What Do Poor People Buy That Ordinary People Know Nothing About?

I had to move out on my own when I was 17. I had no money at all and drove an old clunker Camry. I got a flat tire to match the flat spare in the trunk. I went to the Discount Tire on the East Side of Indianapolis, where I was living, to see if they could patch it.

When they got it on the rack, they said that belts were showing around the tire--in fact, all of the tires--and I would have to replace all four tires.

I thanked them, went outside, sat in my car and started crying. The manager came out and knocked on the window. He said that he had a set of tires that would fit my wheels that someone left when they got new tires. I told him thanks, but didn't have any money. He told me not to worry about it and when I graduate, to come back and buy my tires from them.

... The manager of the store is no longer there and has since gotten another store (this was 20 years ago). The current manager knew him and said it was the right thing to have done!

The store is not in Carmel or Fishers (those are the northside, fancy-schmancy neighborhoods. I was on the east side of Indy, in the rough part :)

I'm pretty sure it was not a marketing campaign--if it was, it was a pretty bad one. When I was 17, I LITERALLY looked like I was 13--I doubt he thought I was going to do anything with my life, based on the little he could ascertain about my situation. I think he was probably just a really nice person, maybe had a son my age.

itsalwaysseony

I've also had a really weird childhood. Family started off poor (powdered milk all the time, fast food was a huge treat even though it was just the dollar menu, etc.) then my dad's freelance job took off and we made it solidly into the middle class. I think at one point my dad was almost pushing six figures, though only for like a year or two tops.

Then the economy collapsed, and due to the nature of my dad's work he was hit harder than a lot of people. He worked a few different jobs where his work was highly undervalued, then he and my mom got divorced. Mom took the kids, moved into a tiny house with us, and it was back to ramen and beans and oatmeal.

The person I'm dating now is from a fairly affluent background, but her family used to be pretty dang poor as well. Being with her has let me see into the upper middle class area, so really I've experienced just about everything except for probably the bottom 5-10% and the top 5% or so. Kind of surreal now that I think about it.

Lookingforaforest

Learning the times of the day when meat, bakery, fish, vegetable and misc. items are reduced to 75% at the local supermarket.

I've been learning for years, but it's a good day when you find 400g of fresh mince for 99p, and you have warm filling food that you used to take for granted when living with parents.

One thing Ive noticed about being poor is that you become almost vegetarian because meat just costs too damn much. Frozen or fresh.

Another thing would be buying the cheapest large container of yoghurt, and mixing in jam for fruity yoghurt. But that's not about being poor, that's just a good idea.

WatchingJeremyKyle

I have been both very poor and very comfortable. A lot of very true statements already posted here, but here's what I have noticed. When you are broke, you can't plan ahead or shop sales or buy in bulk.

Poor people wait to buy something until they absolutely need it, so they have to pay whatever the going price is at that moment. If ten-packs of paper towels are on sale for half price, that's great, but you can only afford one roll anyway. In this way, poor people actually pay more than others for common staple goods. Edit: Holy cats! Thank you for the gold!

Meepshesaid

Lots of school systems do free lunches for kids under 18 during the summer. When I was a kid I remember my dad taking us to get lunch at the school then go play disc golf, soccer, or do something else free and fun, it was a blast and I had no clue it was because we were poor.

Dollar theaters, and sometimes they have a free afternoon/evening show for kids with the purchase of a parent ticket. Many movies were seen by the three of us for $4 with a shared popcorn and coke.

My dad was amazing at making us feel rich on basically nothing.

pyromaster55

My Dad was also king of this too.

Our bonding nights consisted of a couple rented movies from Blockbuster, turkey bacon on the George Foreman grill, and instant cappuccino powder in milk. He would save up the entire time between visits and when my sister and I visited, we would go on one big "adventure".

One time we went horseback riding, another time we went cave exploring. We didn't have fancy camping gear either, we had his basic issue field stuff from the Army. He would make the coolest forts and we'd spend a day/night out in the woods and play euchre or rummy by the campfire. My sister, my dad and I played a game called super spy, where my dad would leave clues, draw maps, pretend to be a character and give confessions. My sister and I would have to figure out the plot, who was the bad guy, and save the day.

My favorite thing we ever did was follow the creek out on my grandparents land and discover these little water falls. He bought a disposable camera and took my picture in front of every one of them. We made a colored map on poster paper, colored a legend, and he glued the pictures of me and my waterfalls on to it. I would lead my cousins on trips along the creek with my super spiffy map me and my dad made.

I get overwhelmed at times thinking about how hard he tried to make the time we had together awesome and never about what we couldn't do because we were too poor.

LyonessNasty

A buddy of mine went through a tough time a few years back, and I didn't know about it until he told me about a year ago. One thing that stuck with me was that he made just enough money to survive. By survive, he meant literally enough money to pay rent, utilities and the cheapest, worst food he could buy. He couldn't afford transportation. Not even the bus.

He told me about a span of a few months he went through where he literally only ate water, dry noodles and peanut butter. For a few months...

He worked at a restaurant and they cut his hours. He couldn't find other work. His first big reality check was that he had to sell his car to make rent one month. The next month he started selling other "unnecessary items"...like his old TV, some old appliances and his nicer clothes.

