What Do Only Very Poor People Buy? (Poverty Stories r/AskReddit)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- ▶ Want to watch more amazing Reddit stories? Check out our playlist! • Uploads from Updoot St...
▶ Fresh AskReddit Stories: What do insanely poor people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? 🔥 2nd channel with exclusive Reddit stories!
/ @updooteverything
--
Music:
Artist: Vindsvept
Song: Distant
• Emotional Music - Vind...
CC BY 4.0 creativecommon...
![[Live] : ONE 168 วันนี้!! "โจนาธาน vs ซุปเปอร์เล็ก"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0jIN65KgJsI/mqdefault.jpg)
Used to work at Arby's. Once in a while, we had this mom come in with her 4 kids. Best I could tell, they walked from a trailer park about a mile away. They'd always get the "4 for 5" mix and match items, all of them being roast beef sandwiches. Each kid got a sandwich and mom would just kind of pick at the scraps of beef. I caught on to what was happening, and started dunking way too many fries whenever I saw them coming up the road, knowing that we'd never sell that many. By the time I got done making their order, I'd tell them about having too many fries and asked if they'd like some. If they were in later in the evening and I thought I could justify it, I'd give them the leftover turnovers. I'd tell them that our water dispenser wasn't working and just gave them soda cups instead. Pretty sure my manager figured out what I was doing, but she never said anything to me about it.
Those kids were so well-behaved is the thing that sticks with me. They would just sit there and eat and talk to each other quietly. They always finished their food, none of it went on the floor. When they were done they wiped their table down and walked home. I loved seeing that family.
Oh my god that made me cry. You are a good person.
You're a good egg. Your kindness will have a ripple effect, I'm sure of it.
About 20 years ago I worked for Safeway in one of the poorest sections of Baltimore, MD. I learned, over time, the families that had to scrape change for diapers and formula, or just for food for themselves and their older kids, when their Independence Card (Food stamps) ran out. As long as no one was nearby, or looking, I would scan about one third of their items, giving away the more expensive stuff like meat, diapers, and formula. Never got caught, either, did it for around two years. It's a shame that nowadays with cameras, it really can't be done at scale, otherwise I'd go back to work for Walmart, this time, and do it some more.
@@ghettomedic188 Definition of Chaotic Good. I'm so glad there's people as kind as you in the world.
@@ghettomedic188 good for you. Not everyone who needs help is on drugs. Even if they were, so what. You were helping out kids. 🍀
grew up in the 1930's, during the depression. the homeless would come to the door and ask for food. my mom would always give them leftovers or a sandwich. soup bones were free, so we had lots of soup, using vegetables that we grew in the back yard. mom was an expert seamstress, and made school clothes for me from worn-out adult clothing, even a winter coat. reading these stories of being homeless, and without decent food or clothing, is heartbreaking. now i can see that my childhood was very comfortable, depression or not.
Rosie stewart I love how you were optimistic about it! We need more people like you in the world! 😊✌️✨✨✨
Sorry
What year were you born???
@@LynnAgain83 i was born in 1929, will be 92 in just a few days.
@1% Evan Ł not yet !
Buy the cheapest brand of any foods and cut it into half just to save.
And make just a pound of meat stretch 3-5 meals.
Develop a crack habits so you don't need to eat
Hey! That cheap shite can be nice
Shane Hummus - The Success GPS you mean no brand food
Oh yeah. Living this now, good thing I know how to season the crap out of it and cook things properly so it doesn’t always feel like I’m eating cheap,
This shit made me feel sad af ngl, god bless all of u guys and I hope y’all are living comfortably
i have had a very hard life and i am now doing really well :) i am thankful. and by really well. not rich in money, but rich in my heart. i have all my basic needs met and thats all ive wanted.
Amen.
Bless you and thank you.. 🙏✨
Holidays are hardest for me.
I pray next year will be a little better for me and my family.
The 24 pack of ramen is better value than the dollar packs of 5-6.
Wendy’s 4 for $4 deal can be upgraded to baconator fries for 79 cents - like 2-3x the fries plus bacon and Nacho cheese.
You’re welcome.
Getting the 4 for $4 from Wendys makes me feel rich.
When you're down that poor, 4 bucks has to buy more meals than just one. If you go to a dollar store you can get rice, instant mashed potatoes, a package of crackers, and a jar of peanut butter and eat several meals from that 4 dollars.
Thank you, so very very much.
@@jessicastormshell2786 when you aren't poor poor 4 for 4 ain't horrible
@shiniestknight totally true. If you're in that not quite broke range it's a good amount of food for 4 bucks.
I really hate being poor. It's like knowing all the fun and cool thing you can do in the world are unachievable. Like going anywhere that isn't in walking distance is always out of the picture. Having to listen to family members cruises and trips while wasting away inside knowing you barely be able to get food this week.
Being poor is worse than some people realize. I've always had to put my dreams aside due to my parents never making enough for bills. Working shitty jobs and working myself into anxiety filled fuckfests. I'm currently going though Fire Academy but as usually bills keep getting higher.
My parents need more money coming in but I it's impossible to hold a job and go to the Academy full time. I currently have to take anti depressants to calm myself down. I really like being a Firefighter but my family needs money. I'm so tired of having to decide and then later regret it. So yea being poor sucks worse than shows like shameless and reddit videos.
Sorry for the rant but I just hate how fucked my life is. Great video by the way. Really hit home as you can tell :D
hey, it'll get better. and when it does, you'll look back and be humbled by the things you're going through now. I understand that it sucks. but you are doing the best you can and that's all you can do. never lose hope, and keep striving for a better life. I'm proud of you and I know you are strong. I hope you have a good day/night. better things are coming.
GraniteGin I hope you stick with the program. It'll pay off in the long run.
Whatever you do don't take Hunter Altman's advice on anti depressants, it's true that there's side effects but that's because you've got to work through the different medications to find the one that fits you, the medication is only meant to be like a crutch. It's there to help keep you off the broken ankle but you've gotta start working on not needing that crutch to walk. For anxiety if it's bad enough get help, lavender and tea help but if it's serious enough you need something more, a bandaid won't help heal a 2 inch deep gash. If it's at all possible find a away to get to a counsoller, maybe your program or work can help with that.
You could try taking Tulsi and Tranquil x, both are natural and help with anxiety. Lithium Oritate is another good one. All these are natural that I've tried that work great from the link I provided.
@@hunteraltman4762 I'm sorry Granite this is about to become a warzone. Oh and just to know who you're dealing with I'm majoring in psychology to do therapy. First and foremost medication is not a miracle cure again it's like a crutch. Also there have been multiple studies that have shown that antidepressants could actually be beneficial from have someone take 2 different types.
First off I was looking at some research papers for Tulsi and yeah I believe it and that's incredible it has some of those properties and I'm for further testing on the effectiveness of the anti-stress/anti-depressant properties however if it's a serious enough case I would still recommend traditional antidepressants (yes symptoms of suicidal thoughts do occur on them because they aren't a cure it's meant to help alleviate those terrible thoughts.) Oh and as I was reading it's very common and popular to drink Tulsi tea in India. Herbal, green, and Matcha teas have been shown to lift depressive moods, chocolate also has the same properties.
Tranquil X I was having a hard time even finding the product wasn't even on that website you posted. The few products I did find however say it's a supplement which are generally useful for very mild cases of depression and anxiety, not serious cases where self harm and suicidal thoughts are the norm. On the amazon one I found their legal disclaimer had this to say: "Legal Disclaimer
Statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition."
It also looked like it was a normal prescription drug. (Reading the description was like watching an infomercial.)
Lithium Oritate is actually one of those really dangerous drugs you have someone take if they have a bad enough case, cause the effective dosages are dangerously close to being toxic to the human body. Here's a paragraph from the psychcentral link: "Warning: I would strongly recommend against self treating with lithium orotate. Like all conditions, we sometimes use things that we don’t have a lot of evidence for in extreme situations, and I imagine there could be rare circumstances in which, together with a prescriber, someone might use this product instead of lithium carbonate, but people who were to choose this approach would still need to be followed for blood levels and any evidence of lithium toxicity." I'm actually a little worried for you on that one if you're actually taking please stop self medicating with it. I am genuinely concerned for you dude, DO NOT RECOMMEND TO THIS FOR OTHERS TO USE, don't take it unless prescribed by a doctor.
