry. A lot of Pandas thought that was pretty sick. But here's why that happened. My father grew up during the depression. Nuff said there. But after getting his mom & brother out of an abusive home & running to the other side of the country, my dad, who had to quit school at 15, the only way they occasionally ate meat was if he went out & killed some squirrels. I didn't realise that before I was 9 we were poor.. Food wise, what I have read here is so familiar. He had lived not knowing if the next meal might come. So now we had money & for sure 3 meals a day, I was going to eat it, come hell or high water. Dont blame him. I laugh now. He never understood that I was ALWAYS going to win.
Frankly, whenever I look at all I learned from being poor, I don't mind it. I actually wind up feeling sorry for those who didn't learn the same lessons. I learned to cook amazing food from nothing, to reuse and turn trash into something beautiful. I have compassion and empathy that I might not have had with a more "normal" life. I may be in the minority, but I am actually grateful for growing up poor. It even made 2020 easier to handle
I remember when I was a kid I had to make milk from powder and water so I could have cereal in the morning, I thought that was normal till one day my Mom started buying jugs of milk. Turns out we were dirt poor till my Dad got a better job.
Lots of soups... lots of porridge.... mind you. 6ft 2 and 17 stone so I don't think it stunted my growth!
Went to a field trip in 2nd year of school. Were told to use our worst clothes cause we will get really dirty. Used my best clothes and still managed to be the worst dressed. I learned to saw by hand at the age of 7, cause my clothes couldn't bear to stay together.
My mom was pretty inventive with food- Spam fried with maple syrup was delicious! That government cheese was awful. Using tomato soup as sauce for pasta. To this day I hate tomato soup, no matter how you dress it up. Peanut butter that tasted like burned peanuts. Mustard Mayo & ketchup sandwiches. When I was a teenager, my mom's friends would give her clothes for me to wear. I remember the orange sneakers for 99 cents. Cutting out old copy books to put inside your shoes after you get holes in the soles.
The government cheese was either the best or the worst depending on who you talked to. I loved it and hunted for anything close to it for years
Load More Replies... All my toys were second-hand (and broken/parts missing) - either hand-me-downs from slightly better off cousins or picked up for dirt cheap from yard sales etc. If I wanted the latest toy that was only available from shops, my mother would draw a picture of it on cardboard, cut it out and I would play with that.
Don't have children when you can't afford them. "Love" is not enough to raise a kid on. You're setting them up for a hard life and for what? So you can spread your genes? As if that is useful somehow.
Don't be a stupid bitch. How's that? In the US, people die because they don't have medical insurance. Getting birth control is difficult because if you don't have medical insurance, you can't see a doctor, and even if you could, there's no money for prescriptions. Planned Parenthood is a good resource, but the Republicans hate women so much that they're determined to shut down the clinics who gave out birth control for free.
Load More Replies... Grew up poor because you used off-brand cereal? That doesn't sit right with me
You need to re-read that post. They didn't have enough money to buy brand cereals, like Fruit Loops and Cheerios.
Load More Replies... Actually, people in America can be poor. My birthdad is poor, and he lives in America. Not everybody on this post may have grown up in a third-world country.
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