He got to the point where he was doing his laundry with dish soap in his sink. He couldn't afford deodorant, razors or any of the things we take for granted...so he'd steal them from the grocery store. He didn't like to do it, but he had no choice. He never got caught.

When he told me all of this, I was floored. I wish he would have told me when it was happening. I would have helped any way I could. At that time, I was by no means living a fancy lifestyle, but I could have thrown him a $20 spot here and there to help him put some groceries in the house or some TP in the bathroom. Fuck, just thinking about it makes me ill.

He's still poor today, but he works full time and is happy...at least from what I see.

FFalldayerryday

Stealing became a regular thing for me and once you realize how incredibly easy stealing is there's no reason not to comfort yourself with entertainment items and stuff like candy along with much need beans, rice, toothpaste, etc.

I started stealing makeup when some people made comments about how dirty and trashy I looked. I think I stole several hundred dollars worth of books because I had no transportation thus my library fees blocked my ability to take out any more books there. When you're that poor the depression is crushing and you feel like you really have nothing at all to lose.

There's just no reason not to become a criminal. Once I got myself to a better life and reconciled with my parents I started thinking about my parents having to bail me out of jail so I stopped even though it had become somewhat addictive. I didn't have to focus on what I couldn't have anymore. I could focus on what I could steal. I looked better, felt better, lived better, because I was shoplifting on a weekly basis. It all just gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to be poor.

You can live in squalor or you can break the law. What kind of saint does it take to choose the squalor? I stopped blaming people for a lot of crimes I heard about and started blaming poverty which is very much the opposite of how I was raised to think.

sandhouse

The first four years of my life were spent in abject poverty.

As a child, I would ask my Mom if we could get a candy bar. She would explain to me, at age 3, that we could get the candy bar, but if we did, it meant we couldn't afford a 2 liter of Coca-Cola. She would phrase it like so, "If you get the candy bar, it'll be gone in a few days, but if you get the Coca-Cola, we can have Coca-Cola for the whole week."

Amazingly, I knew enough to understand that Coca-Coca for over a week was a better deal than two days of a candy bar.

As a side effect, I was regularly told "No" when I asked for things I wanted... mostly Lego sets or He-Man toys.

Around age 6, my father's stake in a mineral prospecting company finally paid off. Turns out he had been putting every dime he had into it since before I was born. We went from surviving on mayonnaise sandwiches to having 2015's equivalent of $10,300 per month in income. My little sister was around 2 or so at this time, and she was getting everything she wanted. For the first 6 years of my life, I had learned that asking for things I wanted would always end with a "No", so I never asked for anything.

My parents weren't able to put it together until my grandmother got very sick and came to live with us. The whole family was out shopping, and my grandmother knew I loved Legos, but I didn't ask for a set of them. Meanwhile, my little sister had a Barbie doll and a My Little Pony in each hand.

She stopped and asked me, "Rathadin, you don't want a Lego set?" "Mommy and Daddy always tell me no, Grandma. We can't afford them."

I have only a very vague memory of this, but before she died, my Grandmother told me this story and said that my Mom broke down in tears in the middle of the store, sobbing. My Dad had a look of defeated failure on his face (according to her). Apparently, it simply never occurred to them the reason I never asked for anything was because I had always been told no.

For Christmas, I got three Lego Technic sets.

Chibiskittles

Growing up was interesting regarding money. My mom was a hoarder and I lived in a house with trash including animal waste everywhere with no heat or running hot water.

I use to take jugs of water and put them on my front porch to warm up enough to bath with. The house was failing apart and the tub was actually sinking into the ground so we wouldn't use it so I made a hole in the corner of my basement floor so it would drain.

The worst was winter the water never got warm because of the cold and my hair would be frozen since there was no heat. It took me a long time to figure out this wasn't normal. What made everything worst was she was abusive and made us poor with her spending. She made about 1,000 a week or more and would give it to charity so others saw her in a positive light ( they didn't know about the house) once she even won the lottery and got 82,000 and gave it all away. All I asked was for a trailer so we had someplace to get warm or shower but she saw nothing wrong with our life.

There would also be days she gave our food money away and I wouldn't be able to eat if there was no school. My mother is a bitch and we have no contact anymore. On the awesome side I have four kids and a three level house with 4 bathrooms... Guess who showers all the time with hot water now!!!!!

RavenSekhmet

About a year ago, I was addicted to alcohol, 4000 km from home, dropped out of school and living in my 20 year old car. I got so used to eating microwaved potatoes that I considered walking into a 7/11 and pocketing a handful of mayo packets while pretending to buy a hot dog, a special treat.

I grew up distinctly middle class and generally did not want for much. My recent experience has really put into perspective the difficulties experienced by people who are or have been in similar situations to myself, but bare the burden of direct responsibility to kids and family.

Things have gotten a lot better since I've accepted the help of other people. Seriously, even relatively tiny gestures of kindness will go a long way with someone who is literally struggling for survival. Never underestimate the impact you can have upon another person's life. I'd probably be dead by now if it weren't for the unconditional love and support of friends, family, and random strangers.

Instead, I'm 25, relatively healthy again, and back in school trying to finish off my engineering degree.

If you've taken the time to read this then thank you, it means a lot!

surfboard89

Oh god. Bags of frozen veggies and a couple packs of ramen can make a family meal. I used to buy these awful frozen chicken discs wrapped in bacon - they were terrible - filled with gristle and just nasty. Eating those with rice and frozen corn was a real treat.