Here's the links to my research please respond with credible research you have found supporting your statements and again don't use Lithium Oritate that stuff is more toxic than a League of Legends ranked match:
Tulsi: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4296439/
Tranquil X: www.amazon.com/TranquiliX-Anti-Anxiety-Happiness-Relaxation-Reduction/dp/B00NMKCP1M/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5rbsBRCFARIsAGEYRwc9TMfIzMWZlttf8e5M34VA08D8v0ZI8Y0CwrYxsZI58k5utyxamX0aAoxFEALw_wcB&hvadid=241902971487&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9029750&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1o1&hvqmt=b&hvrand=14781511931670601187&hvtargid=kwd-6059382508&hydadcr=24665_10401007&keywords=tranquil+x&qid=1569571759&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFBUE1YQ0ROM0dWWVgmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA4NTYyMzNLWUZGTlJUUDRaQlUmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDcyMDk3OTNWSzhUT1YzN1NVSVYmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
Lithium Oritate:
nutritionreview.org/2013/04/lithium-orotate/
blogs.psychcentral.com/bipolar/2008/09/bipolar-disorder-medication-spotlight-lithium-orotate/
The article on the benefits of taking multiple anti-depressants:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4311111/
I feel bad for people who have to do many things, even illegal to just survive. My heart is with you♥️
Edit: guys, there is a lot of both really beutiful and sad story in this comment section. If you have something helpful or nice to say to these people, want to attribute with your own stories, or just want to read their stories, please, just have a look. I wish you all the best, one more time❤️
You ever go a month eating rice with a side of rice
@@astrangeviking1742 you have?
@@selma1250 yeah with a topping of ketchup
@@selma1250 wasnt poor just lower middle class
@@selma1250 im not that way anymore because i left when i relixed it was my moms fault she could have put us in high middle class but she was a child who never grew up. She once spent 300 on random shit at dollar general instead of paying bills. She worked jobs that paued 20-25 a hour but because she always would quit we were broke
Some of these bring back memories.
1. Selling your favorite necklace that holds significant sentimental value for 7 dollars to get food that week.
2. Walking 5 miles to work (regardless of weather) through a dangerous neighborhood at night just to get to work.
3. Sitting with my step daughter in the assistance office and an old woman giving me $5 to get the 3 year old a happy meal... I ugly cried i was so happy.
4. Also at the assistants office.. old man 70s or 80s, breaking down in tears because they denied his request for SNAPS pleading with the attendant to help because he just wants to feed his sick wife... he didnt get aid, but we (people waiting, the attendants, and officer) pulled out everything we could spare for this man.
5. Living off nothing but left over donuts and muffins from my job for 8 months because we only had enough money to feed the kid. In college I lived off of my one free meal a shift from McDonalds (for 2 years)
6. You can make some really nice meals if you add some cheap imitation meat and veggies to ramen.
7. Some cities have housing assistance, charities that will cover part of your rent ONCE.. but its first call first serve and they are gone within minutes.
8. Parking 4 blocks from your home because you cant afford to fix your car to get the inspection, and if you park at your apartment they will tow it.
9. Saving for 4 months just to afford $200 so you can marry the love of your life.
I'm still poor... just less poor than I was before.
Kids... stay in school, study hard, and get advise from educational advisors, because being poor is horrible.
When I was a kid, my dad made us some Spanish rice and we swore there were bugs in it. I took a stripey "grain" and looked at it with my mini microscope (a prize from school) and it DEFINITELY had legs. My dad barked at us to stop being dramatic and eat the rice. Years later, I was shopping with my dad and saw cheap packets of rice. I said "hey this rice is only 29 cents." My dad said, "that's the rice that had bugs in it."
Bugs give you protein
But sorry
Omg 😳
I'm so sorry.
I've never had bugs in my food, but we lived in an apartment building that had them. It grossed my out so bad I barely ate and had to put all food in sealed containers.
So glad we were able to move.
Powdered milk. Dried legumes. Old bread from the bakery. Super glue (to glue your footwear back together because they're falling apart but you can't buy a new pair).
Katie Frank what is powdered milk?
@@austinjames2160 A powder that you mix with water that can barley pass as milk
LouiFromMarz I wonder how it’s made
@@austinjames2160 th-cam.com/video/lGVE1ztEzzk/w-d-xo.html
Katie Frank I grew up with powdered milk because my country doesn’t have milk. Didn’t know that milk was liquid until I was 8.
I grew up not horribly poor, but poor enough that asking to get a $5 box of fruit rollups for the week was a guaranteed "no"
My girlfriend's family is relatively well off, I was at their house one night for dinner (first time having dinner with them) and her sister who is 15 was having a huge argument about having to eat all of her food. And I said "Man, my mom would have beat me upside the head for wasting food" and they all looked super confused because they thought I was kidding. They were also confused when they asked if I wanted seconds and I said no because I wanted to make sure there were leftovers for lunch and dinner tomorrow...it was a bit awkward lmao
I was never poor but my mom would get on my ass to
@@Armyjayden33 exactly, waste not want not
OnThe Gang same
So true.
My youngest ones are still a tad wasteful but my 14yo knows better.
Especially now with the holidays coming up.
It's a toss up wether or not we'll have Thanksgiving or just regular food but either way we enjoy what we have.
@@RK-ep8qy it can cause problems later on, forcing yourself to eat after your body tells you you've had enough leads to long term issues with food
I've been poor off and on my whole life. Since my parents were drug addicts and alcoholics we never had enough for food but my dad was too proud to get us free lunch so we had to pinch pennies off our friends, pick them up off the ground, or get any change that people dropped around the vending machines when we snuck into the teachers lounge (had one teacher catch me and when I refused to tell her why I was crawling around on the floor trying to pull change out from under the machine she picked up her purse and handed me two $10s. Me and my brother both ate for two weeks off that!)
We had beans and rice constantly!
Sometimes we didn't have electricity so mom had to cook whatever we did have on the wood stove (even in the summer!) No AC had to leave the doors open all summer long (got ate up by mosquitoes), dried clothes on the line or over the wood stove (sometimes they dried so stiff they'd actually cut our skin). Our roach killer was a cat that loved to eat them but she stunk to high heaven afterwards so we had to keep her out of the trailer when she wasn't on roach patrol. We had a garden so sometimes we had vegetables. We had a lot of tomato sandwiches (tomatoes, bread, and if we were lucky cheap mayo).
We didn't have sugar to make Kool aid but my dad had a buddy who made homemade wine. He'd bring it over in 3 liter bottle and we'd drink fruit wine like it was koolaid (we were 3-7 years old) and nobody said a word to us.
We had a water hose running from my uncle's house to ours for a little while because our water got shut off and we couldn't afford to turn it back on.
If you got meat you didn't ask where it came from because it could be anything from squirrels, frogs, turtles, possum, snake, gator, rabbits, rats, etc.
When I was older and my twins were little their dad left us. We didn't have money for diapers and wipes so I'd take rolls of paper towels from work. I'd carry them to the (state paid for daycare) and walk a mile to the plasma center, give plasma, walk to work, work for 7-9 hours a night, catch the bus (when I could afford it) or walk the 3 miles to the daycare, carry the twins 2 blocks home and start over the next day. When my son got sick my job fired me because I used up all my sick days and couldn't come in. The women in my apartment complex would get food stamps at the beginning of the month but by the end we'd all be running low on food so we'd do a communal dinner (where one person might have noodles, one person might have some sauce, and one person might have a little meat) and we'd make a dinner out of it for 3 families.
