Very poor here

No Christmas, I remember sharing a chicken leg to our cat so she could eat too.

I was made fun of because I stunk.

I am doing much better now though

Very poor, I think, but I was never hungry, matter of fact I was chunky. Could not afford Levy's, my mom thought they cheap cause they faded, 50s....1.68/pr. New house, Fresno, Ca. North end...Dominics Liquor? Off Blackstone. 11,400$. 43$/mo. And still they would not buy me a BB gun until I was 10.

Had to recycle corn kernels out of the privy for breakfast.

I grew up poor but had no idea how poor until I saw my Dad's income statement from the mid 50's. He made $7,000. He worked one full time job and two part time jobs to feed a wife and five kids. I even remember eating a roast from a neighbor's horse that died. We raised a lot of our own food and it was not unusual to have two bacon strips and pancakes for supper. Scrambled eggs and fried potatoes was another common meal. We never took govt. assistance of any kind. Dad worked his ass off and was able to buy a lathe and within 10 years had his own tool & die shop with 20 employees. He also built up the largest locksmith business in the Canton/Akron area back then with 5 locksmiths on the road. He was also a well known gunsmith, did custom bluing and was half owner in a sporting goods store in Akron. He worked his way up the American way and did well. To those who blame "White privilege," you couldn't be more ignorant.

We didn’t have a ton of money growing up but I never really “felt” it.  I got what I needed, and our places we lived were all taken care of and clean because my parents were and are good people. We weren’t so poor I was wearing ratty clothes or not eating well or anything like that. I got free or reduced cost lunches I think until middle school.  From the age of 4-5 through when I left to college we lived in a really shitty mobile home from the 60s.  I was embarrassed by it and never had any friends over when I was a kid.  I think my parents could have afforded a nicer house but they weren’t very smart with money, needless to say, spent too much on nonsense.

When I went to college my parents were in better shape financially and built a nice house that they still live in, and I’ve since went on to a very high paying job.

Damn, out of everything written here this put a serious lump in my throat. Hope you are well.

We were working class poor. Not quite as bad as some described but I remember going to the grocery store and losing the $2 I was given to get food. Was to get bread and eggs to get by for a few days til moms payday. I remember the church bringing mom and I a food box at Christmas. Not great stuff but it was food. It had several boxes of Kraft Mac and cheese.

Mom worked her ass off and became a financial  advisor and retired early.  I have a post grad education and learned hard work. Smarter than some , harder working than most. Married a college drip out that went back to get her masters with a 4.0 gpa. My moms work ethic found it’s way to my son best inheritance there is.

We were so poor the people down the road had me.

We were so poor we couldn’t even pay attention.

We were vastly poor. For instance we had to fly on public airlines as far back as the 1970s and our Mercedes was at least 5 years old. One time we had to let one of the people who cleaned our home go because it was discovered she was stealing the winter clothing from storage and one just cannot tolerate a thief. Times were indeed tough but I somehow managed to suffer through it.

Was your moms name "Lovey"?

Rich!

Not poor, but paycheck to paycheck. I was constantly loaning my mom money to buy bread or milk or gas because she ran out of dough before payday.

I was shoveling snow, mowing lawns, had a paper route, so I generally had money, unless I'd been to the arcade.

Always loved the Hodakas.
The smell of Klotz makes me happy.

At certain times we were very poor, others we were well above the curve. No complaints, as we rarely went hungry, even if it was free school lunches as our only meal.

Mom worked hard to try to make ends meet, and she had her own demons and addictions to over come.

Yep, lived in east Chicago.  Both parents worked in Steel Mills, both laid off.  So it was for most of the families in my area.  Patches on the patches of my jeans, home haircuts, if I didn't have lunch at school, I would not have one.  

Makes me appreciate what I have now.  Have worked at least a 40 hour week since I was 14.  After school, full time job.

Holy shit.  Identical upbringing but I had one sister.

Family of 8 in a two bedroom, roach infested hovel.  From that, I am blessed to be able to leave a nice legacy to my kids.  Judge Smails was right.  The world DOES need ditch diggers!

When my parents first got married, they lived in a single wide trailer where bologna sandwiches for dinner was pretty common.

We were poor, but not like some.  Grew up in hand me downs and patched pants,  dinner was often home canned tomatoes and elbow macaroni, no meat.  When things were extra tight it was tore up white bread with milk gravy on top.  Moms brother farmed and would give us spuds and onions.  Free school lunch was a badge of poverty.

Grandma on dads side had chickens and goats.  Learned goat milk was ok.

We were surrounded by others about like us or maybe a little better off.  By high school things were better and I got my first pair of real Levi's.  Mom worked for tips and tried hard to keep me in enough lunch money to keep me from being too uncool for school.  

In high school I worked and saved and bought a used up FJ40 landcruiser.  The girl whos folks sold Cadillacs told a friend she was interested and I took her out.  Borrowed my moms car cause mine had no heat.  Showing up at her fancy place and taking her to a movie in a '78 ford fairmont may be poorest I ever felt.