I ate kraft dinner (mac and cheese) every day for about 2-3 years because that was all I could cook while my mom worked. (I could have made spaghetti-os, but I hated those), That for dinner, and one of those cheap 99 cent pack donuts from the grocery store for breakfast. Lunch was Bologna sandwich and an apple. Finally, when I was about 10 or 11, I started teaching myself how to cook from my mom's old cook books so my meals got a lot better. All carbs, and cheap fats - scalloped potatoes, rice and cheap meats.

My local bus service used to have paper transfers. So you'd pay your fare, get the paper transfer that was good for an hour, and then you'd use it for the next bus. But if you were only going to the station, you'd get a paper transfer anyway, then hang around the station for an extra 5 minutes to see if anyone needed it. Conversely, you'd wait around for people getting off the bus, to see if you could score someones transfer. This only worked if you weren't switching buses, but I got quite a few free rides this way (and gave many a transfer away)

Going without meds, living in constant pain because you can't afford a prescription. I remember laying in my bed at night, and my mom would be sobbing in her bed from pain, because she couldn't afford the meds that would treat her rheumatoid arthritis or anything but generic tylenol for her pain. I guess that's not reallly buying anything, but while we're down memory lane..

Saving your birthday money from your grandma and aunts and uncles so you can pay for a babysitting course that lets you babysit at 12. Getting a babysitting job at 12, and babysitting every day from 3 until 7 or 8, to earn some money. Giving that money to your dad so he can pay his phone bill and put gas in his car. Getting a real job at 14, working at a fast food joint so you got to eat dirt cheap. Still giving your dad money, but this time knowing it is going to the casino or the bar (but still doing it anyway).

Being poor was awful 0/10 do not recommend.

squeakygreenmom

You can get new car parts from the junk yard for virtually nothing, with added discounts if you remove them from the junkers yourself. I had a 12-yr-old car in college and when it blew a tire, I went to the junk yard and found a decent set of tires. Bought all 4 for $70, which reduced my food budget to $16 for the next two weeks. Some lady in the grocery store saw me with a calculator trying to figure out how much ramen I could buy with $16 and handed me a $20. It made me cry. (I'm glad I'm not poor anymore. But I'll always remember that lady.)

Edit: Thank you everyone for sharing your stories. I'm glad there are people like this in the world and that so many of us have experienced their kindness. (And for those of you talking about how much ramen $16 can buy, let the record show I was probably buying other necessities like tampons or flour or something.)

Albatross

Back when my Dad had just left us (he's not a deadbeat or anything, they just separated) my mom and I fell on harder times than usual. We went from a house with 5 kids and 2 parents to a tiny duplex for just her and I. I remember we would go to the dollar tree and every now and I then I'd be able to get a toy. Do you guys remember the little "for boy" and "for girl" bags they had? It was like 5 toys for the price of one. That was like winning the lottery man.

I was so happy with those things and my mom would get them for me just to see me smile. However soon after we sort of pulled out of the worst bit, but we had a few little dips here and there. Food was never an issue but we had cable turned off sometimes and things like that. I remember one day my mom came home and said she had a surprise for me. My child self had the audacity to ask "Is it from the dollar tree?"

With a condescending tone. To this day I have no clue why I asked that because I felt immediately shitty once her face had that look of embarrassment. I am 18 now and was about 12 then. I've since said sorry and she had no clue why I cried saying it. People...take what your parents give you and thank them for every little gift. They love it and they might not have the money but they're sure as hell going to find a way to give you the world the best way that they can.

Jujubear1724

That living in a semi-rural community means that doing chores for old farmers means they let you walk through their fields to dig your own turnips. Cut your own mustard greens. That turnip greens are awesome with the juice from left over pickled peppers.

You can plant and grow more squash, zucchini and cucumbers than you can eat if you shovel the neighborhood horse stalls for fertilizer.

Government cheese and peanut butter can be stretched and modified.

The ladies at church will help if you ignore the gossip and backhanded remarks.

That the stove in a 3 room house can be used to cook and heat.

and I too figured it out way too early that "I already ate" was a pleasantry to make me and my brother feel better.

Beans, Rice and butcher leavings can go a long way. Those are the main things we had to buy. Everything else was bartered for, charity of the church and "commodities".

Learning to hunt was essential. We lived on the edge of Champion paper company land. They let us hunt. Squirrel and Rabbit go a long way towards adding some income and meat. I could keep us in milk by taking the skins to the local processor along with rattlesnakes.

Also, there are cheaper places than Goodwill, if you know where to look. Garage sales, dumpsters... if you know what to look for. I still can not stand the smell of mildewed cloth without having an anxiety attack. Same for rotting chicken.

The things our parents (Or in my case, grandmother) will do to feed us.

bassbastard

Grew up poor here, here are some things I noticed: Growing up we were never allowed to buy "individual servings" of things. I still feel guilty every time I buy my toddler individually packaged yogurts, cheese strings, etc. Fruit, buying fruit was a special occasion.

Underwear and socks at the thrift store I don't think my parents bought these but a lot of my lower income clients buy them. I used to think wow who buys underwear at a thrift store yup some people dont really have any other choice. At least for latinos tortillas, sometimes you wouldn't even have anything to put on them but you could butter on them or salt and just eat them like that to fill up your stomach.