We'd occasionally have to put our utility bill money together and pay utilities for only one apartment and all of us stay in one apartment so that we would have electricity and/or water (3 women and 6 kids in a two bedroom apartment). Swapping clothes between the families and then having to walk to the Salvation Army when we ran out of clothes that fit the kids. We'd have to carry garage bags of clothes to the place, give them to a social worker in the office and get a voucher to buy clothes from the store. But you couldn't be picky you had to get what you could with the money on the voucher. Then put the clothes in garbage bags, carry them home, and sort them between the families.
I could go on and on.
Hope your are doing alright now
When my brother was a baby we got food stamps. That's when they were the actual paper bills. My mom would go to five different stores and we would each go through the line with one bill and get a 25 cent pack of gum and get the 75 cents back until we had accumulated enough change to get a pack of diapers.
Hopefully life is better now. At least you had your community to lean on, right?
You're a tough lady. You tell us the facts without a trace of self pity. I hope lifes easier for you now but I admire your strength
What your parents did was criminal neglect. That said, very few parents get it right. Unfortunately you were failed but you’re a strong person and have clearly made the best of your circumstance
I relate to the story at 10:00 because when i was little, for the first 7 years of my life, we lived with my grandma because we were poor, and i was never allowed to have much i wanted, so when my mom married my step dad and we all of the sudden had money, i would never ask for stuff i wanted because i was always told we couldnt afford it. Even now, 7 and a half years later, i still have trouble asking for stuff i want, and even stuff i need because im scared that we'll run out of money again.
same things i went through, however I am now 27 and still struggle treating myself to anything, will get really cheap food and I try to put money to one side in case of emergency or i run out of money but more in case i run out of money really
Being careful with money, and able to tell yourself no, is a great way to not run out of money. That’s a skill man.
My parents make a good amount of money, yet I still do this. I rarely ask for anything, because I feel bad about spending money on it. It’s very strange.
This probably sounds bad, but I'm actually really happy that I'm not the only one. Thank you guys for sharing! It really mean a lot to me!😄
Feelings like this ruined my relationship. My dad would yell at me even for looking at something I wanted in the supermarket and being autistic I hated how bright and busy it was in there anyway. I walked behind my dad and was quiet out of fear. My partner of 6 years lost his temper with me because I would walk behind him (I also have a limp due to chronic illness), he'd ask me to pick out what I wanted and I'd be too scared, or on the occasion I did, he might say 'ok not that, that's too much' and I would feel awful, too scared to ask for anything again. He kicked me out and now I'm still homeless over a year later. I'm 26 and still won't walk into a store if I can help it, because I feel self conscious about how I'm trying to total the cost of items, hesitating over the difference of a few pennies and having to put things back. I have panic attacks over it and any decision-making actually because my dad was literally insane and no answer I ever gave him would be favourable.
I love dollar tree, I can actually decorate my place for holidays and I have all cleaning products I need. I’m just grateful for it.
Same here. And farmer's markets are the greatest thing in my opinion
Hunter Altman Farmer markets are fun, I need to go to more!
yes if it wernt for dollar tree, i couldnt decorate either. there are actually alot of coupons online for the cleaning products sold at dollar tree too! always google q coupon for things you want
I basically live at Dollar Tree! That place always has cop stuff. When our little brother went away for the summer, me and my sister went to Dollar Tree to get him a bunch of stuff to remodel his room. He loved it!
Dollar Tree is amazing. Got all my good plates and storage bins from them!
I need to watch this whenever I'm feeling down to remind myself just how ungrateful I am being.
Neato Electro it’s still fine to be upset about your problems. My friend had to hammer this into my brain cause when I thought my problems were just because I was being ungrateful. Your problems still matter no matter how insignificant they seem
@@lWonderWho I wish had I read something like this 2 years ago, I'm depressed, lonely, stupid, and a sack of potatoes, I want to change or at least die for a reason like transplant my heart/ any organ, to someone else who would be SO MUCH MORE deserving of this
Hell...try living like this for a month. Go out with no cash and survive for a day...hunger is a driving force that can break you. You might get it or not. But three days of hunger makes your priorities go in the toilet. Your morals as well. Waste baskets turn into opportunity.
Your problems matter it is like if you broke an arm and in the hospital in the bed next to you a person was in a full body cast, your situations may be entirely different but you are both in pain. Do not neglect yourself because someone else may have it worse.
I am human
I have a similar story to the tire one. My now wife and I were forced to go get a new tire because one couldnt hold air, and the guy at the shop says "Look, I cant legally let you leave here with your tires like that. Theyre bald." We hadnt noticed, but he was right, there was almost no tread left on them at all, and they hadnt been replaced in long enough neither of us could remember. I had a panic attack, and my wife was trying to console me, when the guy silently went and got his manager. The manager asked us how much we could afford, and we said honestly we could only afford the one tire. So he charged us for one tire, and said that he had "found" some other tires that just happened to fit our car. When our tax return came in the next year, we went and bought new tires from the place.
I know a lot of people hear the "I cant legally let you leave" and think its a scam, but sometimes theyre being honest. And sometimes a person really is genuinely kind enough to help out at a cost to them. Theres a good chance our tires wouldnt have been able to keep grip and we could have gotten killed, and this guy replaced three of our tires for free literally just because we couldnt afford it.
Agh...I hated being starving at work while colleagues ordered pizza and KFC. I was glad if I had peanut butter for a slice of bread.
If I worked with you, I couldn't see you or anyone go without food and would share what ever I brought in with me, make double amount of sandwiches so you at least ate something or ordered in something for you even if it was just a small pizza and some chips or something
tvaholicsquidney that’s so wholesome
I was a young, single mom. Kinda starving. At work, I got a 65 cent cup of chili, and all the crackers I could. Two women in line behind me snickered. "How do you stay so slim?" One of them asked. I said I feed myself and my children on what I make here. I stood aside so they could see what was on my tray. They snickered more. I ate alone, in tears. If they had just offered me half a sandwich...
Damn that still hurts.
@@miapdx503 how are you now? im sorry. i epuldnt have laighed for sure! i would have told you get a wjole meal and a kids meal, fuck that lets go shopping after work
@@miapdx503 I dont understand how people can be so full of shit I'd never laugh at anyone who's hungry or who is clearly in poverty I'm always giving what I can when I can
Homeless thrice, there's nothing good about it, I may be poor now, but I still have a shelter and some food in the fridge, I am forever grateful
Me, and my husband were both homeless at various times since about 2009. We actually met at a homeless shelter. Last year when we got married we were living in a motel. We have an apartment now, but we still struggle sometimes.
@@paigeolfert3382 Hope you guys make it out and get an actual home
@@Apoc_Bone_Daddy thank you. We're working on it.
I really feel for you guys, worst I ever had was living in my car and sofa hoping... my poor husband has been homeless multiple times (living behind buildings), and became homeless shortly after I met him. His stories and hearing what people go through while homeless just breaks my heart.
I hope you all never have to experience homelessness again.
I'm currently homeless I get picked on by the Park Rangers police any other government agency
Hot dog buns fill you up like nobody’s business. I know they’re pretty common but we’ve eaten just the buns because we can’t afford the hot dog. Slap some garlic salt and butter on it and you’ve also got yourself some cheap garlic bread!
The amount of times I split a hot dog bun and either put it in the toaster or grilled it on the pan just so I can make a PB&J isn't even funny. I'm dead serious, I would get some garlic and olive oil and cook it in the oven to make garlic bread
Lol reminds when we had nothing to eat I would just make ketchup sandwiches
Love mayo, mustard + pickle sandwiches. Add some pickled jalapeno slices, the better. Lettuce, tomato, onions,ketchup=the bomb!
I'd rather eat nothing tbh.
Sadie Blackwell hell yeah! That’s how I still make garlic bread to this day!