Nope,
Two loving successful parents who gave a damn about mine and my siblings success as well as our understanding of right and wrong.

I grew up poor. Not piss poor like some of you but poor compared to my friends.

No ac. Only heat was a floor furnace that was in the living room. That was the only room you were warm in during the winter time. And by warm I mean sweat pants, sweat shirt, socks. In winter you'd have like three blankets on your bed. Sounds good until you realize the blankets were so thin you cloud see through them.

When we ate there wasn't much and there was no left overs. I remember being 6ish? and clumsy. I dropped my plate of dinner on accident on the way to the table losing all my food. Everyone have me a little bit of their food so I could eat. We never ate out. I didn't know what real Chinese food was until I went to college. My only exposure was La Choy brand chow mein sold in stores. We ate a lot of cheap white bread and rice a roni as fillers. Soda was at Thanksgiving and Christmas only because a family member would bring it. Otherwise soda was a treat. Cake and ice cream was a birthday treat.

At one time our clothes came from auctions. After that our clothes came from K-Mart then Walmart. Our shoes were the cheapest shoes ever made like soles being slick within two months and holes where the sole meets the fabric in three months cheap. Winners Choice cheap. I remember my mom yelling at me that u was too hard on my shoes. I didn't say anything but inside I'm like these shoes are my only shoes that was bought in August and it's April now. These are the cheapest shoes ever made. I'm not doing anything to purposely destroy them. Those shoes were also or snow boots. Yeah, playing in snow in athletic shoes and cotton socks.

My dad died and left us with dick and a broken home. What I mean is the day of his funeral the sink pipe in the bathroom cracked between where it connects to the basin and a few inches from the ground. The pipe was rotted out. It crumbled in your hands. No money to fix so a bucket was placed under to catch the dirty water from washing hands, teeth, etc. The bucket would have to be dumped daily. Same thing happened to the kitchen sink so that got the same fix. Lifts in the kitchen started flickering and making a sound. Mom was afraid to keep using them so a fluorescent light got installed to use as the main light. The toilet started leaking where it met the floor making the floor joints rotten. You had to sit in a way that your whole weight wasn't on the toilet. Mom was able to shut the water off at the meter to stop the leaking toilet. For water she bought four 5 gallon jugs that we would have to do fill at the culigan water machine inside Walmart. To flush we would throw a gallon in the bucket under the sink and that would be poured into the toilet which would force the waste down. Bathing was done via a washcloth and soap out of a Rubbermaid dishpan. Heat some water in the tea kettle, add that and a bit more in that pan. One cup of water to wet the hair, lather, one or two cups to rinse. The rest would be your washcloth bath. The only showers I got in high school were those taken at the end of gym class. Mom never had anyone look at the wiring or plumbing because she thought all of the wire and pipe would need to be replaced and I bet she was right. Also if you don't know the feeling of waking up to cockroaches crawling on you, give a prayer of thanks to God.

There was several months that we didn't have a fridge so we lived out of a cooler. The melted cooler water was captured to use to flush the toilet. Laundry was done at the laundry mat. Warm to hot times of year wasn't bad since all we needed to do was wash in the mat and dry the clothes at home on the clothesline. Winter or bad weather sucked. Would spend like 3-4 hours at the laundry mat. No cell phones with internet. Shit got old quick.

We lived in town but had a gravel driveway. We would put plastic up to the exterior windows in the winter.

Despite being poor my parents tried the best they could. They gave me 1 birthday party with friends. Granted it was two friends eating at Pizza Hut but still. Was the only time I was ever able to have friends celebrate my birthday with me let alone eating out on my birthday. My mom was able to make payments on a saxophone so I could be in band. She was also able to buy me my letterman jacket. That might not mean much to you but in my small town it was like a right of passage getting your jacket Christmas of your freshman year. It was like an unwritten rule and everyone got a lettermans jacket.

To someone who never experienced this I'm sure reading it is foreign to you. But I'm glad I grew up poor. I feel it has made me a stronger person that knows what it's lije to go without. It was a simple life. Hand me down toys and clothes. Going through that allows me to know just how blessed I am now.

We thought we were better off, we were not, looking back at photos and just looking back, we were poor.

This and that is why I live well with in my means

No, I'm a native of the greatest Country on earth.
First generation on my dad's side.

We were the wealthiest people in my small part of town.
We had a car and indoor plumbing.
By 2nd or 3rd grade I realized we were poor.

Just not as poor as some people.

We tended 3 acres of garden so we could eat during the winter.

Only protein on table sometimes was fish I helped catch or squirrels I shot.

One pair of new shoes a year, just before start of school.

Have ridden to school in back of a 1973 Chevy pickup with 3rd hand camper shell because it was only running vehicle.

Today, I do NOT allow Spam or Treat or bologna or olive loaf in my house, as I ate entirely too much as a kid.

i still eat bologna sammiches.