Formula, I once saw my neighbor feed her infant child with rice water beacuse they couldn't afford formula. Bulk beans. I leave in utah and my brother in law recently bought 10 gallon drum of dry beans from the mormon community store. He's not even poor he just said he saw it, remembered his mom used to buy those growing up and then couldn't resist. Dollar store toys. Our christmas was always dollar store growing up. If you haven't ever seem those toys they are the cheapest of the cheap. Fake barbies that reek of overprocessed plastic and break after a week.

stephmveg

Growing up my mother would work 2-3+ jobs to support my sister and I. When we first moved back to Missouri from Las Vegas to be closer to family so they could help us, since my mom was broke, they decided they didn't want to after all. We lived in a Fairfield Inn for the first year of moving back to Missouri. We couldn't afford anything else, and it wasn't all that cheap. It was great because we had a free breakfast(which we STOCKED up on!) and an indoor swimming pool. For lunch I would take a piece of bread with honey on it. I LOVED it, it never occurred to me I was eating it because we couldn't afford anything else. I adored them. Once a week, we would get a special treat.

We would go to Shoney's. Kids ate the salad bar for free. So we would go there and my mom would sit and watch us gorge ourselves- my sister on veggies and good things, myself..

I would get gigantic piles of pepperonis and eat them. My mom would say she wasn't hungry, so she would sit and had this amazing smile on her face, knowing how happy my sister and I were getting to eat as much as we could. By the time I started school, kids would look at my lunch(teachers as well) and ask me why I had only a piece of bread and honey. I would say because it is what I wanted for lunch! I never really had toys or things I asked for, because I never really cared to have them.

My childhood was extremely poor, but my sister and mother made it so rich to me that I never realized it. My mom is the strongest person I know. She worked herself into physical disability to give my sister and I a HOUSE growing up. An actual HOUSE. It was the most amazing thing to me.

She got better jobs, working at hospitals, etc. Finally getting a managing position at Proctor and Gamble. With that, she got us things we never even knew about, she said it was making up for lost Christmases and past birthdays. We didn't care, we loved just having a place to call home and food for our table. I still look back and think to myself, those honey sandwiches, the motel we group up in, it was some of the best memories I have of my home. Being poor monetarily is nothing compared to being rich in family.

patrickp321

Thankfully, I'm not poor and always had help when I was in a pinch...

but my mom and dad - not so much. My dad was one of 9 kids of a sharecropper. Two died from Diptheria (Google it) before he was born. At age 3, he was picking cotton 'till his mother died at age 6. Then they were put in a "home" for poor kids (like an orphanage but half the kids weren't orphans and not up for adoption. There were about 200 kids at the home.)

Before the fortune of ending up in a Home until he was 17, this was his life:

2 bedroom house. Dirt Floors. No water or electricity. He was the youngest boy, so he didn't ever have new shoes until he was in the Home. All hand-me-downs. His mother made clothes from potato sacks. Seriously. Imagine wearing a potato sack in the Texas summer heat, while working in a cotton field at age 4. Blows my mind. All the food was what they killed or grew. He has stories about "Gritty possum".

The year before he ended up in the Home, there was a heavy snowfall (about 2 feet, which was DEEP in Texas at that time. His brother Marc saw some geese fly by and land in the field about 200 yards from the house. Mark was about 14 at the time. That kid grabbed his gun and crawled on his belly through that snow.

They ate goose for dinner (I think it was around Christmas at the time).

The crazy thing is, this seems bizarre to most folks - shit, I'm ONE generation removed from this and it seems crazy - but it happened to my dad. I never EVER forget what kind of mess he started in.

And I will NEVER vote for anyone that wants to hurt welfare, social services, or medical assistance.

QWERTYMage

It's not the things we bought.

I grew up in a level of poverty, in the entire 1980s and some of the 1990s, that modern politicians will swear to you doesn't occur in modern America. After all, we have food stamps and welfare, and anyone still poor after that is obviously just a lazy fucking drug-addict bum.

It's not the things we bought. We lived on powdered milk and rice and ramen (and before that, those old Won Ton Soup packets that I just realized don't exist anymore) and Gov't cheese. Tuna can after tuna can. Bread from the discount rack at the local bakery, about 9 minutes away from growing mold, but hey, at least it was only $.19 a loaf.

It's the things we scavenged.

Hauling food out of the dumpster at 7-11, because they threw away piles of chip bags that were a day over their expiration. (Manager caught us one day, they apparently told the employees to stab a hole in each chip bag after that. NBD, we just had to sniff each bag to make sure nothing was contaminated). Checking neighbors' trash bins - rescuing half a damn pizza some idiots had ordered the night before, then threw away after a handful of slices. Hauling in furniture from alleyways - my littlest sibling, my sister, received a twin bed mattress that had a grotesque brown stain on it, looked like someone had shit a gallon of wet feces onto it. No fucks given, we scrubbed that fucker with bleach over and over, and she slept on it for years.

And then there were times when the welfare checks or food stamps didn't arrive, and the trash bins were not producing food. I grew up in a fairly rural area. When that happened?