I was homeless all through high school and a few years after. Spent many nights sleeping on the benches in the baseball field in front of the school. Some friends would let me spend a night or two at their house or shower when their parents weren’t home. Usually saved half of my lunch from school for dinner. Turned to selling some of my meds at the time so I could try affording to buy something at fast food places (like a small fry) just so i could use the bathroom or just try to stay out of the cold for an hour. Always had to deal with people asking me why I wore the same 3 outfits all the time or had the same pair of shoes for like 4 years even in the winter or why I had no jacket or gloves. I went through a lot in those 6 years. All of it was because my dads wife hated my mom and rejected me because I wasnt one of her kids and took my cell phone, keys and put some shit in a trash bag and threw me out and my dad let it happen because he didnt want her to divorce him and take everything. If I have kids I’m literally giving them the world, no so much as to spoil them so they become entitled, but to me “the world” would be a simple comfortable life. My mom never did anything to better herself, I tried living with her but we always got evicted in no time because she spent most of her money on cigarettes. Most of the time “dinner” was a hot pocket or some chips. We could never afford food, but she always had money for cigs, weed, hair dye and and perfume. Eventually i just figured toughing it on my own was easier. Last time I got kicked out my now fiancée took me in. She had to beg for months for me to move in but my pride was to high from everything I had gone through since I was a teenager and asking for help made me feel like less of a person. Been here with her for 3 years now, i have a decent job, were saving to buy our own place (a big deal for me because ive never had a real “home” in my life) and as I said we’re engaged. Before I met her I was definitely on the road to killing myself. I have virtually no family, mom doesnt talk to me, dad died of a drug OD, his wife hates me, my grandparents are gone. I basically had nothing and couldn’t find a job so I was at the end the road so to speak. I still have a lot of depression and anxiety and i guess what could be a type of ptsd (not trying to self diagnose) seeing as im 26 and feel like Im way behind the 8 ball. I know some of it was out of my control, but it still hurts inside. What I did learn though through all of that was basically just how to survive with almost nothing, but I refuse to EVER go back to that.
I’m so sorry you went through so much at such a young age. But I’m glad you found someone to love and grow with. I know exactly how a lot of what you went through feels like and no one deserves to go through all of that. Here’s to better years ahead, friend.
Learn to accept help from others knowing you can pay it forward to those who need it when things are better for you. There is grace in accepting kindness, and passing that help on to others when you can demonstrates not only kindness, but gratitude.
I only read a third of your story yet and I'm shocked and I wonder what country did you live in? It's also interesting where all those people live that wrote these stories in the video
Alex View in the US all around Boston/North Shore and the East Coast. The only good that really came out of it was learning to be resourceful and to persevere at a young age. Plus it makes most “bad” situations i ever find myself in now seem like nothing and I can basically laugh it off. Honestly pure will power is the only reason I’ve made it this far and started to do better, have close to a normal life and a full time job in a bakery. I live comfortably now. I was definitely close to killing myself a few times because it felt like a never ending nightmare, but I’m glad I never did.
I read it to the end and I want to know how you met your fiancée.
The lego one made me cry
I was like this kid too.😕
I couldn’t think of a username Lol that mad you cry but not the one about the boy the had mother that gave away all that of there money and could’nt even shower in hot water
Same here.
Made me shed a tear as well. Reminds me of how my childhood was with mostly me an my mom.
Killomiter 69 it made me cry because this happened to me as a kid.
The discount tire store story made me cry for some reason
Probably because it made you think of a 17 year old kid living on their own on the east side of Indy. Made me take that story seriously.
Same.
Oh man, the $10 used tires I've bought.... my son works in a tire shop and they often give tires from "out back" to people who are clearly in need.
i know the exact tire store theyre talking about since i live near there
@@Chahlie Salvage yards around me sell used tires for around $10 apiece. Sometimes a little more depending on tread life and if a set of 4 match.
Tea. You can make it from anything. The taste varies significantly though.
Totenkopf ßänß baste pfp
Boiling cinnamon and chamomile with a splash of lime is delicious. Even better when you chill it and add honey to it
Gotta love whipping out a nice tea bag and munching them between meals. Best ones are the very herbal teas with extra crunchy leaves.
Rev limits Seems poor people love that. Always way too many kids
I know right Like i used An egg once. It tasted like... Watery eggs.
when i was little our heat got shut off and we didnt have hot water so my dad used to boil water so i had a warm bath. i remember it being so fun. he was great at hiding his bankruptcy from me.
@@BenevolentPasserby usually people boil it in a kettle so it's not so dangerous to carry around (or at least put a lid on the pot)
Aw that's beautiful
"I never asked for anything because my parents always said no" wow, that hits a little too close to home.
It's the things you don't buy. You don't buy paper towels or tissues, you buy toilet paper and use that for everything because it's cheaper. On the bad weeks, I couldn't afford to buy a large package, and had to buy just barely enough to make it through. Living without electricity is bad, but no running water is worse. One of my roomates used the toilet then realized that our water had been shut off. It was almost a week before we got water back.
Poor diet means that I was sick frequently. Fast food is cheap, but horrible for health. Sometimes I'd have ramen, although I had to eat it dry sometimes when we couldn't afford to pay the water bill. I stole food when I worked at a restaurant, mostly just things like canceled orders and food that wasn't fresh enough to sell. Poor people don't buy their vehicles up front. These days almost everyone makes payments for their cars, but I despise owing money on things, but had no choice. When my truck blew it's transmission, it was cheaper to get a new vehicle. I bought another truck, but had to make payments, which is more expensive. I remember working two jobs, waiting and hoping for my roomates to get jobs too, but it just took months. By then, all of my savings were gone, and we were playing catch up because those lazy bastards wouldn't put in job applications. Speaking of jobs...
Rejection letters and random firing suck. I remember once I worked for a staffing agency (one called Randsted,) and I assure you they are the scum of the earth. They will fuck you over. They destroyed my work history and resume, as well as my self confidence when they got me a job, ordered my employer to fire me, did the same thing two more times. I remember calling my employers asking them what happened, why I was fired, and they told me that they didn't fire me, the staffing agency did. I called them and the lady there told me that if I dared to question her about it again (I was being polite about it, not raising my voice) that they would not allow me to get another job. If you ever see Randsted, fuck them. Do not associate with them, they will screw you over. Every single person I have met who has worked with them has said the same.
You can work two jobs and not have enough to pay the bills. Most people just don't understand what it's like not having enough money to do basic things. Why don't you have food in the fridge? Why is there an eviction letter on the doorstep? Are you so lazy that you can't work harder, get a better job, spend less money on non-essentials? I didn't smoke or drink, I literally did NOT have the money to afford basic things. I've seen people with bad money habits and poor work ethic before, my roomates were prime examples and they dragged me down. My ex made an effort to control not just me, but my money as well. But when you are poor, you are a nobody. Nobody cares about you, nobody notices you, and everyone assumes that it's your fault for being the way you are. Funnily enough, sometimes they're right. Some people really do make poor decisions to get in that bad way. Arguably I did too by getting into a relationship with the scum sucking leech that I did. But once you're there, you are trapped. Getting out of poverty is HARD, and there is no sure way to do it. When you have no money, everything gets so much more expensive.
I've never been poor, and I appreciate the effort people make to survive... and I can also relate to the water thing because of my town's shitty water supply. It was common for even the "rich" people of town to start collecting rainwater and to "shower" using buckets after a few weeks without running water. I never take a normal shower for granted. It's actually a luxury.
I've gone without running water for weeks at a time and due to the poor sanitation (I tried with hoses from the neighbours, buckets etc) but it was a long walk uphill and bugs etc would fly into my old builders' buckets. Tried to keep handwashing buckets separate from food buckets and bacteria grows quickly in intense heat. I got so god damn sick I had explosive diarrhea for 2 weeks and then had to have my brother bring more buckets to try to flush the toilet twice a day, but my diarrhea had to sit there for a few hours in between. It was so embarrassing.
@@SobrietyandSolace yeah. Running water is pretty important. When you go without it for a week or two, you start to realize how little your dignity is worth when you're desperate.
Wow I am really sorry to hear that, I dont think I can fully understand your situation because I have very wealthy ( not rich but very wealthy , upper top of middle class, I live in Switzerland) parents, but I still feel like shit for having all of the things I have while watching this video and reading the commments. I really hope you are better of now
God bless you all
Wow, this was one of the most inspiring and sometimes heartbreaking reddit threads I've ever watched. Kudos to all you fine people who chose to let poverty build character in your lives. May your needs be met abundantly forever.