Government housing for a few years. PB&J, and tuna sandwiches were a staple. My dad worked his ass off after returning from Vietnam to provide a better life for us. night school, Army reserves, full time job. He eventuually did very well financially and I'm thankful he and my mother were determined to raise a family.

There are very good reasons for my opinions of some types of people, and most of them stem from my years as a child, living in a shithole. I'll leave it at that.

I lived in a nice neighborhood , but there were days we didnt eat or ate moldy bread and such. I had just enough clothes that I could rotate them through the week and if I didnt wash them on saturday , I would have nothing to wear.


I had some good times as a kid , but I would never dream of having my kids go through what I did.

You aren’t poor if your parents dont tell you.
They still try to give you everything.

Grew up in a two bedroom house.  
Shared a room with my brother.
Dirt floor basement that flooded every time it rained hard.  
No air conditioning until I went to college.
But the wall next to my bed would frost up in winter.
Through gradeschool, mom made a lot of our clothes following patterns she purchased at Woolworths.  
We qualified for free school lunch, but dad was too proud to take it.  

But I remember having an awesome childhood.
Flashlight tag
Whiffle ball past dark
Sledding past dark
Bicycle races (WTF were bicycle helmets)

I was intentionally poor because my parents were frugal. They bought two acres of prime Arkansas backwoods for a couple grand, put a trailer on it, and we lived there for a couple years while they saved up a downpayment to have a house built. Build cost them $50k (financed) back in the 80s. All red brick my Dad designed himself just big enough for us.

Damn, sorry buddy. There's nothing better then being married to your best friend. Get out there and find her.

The $7000 was one year or multiple years ?

God damn

Grandpa  is that you?

I haven't heard anyone but myself use that term since the mid 90d

My sisters use to count my mother's tip money to see if they could pay the electric bill when I was a toddler. My mother remarried and life got better. We made it to lower middle class.

We were not well off but I had every thing I needed. I had a great and happy childhood so pretty much all I can ask for.

We where so poor when I was growing up my family couldn't pay attention.

My parents met while they were picking cotton by hand. Hard work and time paid off as I didn't realize how poor we started until much later in life.

My childhood started in the 80's.
I went to a very inner city school and until I drove through my neighborhood later in life I never saw how run down it was.
I didn't realize until adulthood that we were poor until about 5th grade when my Dad went to night school and became a computer programmer in the 90's.

My family had a single car, which my Dad kept running by working on it almost every weekend.  We loved helping him.  I remember him changing transmissions on a Chevy Citation multiple times by putting it on his chest and rolling under the car.

I remember when the kid that lived across the street told me the shirt I was wearing he threw away a week ago.  He was cool about it and never mocked us when we wore his old clothes.

We were limited on the amount of food we could eat growing up, I never thought about it until I had kids but growing up we would eat what my Mom made and that was it no matter if we wanted seconds.

I loved my childhood and wouldn't change a thing about it.  My Dad cut firewood for the first 2 years he was married then was a mechanic at various shops after that until he went to college.  I'm guessing he pulled in about $10k-$15k a year and my parents gave everything to make sure we had exactly what we needed and nothing more.  They paid minimum on everything and were always in debt but never let us know.  We had a great poor childhood!

very poor, hand me downs govt cheese powdered milk, ghetto housing etc..

You got real Coke!

Not poor, we grew up the best our parents could raise us.

We banged pots and pans together for toys and cut out paper bags for costumes. Mom made our Halloween costumes. (Pretty darned good too). Father worked his ass off for us.


My parents were and still are amazing.

Yes.  Like powered eggs & milk & gov cheese yes.
Always rented apts in the horrible sections of NYC. Never had a car. A few Christmas's I had no presents. Always had food & a roof though.

Fried bologna with ketchup was a delicacy.  Fried hotdogs were yummy.

I looked forward to shopping at a place called Sylvester Salvage.  They bought merchandise from insurance claims......burned buildings, floods, etc.  Occasionally I’d score a pair of trendy sneakers, I didn’t care a bit if the soles were a bit melted or if they had a slight burnt smell.

A new bike meant scouring the want ads and driving across town to score a beat up bike someone was selling for a few bucks.  I grew up going to Goodwill and rummage sales.

The thing is.........I never felt poor.  It was just the way folks lived.  I never really thought there were kids that had much more than I did..........until I got to college.  Then I met some kids that lived way differently.

I’m not complaining........I had a great childhood.

Trailer trash here. Miracle whip sandwiches, they were better when toasted. Ass kicked weekly. Druggies, pervs. Then moved into a new house, 2 bed/1 bath, and things got worse. Lol. Subdivision kids dont like white trash.

we had a old out house we used until i was 16 , and had running water only to the kitchen sink , took baths in a metal tub next to a Majestic wood stove , no lie

Define "poor".

Most are poor in the US. Many around the world live a cup full above dying.

I did not grow up poor. Lower middle class and had everything i needed plus thanks to my parents. I had friends who were poor and didn’t know it.