I know that in winter, Grey Squirrel tastes fucking gross. Sure, people from the South can claim that their brown and red squirrels are delicious, but I would rather eat shit out of a pig's ass than eat another bite of goddamn squirrel meat. Or jackrabbit. Or goddamned dandelion greens.

I guess I'm just saying that it's not what "insanely poor" people BUY, since they're insanely poor - they can't fucking afford to buy ANYTHING. You can keep the electricity and rent paid, or you can.... nope, there is not other choice. Food? Medicine? Clothing? Furnishings? Blankets? All of this is shit you can pull out of the garbage.

JobinWah

I got laid off in London at the height of the Global Financial Crisis 5 years ago, and being a New Zealander I was on a Visa that didn't allow me access to any sort of social support. Luckily I was living a fairly cheap flat in East London with 3 others despite my income prior to getting laid off being sufficient that I could've been living somewhere much nicer. I had a little bit saved up so wasn't too worried initially but after the first 2 months of having no prospects whatsoever I realised that if I wanted to stay in London (which I really did) I'd have to seriously tighten my belt and broaden my job search from the field I was working in to basically anything.

I worked out I probably had a month and a half worth of money left, I was paying £100 a week in rent all inclusive and was usually spending about £50 a week on food which I knew I would have to reduce drastically, and cut out all luxuries like alcohol. Unfortunately my expanded job search wasn't going anywhere as shops, pubs, and restaurants were inundated with 10+ people like me per day looking for work and when they were hiring tended towards those who actually worked those sort of jobs already rather than down on their luck office workers who would leave the second they found something better.

I had a boon when I remembered there was a huge bag of frozen sausages in the freezer that had been there since before I had moved in 6 months earlier. As a result I was able to cut my food bill to less than £15 per week living off a sausage and half a sweet potato and parsnip (between them great nutritional content) for dinner, and unflavoured noodles for lunch - years of running late for work had taught me to live without breakfast already. My one treat was tea, I used to have it with milk and sugar but I reverted to plain with neither until one of my housemates said I could help myself to her milk and sugar.

I managed to hang on for two months living like that (when my sausages ran out it got harder) but go the point where I had enough money left for 2 more weeks or a flight home so I packed my bags and reluctantly left. The thing was despite being the poorest I'd ever been was actually having a good time, my housemates were 3 of the most wonderful people I've ever known. When I was working we'd all go out together or just drink at home on the weekends, they were a French girl, a Spanish girl, and an American guy so always had friends from back home coming to visit that we would take to do touristy things. When I stopped being able to do all that they realised I was struggling financially they'd buy me drinks or shout me to the pub knowing full well I might run out of money and have to leave without having the chance to return the favour.

It was also summer and amazingly for London actually hot and sunny so we would often just go to the park, the American guy even offered to shout me to a day at Wimbledon but I just couldn't accept it. The French girl worked in cafe and would bring home unsold pastries for me when she could as well, I knew why she was doing it but she was too nice to mention she knew I was struggling and would say it was for everyone but the other two would always leave them for me.

One thing that will stay with me forever is I played soccer once a week with a bunch of guys I'd met and we'd always go to the pub afterwards and then I'd get the tub home with a guy who lived nearby. When I realised I had to tighten my belt I'd walk an hour and a half to get there as it meant it was a free activity which was obviously great, then I would make my excuses why I couldn't go the pub and walk home. One day the lad who lived nearby had to get home straight afterwards so said he'd get the tube back with me to my horror.

We got to the tube station and I made up a story about losing my wallet and needing to go back to look for it so he should just go on without me, unfortunately it was a visible bulge in shorts pocket and he pointed it out.

I painfully paid my fare (wondering what I would have to sacrifice for the £3 trip) and got on the tube with him but he knew I had been out of work for a while and started putting it all together. He asked how bad I was struggling and I told him some of it but he must've known it was far worse than I was letting on.

Next week after the game he dragged me along to the pub saying he'd cover me which I was grateful for but dreading what would happen when it was my turn to buy a round even if he was going to cover it. To my surprise when got there he slipped me a tenner so I could buy my round without public embarrassment. He shouted me home on the tube and basically said that was how it was going to be until I found a job ad he didn't mind at all because he'd been similarly poor myself. Despite not finding a job and having to leave he visited me in New Zealand a few years later and I was able to repay his kindness.

Tiny gesture but it still makes me feel warm inside when I think about it, I've been poor in the past or had times where I've made sacrifices when I need to save money urgently for something, but at least had an income so had a point every week/fortnight/month where everything would be relieved even if just for a day or two. Not having any sort of income for 4 months in one of the most expensive cities in the world has given me an understanding of the sort of things people stuck in real poverty go through only they can't just fly home to a support network or have friends shout them out for a bit of fun.

TeWheke

My mom would send me to birthday parties just so I could eat. I didn't have anything to give though. I still remember going to a roller skating party when I was in first grade. They called our party group off the floor to do cake and presents. I purposely stayed on the floor so that no one would notice I didn't give a present. Unfortunately as I was turning the curve right by that party, I could hear them read my card and say "this one must have come untaped from the present. Where is the present for this?" I wanted to die. I was 6.