I've always been poor, when my aunt took me in when i was 14 we were too poor for food much less Christmas so she told me my a.d.d meds were stolen when she sold them. I didn't question where all the cheap gifts and food came from that month but we all knew. We had to heat our 2 bedroom trailer with a wood burning stove, there was 6 of us all living off a Wal-Mart cashier and my disabled grandmothers check. We washed our clothes in the bathtub with a broom handle and hung them on a line. We never had nice things or hardly the bare minimum of food. We ate noodles for a month straight one time. Now our family is happy and doing much better. We got a house from habitat for Humanity, everything works and I have my own bed when staying there instead of a mattress in the livingroom floor. Our pantry is full and we have our own soaps... the little things matter
My grandma got me to to and put decorations on a random stick from outside once for Christmas for her. I'd rather not bother trying anymore as it is a reminder of what I really want but cannot have.
I remember I saw a boy from my school putting the extra sandwiches into his backpack. I said if it was his struggle food as a joke. Days later, one of his close friends told me that he's getting kicked out from his apartment and he has nowhere to go. From this day, I have told myself to never make those type of jokes again. I'm glad he's doing fine now ^.^
There was a pediod of a year when my dad didn't have a job. Me and my 4 siblings were all home schooled, so we couldn't even eat at school or anything. I remember the water being shut off so many times. Every morning we would have cereal, every lunch we'd have pb&j's, and every night we had Mac n cheese, sometimes with hotdogs if we were doing "well" financially. I remember my 12yo sister and me (9yo) giving all our savings to our parents to get the water back on once.
A thunder storm knocked out our tube TV, and there was no way we'd be able to afford another one. We went without TV for a full year, and for a couple hours a day my mom used to read classing books to us. I recall Little Women very strongly. It was rough. My childhood was by no means perfect, and it was never easy, but some of those things I look back on with a certain amount of tenderness. We were hungry sometimes, but my parents got me to adulthood in spite of it all. I'm happily married and living paycheck to paycheck, but I know how to make it by, and I'm so grateful to my mom and dad for teaching me how to survive.
I grew up with a mostly not working for money Dad but he worked from daylight to night on farm so we had food. The worst times were deep in winter before spring and all the greens grew. Just salt pork, biscuits, eggs and pinto beans.
I wasn't too poor that we couldn't go to the hospital, but we still did at home surgery because my parents were cheap
Stephen M Go on...
I need to hear some at home surgery stories
@@theraVen27 as do I.
Me to
@@theraVen27 too
Dude fucking same. I dislocated my knee two years ago and my dad just told me to "set it." So I Punched it back into my socket, rolled over and pressed it to the ground to place it. Don't EVER DO THIS. I still can't afford surgery but my doctor told me all my previous injuries combined ”girl you need new legs"
When I was a kid we went days without food at times I would eat weeds I'm surprised i didn't die. I found an apple tree made me happy. Green apples made me sick. Thankfully my mom found her current husband and he saved us all. They have been married 25 years and he is my dad if not by blood but by sheer love.
My mother won't listen to sense and keeps dating psychopaths that literally try to kill us. I stayed with her after my own partner kicked me out just 2 months after I quit my job to move 200 miles for him. Nearly got murdered and was in prison like conditions for months. Left. Sleep on a guy's couch and he split my ass open 2 weeks ago. I couldn't poop until recently. I learned to forage pretty quickly too. Eat things like stinging nettle, rosehips, plantain leaves, wild carrot, hawthorn bush, blackberries, elderberries (cook first) etc.
@@SobrietyandSolace How the hell did you get your ass ruptured?
My hubs thinks I'm nutty for harvesting dandelion and red root amaranth weeds. Stuff is literally super food and delicious and grows freely everywhere. He eats it ofcourse cause I am the cook. Eat the weeds!
These stories and the comment section break my heart. I remember the food as a child being poor at times, tomato sauce sandwiches, pancakes as flour is cheap, cabbage leaf rolls. And I remember many times my mother going without Because she said wasn't hungry, but in all honesty there wasn't enough food to go around 3 kids. Back then I had no idea it's because my parents were obviously going through a hard time. But I will always remember the weird foods my mother would create just to feed us. I'm grown now with children of my own, and I forgot about those days until I watched this video. God i love my mum. What a top woman.
I sometimes see poor children at the dollar store trying to buy snacks with change only to watch the cashier tell them they dont have enough if im doing well at the moment i will swipe my card for them and i am always asked by the cashier am i sure that i want to do this like 3 times ! Yes im sure add it to my total yo !!!
Nice :^)
I do the same thing, with my food stamp card.
Nice
I buy off-brand food items. They are cheaper. I also go to Dollar Tree for toothpaste, toothbrushes, and school supplies. Dollar Tree is so cheap and awesome. You can get everything there.
Sometimes off brand is better
Jax Pro keep telling yourself that
@@luging2051 all you're buying is the name brand they all taste the same
My family has always bought off-brand items, and they taste exactly the same but are half as expensive so honestly, why wouldn't you? I've never understood people who buy branded items.
I do agree to a certain extent that some brand foods are better than off-brands but honestly the price beats it. In the end if you’re against it, you really are just buying the name.
When my son was little, the nearby Fred Meyers sold their roast chickens after 8:00 pm at a steep discount. They threw them away if they don’t sell them. I’d get a few and make chicken noodle soup with egg noodles and frozen veggies, and stock our freezer up.
At my job, tons of food gets thrown out. Sadly, we don't discount them or send them away to a shelter or anything. They get written off and then thrown away. It sucks when I stock up the donuts we get for the day, then come back the next night and have to write off almost the entire cabinet of donuts to make room for the next round of donuts.
I bet they were fantastic. You are brilliant. Love to you!!!
Ive been in a similar "flat tire" situation, and it can be devastating. The Discount Tire manager in that story is a hero.
When i was 3 years old, my mother started teaching me to roll cigarettes. This was about the time her freidrichs ataxia started kicking in, and she couldn't roll them herself. After a John smacked my sister, she stopped selling her body, by this time, me and my two siblings were making something in the neighborhood of 5 cartons an hour. We eventually ran out of tobacco or sleeves at some point or another.
One of our neighbors saw this and gave us an old cigarette rolling machine (this was in the 90's, so these were pretty rare) this same neighbor also taught me how to use an assailants size against them. He taught me this because I wanted to keep people from hitting my sister again.
Since then my mother's ataxia has gotten worse, genetic disease will do that. None of us will smoke tobaccoo, but we can all roll one hell of a blunt
every once in a while my dad will say something that reminds me that he has gone through some hard times. Like taking the care to scrape every last drop out of a pasta sauce jar, or getting oddly enthusiastic about the cheapness and health benefits of rice and beans, or randomly deciding to teach me how to defend myself with a knife.
For context, his family (my grandparents) lived in Detroit and had their ups and downs, but at one point they were surviving on a trash bag of leftover movie theater popcorn and the green beans that spilled off a train
When I was younger we didn't have money for anything (my grandparents brought me up). The winter in the countryside of Poland was cold and we used old oil lamps to have some light. Meanwhile my mother went to London to earn money. The first thing she gave me was a little locket with my grandma's and her face(I treasure it to this day). My mother became a health and safety inspector after graduating with a top degree as the only woman taking the course.I moved to london im 2012 and she became a senior chief health and safety inspector. She was in charge of about 7 construction sites, the last one being Buckingham palace before we bought a house in Liverpool and moved there. She's very intelligent and graduated the best uni in our country but then travelled around the world(I love her stories,especially the ones from when she was in Africa).Back in Poland she was offered a place in the government but turned it down because it she didn't want to lie to people.
Now everything is amazing and I have anything I want.But I'm eternally grateful for her and my step dad. My mother one of the most inspiring people in my life I aim to be as strong as her some day.
gosh, I remember sneaking some money I had when I was maybe 10 or 11 into my mom's purse without telling her because she was always trying to protect us kids from poverty but had very little. going behind a bakery in the evening to the dumpster where they threw bags of day-old bread and pastries (clean bags with no garbage inside, just the baked goods) and taking those home to eat. I never went hungry because my grandparents really helped out and my mom was incredibly resourceful, but looking back, things were tough. I'm now a PhD student earning a stipend and while it's less than half of what I could make if I had a real job, I feel so lucky to be able to buy everything I need and many things I want (mostly from thrift stores but still) without feeling guilty.
Currently 19. I've been on my own since I was 17, with help. I am grateful to have the people I do around me. Wish me luck.
The Discount Tire story is one of the reasons I’m proud to work there.
Growing up I never considered myself as poor. We lived with our grandmother (well, in this small little one bedroom trailer on the side of her land) and I was the happiest child growing up with her. I grew up thinking that we had everything we wanted- a car, a roof over our heads, and food. Truthfully I’m grateful we were never out of food. My mom is a single mother, always has been, and honestly I always knew we were struggling.
This brings me to tears. I remember my mom living off of the $200 my economically comfortable father gave for child support (for two children, by the way,) because she couldn’t work (long story.) We qualified for food stamps and those $150 would last us all month- if we ran out of milk then we ran out of milk and we would have to eat our food with water- we never had soda, it was either milk or juice with our food.
We would have to pay rent and the bills for that small trailer we lived in (even though we lived in my grandmother’s land and she knew our situation,) and there was one time in the winter where I remember having to cuddle up all in one sofa because our insulation was horrible and we didn’t have enough to pay for bills. We were shivering and I remember only having one blanket to hold us close.
We each had an outfit we would rotate for church, and thankfully we had uniforms at school and we could easily handwash that every day to not seem used. My brother only had a pair of jeans as a toddler and my mother didn’t buy clothes until I was 16 (I bought them for her after I started working.) She didn’t have her own new pair of shoes until I bought them for her for Christmas this past year.
I remember once a month we would try to eat out- my mom would try to make our lives happy and seemingly rich in many things- she never led us believe we were poor. By eating out we would all share one plate of chinese food, and the kind man at the nearby mall knew how poor we were and would kindly give us larger portions.
I remember going to WIC in order to get baby food for my brother, and other times we would just wait it out until we had food stamps again. I am so grateful for what my mother has done for my brother and I, as I am now 17 and have been working for the past two years as well. She has given us the best that she could and still is, and thankfully we are in a much better situation than we were when I was a child. I hope everyone who is poor and has had situations like mine lives better futures. Thank you.
Duuuude I loved powdered milk as a kid 😂 growing up with nothing sucked but it also taught me that I don’t need a lot to survive.
@Adam Halsey Had well water growing up best water I ever had city water sucks.
I didn't quite understand that one hahaha here in brazil it's super common and most kids grow up with it, you can even make chantilly and stuff like that, they taste awesome as a sweet treat if you get them with no or very little water ;D hahaha
Lived in Japan for 3 yrs. The milk tasted like it was mixed with powdered milk. I didn't want to spend the money on "fresh" milk so I went to straight powdered milk. Favorite treat was powdered milk mixed with chilled canned crushed pineapple. Delicious!
What the hell is powdered milk?
@@temppenguin9633 It's like powdered toast
I walked to school really early so in the winter they would let kids in and wait in the warm school so kids didn't freeze so I always came early since my house didn't have heat. I also went earlier so if I could use the bathroom to brush my teeth, once me and my friend broke into the tampon dispenser (tampons were 25 cents) and we split them so her and me didn't have to waste money buying them/ save embarrassment from asking the principal and nurse for a bunch of tampons
This is for diabetics - I'm insulin dependent and have to use two needles a day. Veterinary needles are the exact same thing at 1/4 the price. I realized this when I had to give my cousins cat it's insulin shot while he was on vacation. I said these needles really look similar - so I took one needle and the packaging home and compared it to mine.... same.
damn jeff how much are they at the vet , walmart is otc on needles in most states and run about ten a box, reusing needles, skipping testing, rationing insulin , going to canada or the dark web for insulin , god forbid trying to eat right , being a poor diabetic is really freaking hard
Seriously I wonder too
I realized that as well and was extremely angry. I could get more in the size I had been using. A box of like 100 needles for 5 bucks. When I was paying almost a full dollar for each needle and syringe at the pharmacy
My cat is also insulin dependent, but the price keeps going up. I used to pay $19 for 100 syringes, now it's $37. Insulin was $52, now its $83.
@@SnottyShadow You could try avoiding meat. I've heard meat is a primary cause for type 2 diabetes. I used to eat garbage because I was poor and felt like a pre diabetic, everyone in my family has type 2 so I know the signs. Lately, still poor but I've just been eating fruits and vegetables if I can. Beans are cheap, rice (not great for diabetes but still better than some things) quinoa at aldis is 3-4$ a lb and spinach is reasonable at farmers markets. Intermittent fasting has also been known to help reverse diabetes type 2, worth looking into and that's free to try. If you have the cash organic apple cider vinegar in water can help lower your blood sugar depending on how far you are along as a diabetic. Still should help no matter what.
Mac and cheese but not Kraft. Kraft was for rich people.
Make your own mac and cheese. Boil 1 cup macaroni noodles with 1 t salt in 2 cups milk (powdered milk is good) according to pkg directions. Keep stirring so the noodles don't stick. You will not be draining the noodles. Add 1 T butter and 2 cups of grated cheese. If you don't have the cheese, it will be buttered noodles and will be very delicious either way.
Yeah, at my local aldi(where my family shops) the Kraft is like a 1.50 per box and the generic brand is 80 cents.
We go for the generic brand.
@@SakoShizuko why would anyone buy food brands? I don't get that, my family has never bought a food brand (apart from quorn cause they don't do own brands of that) in my life
@@ghost-bc1fn honestly, sometimes it's really about quality I think. I've been through a lot of financial statuses during my life, and I still don't get it. Now, I get generic brand because it's cheap, but I used to get whatever the hell brand just cause I had extra cash. I honestly don't even know
yes make your own mac and cheese from scratch. you literally only need macaroni, milk and cheese. (salt and butter are great but still optional). just literally dump everything into the pot. easiest dinner and it fills you right up
We had picknick cooler (ice chest) as a fridge for like 6 months and we'd refill it with ice from the soda machines at McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. until someone gave us their old fridge when they got a new one
I had one I sat outside during winter packed it with snow
@@sherlockwho5714 hahaha! I've used snow without a cooler... And even now, I have a cooler in the backseat of our car, which by some miracle is still running, because the mini-fridge in our extended stay motel doesn't hold much and isn't very cold. Fortunately, no one at work (Taco Bell) has a problem with me refilling my cooler with free ice every few days.... We are poor, but we appreciate what we have and we know it could be worse. There are 3 of us and we all work. I make the least, but I also have to do way more of the work around here- cleaning, shopping, etc.... The other two live walking distance from work, an employer I'm no longer able to work for because when I worked there a couple years ago, I left on bad terms. Honestly, I wouldn't work there again even if I could- that place is toxic for my mental health. I have to drive about 40 minutes to work. That's well over an hour per day, round trip. Anyway, not sure how this got so long.... Bipolar is tough, and is partly responsible for where I am today. I take full responsibility for all my actions, but many of those irrational actions were the direct result of mental instability. So, here I am! Lol! We're doing far better than we could be. We all have smartphones, we have a car, we have a roof over our heads, warm showers, food, etc.... We are just struggling to find any apartments that will rent to us, that's all. 🙂🙂🙂
That was me and my husband a few years ago. Thankfully a co-worker was getting a new fridge and they gave us their old one.
There was a time in my high school life that my history teacher would give me her food from lunch since I let it slip that my mom and I didn’t have food at home. Also, living in Utah, there was a lot of food drives around from the Mormons, and that was the only reason my ma and I survived.