In fifth grade, a friend's mom realized that we were this broke. She showed me the toys she had bought for her daughter's birthday and let me pick one to give her daughter so I wouldn't be embarrassed. I actually just told her daughter that story on Facebook about a year ago. It made me feel so awesome.

tiredmom14

And now I'm also crying... This brought back some memories when I was growing up in Cuba and my dad has his whole career ripped away from him and was forced to become a carpenter, but this is for another story. Before we left Cuba, legally I will say, we had to turn in our rations card months in advanced. The government would keep track of how much food a family was allotted.

We didn't get very to begin with so my parents would do the best they could from going to the black market, getting help from family when they could or scrounging around. I remember growing up that my best and fondest memories were from my school lunches because I would get so much in my plate.

My young mind didn't know how to process this much information, I would tell myself ( look at all this food we are getting) when in all reality, it was meager scraps, I was happy though. I would try to pick out the small rocks out if my meals, sometimes I'd find wood chips, maggots whatever else...

Didn't matter it was food, I was 6 years old and I was hungry. Going back to months prior to leaving my country of birth, my parents had to turn in our IDs, our rations card, and everything else that could have helped. No rations card..... No food..... No money..... We were left with nothing. I didn't know until years later that both my parents went nights starving to give me what little food they found from the black market or what some family members and friends in our neighborhood could spare.

When we finally came over to the US, I cried and felt guilty about eating an apple and a twix bar. ( I'm actually crying right now) It took months if not years of adjusting to this and several months of carefully monitored diets because I came over to the US malnourished, but alive. I was about 55lbs when I was 11. My dad has his title reinstated and began teaching, my mother retired as a nurse and I'm currently giving back to my country, the US by serving in the military and I'm thankful of being here. Some people don't know how good they have it.

mybumisontherail

I am insanely proud of how my mum managed after my dad left; I honestly believe many others wouldn't have. Shopping at the supermarket the day before their delivery, when things are ridiculously discounted in the last half hour they're open, helps massively.

Things that had been £3.00 were now £0.09; at times the employees would be walking around the store trying to get rid of the last things from the deli counter and you'd get £20.00 worth of pies and cold meats for about £0.50. All of that was great because we had a decent freezer. We'd have bags of vegetables from the discount section that cost practically nothing because they weren't crisp enough to stay on display. That was fine with my mum; she'd just make a huge stew that would last all week. The only thing that might go into it that really cost much of anything might be a chicken.

I remember the one standard she always stuck to, no matter what, which was that absolutely everything else could be cheap, discounted, value versions, but not meat; she would never, ever buy cheap, poor quality meat. Discounted on its last day (would go in the freezer at home), yes: cheap, no. And because she started teaching my brother and I how to cook when I was seven and he five, we grew up knowing how to get the best meals out of almost nothing.

One of the best of those was the time she had nothing left in the cupboards except a tin of sweetcorn, a tin of chick peas (garbanzo beans), an onion, a carrot that had seen better days and some cheap lasagne sheets. We've been eating that veggie lasagne ever since because there's not a meat type lasagne that even comes close to how great this one is.

Knowing how to sew and knit was probably a lifesaver, too. Nowadays, charity shops seem to think they're a bit more upmarket than they actually are and overprice things, but back then clothes and shoes were just pennies. Knowing that you can alter the hideous dress you see in a charity shop into something amazing and totally wearable because the fabric's great even if someone did try to create the fashion equivalent of an Ode to a Carbuncle with it is a handy skill to have. Learn to sew, even if you're a guy; it'll save you a ton. Thanks for asking this question.

I know I rambled a bit; I've never really had the opportunity to tell anyone some of the things my mum had to do to keep us afloat when things were bad, or how proud I am that she did. I hope there's some ideas there that can help someone who needs them.

Sinvisigoth

Probably going to be buried but my grandfather took care of my little sister and my mom until he died from leukaemia in 1994. He had a large inheritance who he left my psycho grandma as the one in control of the money... she made my mom buy a trailer and moved us into a trailer park. My mom couldn't hold a job... we quite often had our electricity turned off in both the summer and winter. We used our gas stove as a heater and to heat up bath water in the winter... and sweltered in the Texas heat in the summer. My mom received 300$ in food stamps each month. She would purchase soda, chocolate milk, ramen, ham bread etc.. nothing healthy or long lasting and we would have food for literally two weeks.

The next two weeks while she was locked in her room smoking pot with her abusive boyfriend, my little sister and I were left to fend for ourselves. I would make biscuits with only water and put some jelly on them from the jelly packets we got at school. Sometimes the only food we had were school lunches.

As a child I would get apples and oranges for Christmas, I never once received a gift after age 6. My birthday is five days before Christmas and I never received a birthday present.. sometimes my mom would buy me an ice cream cone from McDonald's.. We went to school in clothes from goodwill, and my mom never bought us school supplies.. In fourth grade she sent me to school with a single piece of paper and one pencil.. I was made fun of constantly for being poor. My clothes always stunk because my mom smoked hand rolled cigarettes in the house. Yeah, she could afford cigarettes but not food or school supplies.

It's really sad as a child to find out Santa doesn't exist because Christmas morning you get an Apple as a present.

Now I'm 27, I put myself through massage therapy school and work for myself. Since I make decent money, once a week I go to Walgreens and tape a 20$ Bill to the back of a pack of newborn diapers, along with a note asking them to pay it forward. My kids have never had to go without school supplies, food, or Christmas presents. It sucks I was raised the way I was, but it made me stronger and put the fear of poverty in my heart. I refuse to be like my mother. 