Im from utah too. I don't agree with a lot that the church does as far as politics but their members for the most part are VERY giving people. I lived in a pretty bad area, and a guy knocked on my door one year and asked if we needed Christmas presents.
What a teacher! You had an angel on your side.
You learn SNAP doesn't last all month, even with maximum trips to the food bank.
My wife and I are disabled on SSI.
thankfully, we're very careful with money, but we can't get our 11 year old to pick anything for itself, even for Christmas or her birthday. It hurts that she knows that the money for her gifts represents something we did without. We love on $1100/m, but what she does know is that every time she refuses a toy or clothes or whatever, it's adding to a savings account for her first car... She'll have a pretty decent car.
When my wife's great Aunt wants to spend money on her, it's a different story, so I think she figured out that if her great great Aunt doesn't spend it on her, it's not getting saved.
We meet our most basic needs every month, but she knows she's not getting a trip to Disney like get friends (although she thinks Disney is hell on Earth, but I'd still love to take her Six Flags, but that's just not in the cards). Having a kid while being poor is very painful
I was the child of poor parents. Lots of love, but no trips and I was very, very aware of the financial situation.
Your daughter will do just fine. Poor girls grow up to be strong women.
Been there
Stephen M try and find hustle for extra money it’s not hard eBay amazon trips to thrift store
I will never have children because of that experience being poor. I'm still poor I don't want to see someone learn it. You should be proud that you provide for her even if it is not everything.
@@Av-mu3dz haha I teach at a university I get paid per class 2000 so over the next 16 weeks I make 4k you have made me feel rich :)
Three things I take away
>I'm not actually poor. My life is just kind of boring and I cant afford to escape it just yet.
>I need to be more grateful of what I do have.
>I have to be careful and not let myself actually fall into that kind of life.
what single ply toilet paper feels like.
not knowing why one of your parents is alway thin, find out later they went without for you.
My mom would literally starve herself just so that we could eat she would go days even a week sometimes and not eat because there wasnt enough food.
This is....wow.. My Dad is over 30 pounds underweight. Most of our money is his disability check. It doesn't cover everything, sadly :/
My mum spent every penny on feeding her kids. She was a drug addict, but would go with out her heroin fix if we didn’t have money for both. She put her addiction behind her 3 times for us. I will be forever grateful
@Robert Craig Yea I was fortunate too growing up. Didn't learn this until recently
Neonic Plays Damn that’s an especially good mom to fight something as strong as addiction for her kids. I hope she got or gets help
When I was a kid, my mom and myself were pretty poor (single mom and she was going to school full time so she was on welfare). The only reason I got to have Christmas presents was because an organization would donate kids toys to families in need. I now donate kids presents every year, trust me it makes a huge difference for a kid in need.
I remember being so poor that I couldn’t eat lunch at work because if I spent any money I couldn’t feed my kids. I always had enough to get them food but I never got to eat a full meal for about 5 years. I never Let anyone know I was struggling on my own with 3 kids and couldn’t afford to eat. I was thankful for a lot of places that allowed me to have free drinks. I usually ate what my kids didn’t finish themselves though. I’m glad that I went through the hard times made me smarter with my money and I am currently living with my parents and they’re letting me save all my checks so I can afford my own house. I am almost able to buy one outright. If it wasn’t for them being so generous I’d still be in the same place before. I’m glad that my parents found out and were gracious enough to allow my kids and I to stay for free with them until I could get out on my own again.
Once I went to buy some tires but only had enough money for two tires even though I needed all four. I went to the tire section of Pep Boys and looked down on the ground and saw a $100 bill crumpled up on the floor. God is good and I got my tires!
Buy one drink from a restaurant with unlimited refills as long as you keep a cup it is free
Trent hell yeah i remember doing this
So long as you stay in the restaurant. If you leave and come back, that's theft.
Captain Lorelai Pucksdatter Office doofy on patrol, you stopped a poor person from getting a drink from a chain corporation good job
as someone who works in fast food, we don’t give a fuck. get as many refills as you want
@@Cs-cu7kw we the staff don't care. Upper management may say something though.
I have 2 stories
1. My dad divorced my mom while we where in the middle of coming back from a trip. We where at a hotel and was stuck there that night and couldn't stop at all the next day.
2.our card got hacked and all the money was drained. We had to find as much dollar bills to get grocies and get all the coupons we had.
Used to make what I'd call poor man's hotdish. Two cups of rice, one bag of frozen mixed veggies, one can of spaghetti sauce, and a pound of ground meat(beef, pork, chicken whatever I could get for cheap). Once cooked I would mix it all together and divide it equally into seven portions and that was my dinners for the week. Depending on what the meat cost the whole batch could be made for 5-7 dollars. I've got a bunch of other recipes I used when poor and living on my own but that is easily the best in terms of value.
Me and my wife while buying our house made ramens and a walmart hamburger for dinner quite a bit that was maybe .50 to .75 cents a meal. Living poor is no stranger to either of us as that is how we grew up.
Very grateful for what I have now. Some of these stories brought back memories as a child. And recently as an adult went thru a custody dispute with my ex who left me after I was injured I had huge medical debt moved in with family. My ex withheld our daughter from me so she could collect child support and I had to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars so I could establish custody. I had to pay her child support all my medical bills and lawyer fees. The savings account was in her name so I had no access to it I was broke I continued to work injured and picked up another job to stay a float until I collapsed from exhaustion and ended up in the emergency room. I never gave up I didn't have a choice. My daughter is the most important person in my life. There was a burger king close to work that was being remodeled and they had a special whoppers for a dollar I would buy one for my lunch every day that's all I ate. For months and lost weight. Very grateful to the owner thank you. Because of lil thing's like that I was able to pay the lawyer, thousands in child support and get partial custody. Not 50 50 yet but working on it. I got a promotion at work. I work hard to keep my daughter comfortable and the time I spend with her is priceless I AM VERY GRATEFUL for what I have now.
When I was a child my mom would collect pop cans and bottles for a whole week so me and my older brother could have candy bars.
During Halloween we would fill pillow cases with candy and we would go to peoples houses twice just to have more candy. There was a house that would give out full size candy bars.
Man, this hit close to home. We were pretty poor during my whole childhood and I always felt embarrassed that I couldn't have 'new' clothes, nice toys and go on holiday like the kids at school.
Then during my late teens/early 20s I went through depression and unemployment and at my lowest, I had no electric in my flat the last few days, every fortnight before getting my benefit money and in the winter I'd go to bed at 5/6pm to keep warm because it had got dark, so there was nothing to do and no heating so I'd need to be under the duvet in the winter to keep warm. During the worst times I was living on toast for breakfast, skip lunch and some cheapest brand instant mash and cheapest brand instant gravy for dinner. A piece of bread with it if I had enough left. No meat or veggies, god I hated it so much.
I'm ashamed to admit I sometimes had to steal tampons from the local supermarket. I don't know what I'd gave done if I'd been caught but I needed them:/
Also, I used to unravel as much toilet roll from public toilets as I could and take it home when I'd run out.
I'm living quite comfortably now compared to then, but it always stays with you. I hope I never end up back in that situation but if I do I suppose at least I know I can survive.
One way it still affects me is that I can't bear food waste. It really makes me sad and angry when I see people throw still-edible food away just because they can afford to. Food is so valuable when you're poor, but it seems like it's nothing to people who're living well. It's hard to get out of the mindset where food and heat and toilet paper is precious.
I grew up fairly poor, my mum and my nan tried to do best they could (my nan lived in her own place) anyway I was gobsmacked after what we went through when i was young struggling to scrap by and pay bills and get food in the house due to reasons I'm not going to mention, well I saw my mum throwing away left over food, told her don't do that, since then she puts any left overs in tubs and they go in fridge or freezer and nothing ever gets wasted now because I couldn't believe she was wasting food especially after what we went through, now though she thinks about saving what ever food is left and having them for lunch/dinner the day after or put in freezer for another day instead
I remember when I was working part-time for the first time as a teen. I worked at this coffee shop and they would sell these high protein, carrot cake. Most of the time, customers wouldn't even finish it so when I brought the plate to the back to be washed, I would cut out the part the customer ate, and eat the remaining.