NurseNikky

Nothing. Not being able to buy anything at ALL for the next 20 days until your assistance check comes. Your bank account is -$4 in the hole because you took every last cent of the $600 you get a month to pay your rent, power and food bill. You buy the cheapest food, you don't buy ANYTHING for full price, you don't buy anything that's anymore than $3 per item. No luxeries, no snack food, no "long term" purchases (Bulk food).

After your rent and utilities are paid, you're left with very little for food. Where I live it's a choice of either food or heat/lights and it gets damn cold in the winter. The food you buy lasts you about 10 days, and then it's gone, as much as you try to spare it and break it up into smaller meals, making soup and broth with what you bought. It only lasts so long until it's done.

After that it's not about buying anything. It's about doing what you can to survive. Food banks only allow you to use them once a month here, both food banks I've tried have given me rotten food the majority of the time. So then you turn to family/friend to borrow just a little bit to do you until the end of the month...Then at the end of the month you have to pay them back and you have to cut your expenses even shorter. And the cycle continues.

It used to be funny how my parents would tear apart the couch cushions to nickel and dime their way on the bus to get to work or any type of appointment. Now it's not. Now I know, because I'm doing the exact same thing.

The system aims to keep you poor. I would even go as far as to say they want you to perish so you're one less thing they have to worry about. Just this month I found out I may be getting my $60 special diet to gain weight cut off. It doesn't even surprise me anymore. Thankfully I'm studying hard for my grade 12 and going to attempt to get into a trade school. As far as I'm concerned, I'm as good as dead if I don't get off this "helping" system.

You don't buy anything when you're poor, you sell your dignity and any pride you have for a healthy meal.

Faithfulhumanity

This is the lowest point in my life, but I wouldn't be who I am today without going through it. I had just gotten out of jail for a DWI. Luckily my manager kept me on through the duration because I had enough PTO to cover it (I was an assistant manager at a movie theatre). The only trouble was my license was taken away. At the same time a friend of mine from college had been paid to clean out a hoarder house near where I worked (at the time I had been driving 45 min on way to work at a 9.75/hour job).

We talked to the owner and made a deal. We would clean out the house and make it livable again so they could sell it and while we worked on it (up to a 6 month maximum) we could live there rent free. This was just enough time for me to save money to pay all of my court costs and fines, but college loans were coming due.

My parents were still in their bankrupcy so they couldn't help and they went into it during my freshman year, so I had paid for everything with personal loans. I helped my friend get a job at the same mall I worked at by making friends with people who ran the restaurant downstairs. We worked it so we had the same schedule. So, for about a year and a half we would work on the house during the day, get ready then go to work at night. It was exhausting/disgusting/humbling/dizzying.

At the beginning we cleaned out one room, sanitize it, then repainted it/worked on the floor and then we inhabited that space. Luckily the refrigerator that was left there still worked. We bought a 2 burner electric range and a toaster oven at a garage sale. The pipes/counters everything were so rusted and miserable that we couldn't repair the kitchen till the very last.

We also didn't have a bathroom sink because that too needed replaced/didn't work. For the winter months we both lived in the same room with a fridge, the range, the toaster oven and a tv we had from college. We had to do our dishes in the bathtub with a series of plastic totes we had cleaned and bleach/dish soap. A lot of our money went to the generator that he had rigged to run power for the house/heater so we could live and work there in the cold.

During this time, as a manager at a movie theatre, we were aloud one movie pass per day, but we could only use them that day. So I would sign a pass out and trade it for food from one of the food court managers, but only if they were on my level per say. Panera is also great for rewards. Once a month you'd get something free. Also dairy queen. I basically signed up for every free giveaway/rewards program that existed in the mall. Finally I got in good with the Sabaro's guy and it turns out the weigh all the left over food at the end of the night and toss it!!!

So I would gather 4-5 passes and just not date them and he'd let me take the whole lot. We're talking 5-6 pizzas and stroboli's and salad, etc. I'd bring it home and my roomate and I would split them into meals and put them in gallon bags and freeze them so they'd last for a couple weeks. Luckily he worked at a nicer restaurant so he could bring home the left over baked potatoes and soup some times. God, I know how to spruce up a baked potato. They are so versatile. It was like a thanksgiving feast when he'd come out to the car with a bag of baked potatoes, but we had to make them last. We'd go to marcs and get cheap hotsauce and sour cream, whatever was on sale and ration everything out.

I got a used phone with a discount plan through work but no data. I basically had to do all my web browsing at the mall. I sweet talked my way into getting the password for the ice cream shops wifi so on break I would research how my friend and I would do work for the next day. A LOT of DIY videos/tutorials.

Once spring came around we were able to work on another room and then I moved into that one. Then we started working on the living room and so on. The 6 months were up so we had to start paying rent. While we didn't pay rent in the earlier agreement we still had to pay for our own supplies, but when we payed rent we got reimbursed for them.

It was still really hard paying student loans/rent and then buying supplies. We would go to Home Depot once a week to check out deals and also we'd hit up the local Salvation Army. I still go to the salvation army for stuff. They have a system where other developers/stores/contractors donate their leftover stuff and Salvation Army sells it and uses the money for their charity. You can get really great stuff that Lowes and Home Depot just phase out.

Anyway while going through this we were always breaking even on supplies and bills (once we got electric hooked back up and gas going to run the stove left there). But then I met a girl. She had a kid from a previous thing so I knew I had to make a leap in my professional life to make it work. Basically I knew if I was going to help take care of a 2 year old, it wasn't going to happen on 9.75 and hour 30 hours a week. I had gotten a lot of pride from what my friend and I had accomplished so I took it and ran with it.

I started asking my friends if their works were hiring/checking out craigslist/monster. Finally I asked my friend who works at a software company to help me with my resume. Once we were done he realized I kinda qualified for an open position in Customer Support at the software company where he works. Long story short, I've been at my job supporting software (with no prior software experience I just interview well and had a friend here) for 2.5 years now and have gotten promoted twice. Got my license back, married the girl and we are working on making a kid of our own.

In all I wouldn't be the step dad and husband I am today if I hadn't hit that low. If I hadn't learned to make my money stretch. How to talk to people. How to relate with people when I'm in need and when they're in need. It goes really far just being personable and approachable, but that wouldn't have happened for me if I hadn't gone through all that.

TLDR went to jail, cleaned a hoarder house, lived their, made it back to the land of the living and living well

donwoodfollower

I've not been this poor but I'm only young so I guess this could happen at any time. I currently work in a supermarket behind a ready made food counter that sells chicken and pies. I usually work late nights because I'm still at school and often have to reduce food before I finish my shift. I see regulars come in to buy the reduced stuff and I currently wait for them to come before reducing it right down to 30p from £4 because I know that they're waiting for it.

Reading this thread makes me understand why and even though it's against company policy and forbidden to do such a thing I have that guilt planted on me because I hate to see people suffer so I think fuck it. I'll reduce it. To be honest it makes me happy to see them happy. I'll continue to reduce the food and often I sell full whole cooked chickens for £1 because if I cut it to £3 I know it'll sit there and get thrown out in the morning. My other colleagues don't do this and I'm on my final warning against the managers but the customers love me and I appreciate their kindness and manners when I help them.

ronnieidh

I don't expect this to get much attention, and I'll probably remain at the bottom of this thread (funny how that fits so well).

I'm at a point where to break even, I can't spend any more than $10 per week on food (edit: when I do have to spend more, that usually means walking to work in exchange). Being someone who does not make a whole lot with shitty restaurant jobs, the one perk is not what I buy, but rather what I can get away with eating for nothing at all. The place I work provides an employee meal for each shift, so I use that as an opportunity to stock up. If somebody isn't going to finish their employee meal, and I just need something to bring home with me for the night, I get on it. Hell, even if a diner doesn't touch a significant part of their dish, I'll take that with me too.

Am I putting my health at risk? Absolutely. But it's that or go hungry, and nobody at work realizes my situation. Most of them are younger and still in college, so their job is secondary. This is all I have.

Edit: Almost forgot, I have my bachelor's, and this is where that piece of paper I put so much money into got me. Go fucking figure.

lazychickbum

I'll say it since I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere in the thread. It isn't what you buy but what you can get for free. Sometimes that means stealing.

Ever heard of the five finger discount? I have been homeless at one point and there were many many times I went to sleep without a crumb of food all day. You can only survive this way so long before you resort to other methods of obtaining things like food - and in some cases, stealing becomes a valid option. I have been so hungry that I walked into a grocery store and loaded up at the deli only to sneak out the door with all that food and finally be able to eat a decent meal.

I have asked a friend to hold my feet as I fished old clothes out of those big blue donation bins just so I had a jacket to sleep in outside.

I could go on but the poverty that we think doesn't exist here in the US is very real for many people and it's extremely hard to pull yourself out of it without a helping hand.

dontthreadlightly

A footlong Subway Meatball sub costs $5.50. That comes with 8 meatballs, but for one dollar more you can get double meat. With 16 meatballs the thing won't even close, but you can take it home and make another sandwich later, and if you buy your bread from the discount rack at the back of the grocery store, then it can be even more cheap.

If you divide the sandwiches into 6-inches, then you get four sandwiches for around $6.50 plus the discount bread, which can last you for several future purchases. That is solid protein (hard to come by when you're broke) and can keep you going for two days for around $3 a day, maybe longer if you stretch it.

God... That might be the most depressing thing I've ever written.

Not_really_Spartacus

When my grandmother went into a nursing home, she told me I could live in her house, when she died and my dad officially owned it, he sold it and kicked me out.. I had 3 boys to support so, I was thanking god it was summer and so I sent them to their dads and moved everything I had into 3 storage units, 2 large and one small, put all my big stuff in the 2 big ones, put a twin bed, table, electric skillet fridge and microwave in the small one.. and with an adapter that added 2 plugs to the light I was able to live their for 2 months...

I was able to shower at work, I worked 24 hr shifts and would go in early to shower and then shower before I left the next day. working on the ambulance we usually got free drinks and half price food, so was able to save 80% of my income for 2 months to have a place for my boys when they came home... was very hard, I would have to park across the street from the storage units and sneak in after dark. only cook after it closed so no one could smell it... nights were hot and sweaty since it was june/july in Oklahoma..but I survived, and moved on.

JohnDeereWife