Secondly, when I was a broke college student three years ago, I was in front of my professor's office door when I realized there's a full, unopened loaf of bread. It was thrown away because that day was the expiration date. The dustbin had just been changed so there's nothing in it and there's only this bread, lying there. After I submitted my work inside, hungry me couldn't take it anymore so I looked around for CCTV, there's none, and take it home. My stomach was full for three days because of that bread.
I'm much much better now.
Honestly though, expiration dates are such a scam. They're totally arbitrary and people throw out loads of perfectly edible food because they think it instantly turns to poison or something on that date. I have literal 5 year old yogurt in my fridge (real yogurt, not the sugary yoplait crap). It's fine because the whole point of yogurt is that it's milk that has already "spoiled" in a way that keeps it edible.
Thank you all for sharing your stories here in the comments. I didn’t realize how much it sucks to be poor because I always had money, and I felt bad but never felt moved, and now I feel a deep sense of sympathy and compassion. So know that you’re stories really are spreading awareness. Not the kind that just makes people know, but the kind of awareness that moves people.
8:33 yeah I can relate to this. Except it was basically all my childhood. Made me hyper aware of the difference between needs and wants. Now it’s super hard for me to actually know what I want because I just assume I won’t get it. This includes well paid jobs. I was taught I didn’t deserve nice things, or basically to feel valuable at all.
The one with the mother who just gave away her money when her children were suffering was awful. Many of those people probably had it better than her kids did. Your children should be the most important thing in your life, not your pride or image
It is called virtue signalling. It makes me mad.
Chopped strawberries and a big tub of publix vanilla yogurt is the best snack ever
Publix?! I love that store but yeah right! It's so expensive!
Seeing all of this brings back a lot of awful memories. I grew up with separated parents and neither of them had money. My dad began using drugs and we would go weeks without power, water, gas and pretty much anything utility based so that he could afford his addiction. There would be many days where I wouldn't be able to eat and when I did eat it would be spaghettios or mac and cheese because that is all we could afford. Eventually it got to the point where I didnt have a bed and we would pawn various things around the house to be able to eat and bathe. Luckily my uncle who is living a very comfortable life gave my dad a car and paid off a lot of our debts, my dad doesnt seem grateful for it but I'll always have nothing but respect and love for my uncle. Growing up on my moms side never got this bad but we missed out on a lot of things that the people around us were doing but my mom never stopped trying to give us the life she always wanted to have, she married my stepdad when I was 8 and went back to school. Im 17 now and we live comfortably but I don't ask for much because i grew up dirt poor, this helped me get a strong work ethic and stay away from addiction because I swore that I'd never grow up to be my dad. I love my dad but he still has a lot of growing up to do and my mom will always be the most important person in my life. I love you mom
for anyone who’s going through something like this, try to buy peanut butter and crackers. its cheap, has decent flavour and has enough protein and carbs to fill you up. and take advantage of any free deals at fast food places (like how sometimes they give you free food on your birthday)
some of these made me cry omg. always be grateful for what you have and always try to give back cause you really never know what others are going through.
When I was 17 I left my mums house (had to we both just clashed at the time) took my 1 year old son with me and lived off £3.20 a week for a year... if it wasnt for the manager and McDonalds giving me food at the end of the day most days I'm not sure how me and my son would have survived. I eventually got a job and worked my ass off to make sure we could make ends meet even though I got paid very little, now I'm in college doing nursing and we still never have much money but my son (now 5) is going on his first holiday next year and he never wants for anything. I have a much better support network now than I ever did and that's something I'm proud of :)
Back in 2019, my mom got an eviction notice. We moved almost all our stuff out of the trailer and stuffed it in a storage unit. We were sleeping on the floor for about a couple months until my grandma said we could live at her place until we found a house. We were stuck in a room full of junk for over a year. It's better now thank goodness!
We were never that poor to were we didn't have food to eat, but to make that happen we lived in a small apartment for several years. My parents were young when both me and my sister were born, but still made sure our basic needs were met. They still needed help from their parents sometimes, but for the most part supported us themselves. Up until shit started going downhill for me, I was an overall happy kid growing up. Because how I grew up I'd rather be in the lower middle class over higher class. I don't know how to spend money without feeling guilty even now.
I was so poor because I’m disabled and was on SSI for two years. I had only 65 dollars for groceries monthly. I always got lots of canned foods like spaghetti-O’s and whatever crap food on sale 4 for a dollar. Now I’m on SSA DAC and able to have money for food. It’s heavenly having 200 to spend on groceries a month. I can’t afford furniture but I’m so happy having food, and a roof over my head. I’m grateful.
I could really relate to the lego one 😭. Never asked for anything too when i was young cuz iknow we were poor. Back then i also didnt like celebrations like birthdays christmas and just about anything cuz i know we would be spending alot for unnecessary things. I think the only time we celebrated my birthday since i was born till highschool was in my first birthday. Sorry for the long post, this just got through me really hard T_T
Edit: I actually dont like celebrating my birthday till now and I used to ask my parents when i was young, not to celebrate my birthday cuz i know were so poor.
for every next birthday: happy birthday to you.
and your gift from me is a like.
I loved legos as a kid, and my parent didn't have a lot of money, so I just asked them for megabloks instead, since they were much cheaper. I think I was like 7 or 8.
These all made me cry. 😥
I know how almost all of these feel having grown up poor from age 9 after my dad passed away and still being poor, in my late 30's with children.
It's depressing not being able to make ends meet no matter what I do & if I do save something seems to ALWAYS happens & that little $50-100 extra is gone like the wind.
It's constant worrying, anxiety, depression especially during holidays.
People happy, shopping, decorating, the unending adverts, etc. It's torture.
If you can't buy your children Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner plus gifts many people generally don't feel much like "celebrating."
Of course, You do what you can, but it can feel like you've been defeated so most days you'd rather not do anything at all.
It's always 1 step forward, 2 steps back.
For instance when we moved into to our low income apt last spring we rented furniture because we couldn't afford to buy a couch or sofa and finding a free one was great, but without a truck you can't get it.
Our Christmas tree is a Norfolk Island pine someone gave us for Christmas.
Going to let the kids make paper ornaments and if I have extra buy LED lights for it.
Oh and when you're poor you don't get stockings with extra little things stuff because the little stuff IS your gifts.
Anyway, we're 2 months behind so the furniture must go back soon, but I'm hoping it'll be after Christmas when they decide to come get it so we at least have furniture to sit on.
Every day is hard, but The holidays in particular for people who are low income/poor are not just hard financially, but mentally as well.
I don't know about anyone else who's in a similar situation/in poverty but it's a relief when new years hits.
Hopefully next year will be different, abut so far that's the reality atm for many people.
When I was a kid we had generic mac n cheese a lot. Like, several times a week as leftover lunch/dinner. To this day I cannot eat macaroni and cheese from any brand or even homemade; it simply makes me ill. My mom raised my little brother and I by herself and worked 2 jobs to take care of us, so it was just a quick and cheap meal. Anyways, she also had to buy really cheap pans that the teflon flaked off of during use, and it would get in the mac n cheese. She couldn't just throw food away like that so she served it and told us it was "pepper". At one point I asked her if we could have mac n cheese without "pepper" and that was one of the last times she ever made it for us...I told her about that story a couple of years ago and she got really upset realizing I could remember how hard it was that far back. I don't mind though, I'm really proud of how well she's done for herself now and doesn't have to live like that anymore.
I grew up poor, but I had family that grew up just about one step above being homeless at times. They lived for a time in a two shack. They had an outhouse. They lived near water, so did not have running water. They just sent one of my cousins down with buckets to bring water back that they dumped into a large pan. That was for washing themselves, dishes, clothes. They had a neighbor that had a well that would let them get gallons of water for drinking. They had another neighbor who ran an extension cord from his house so they could have light and a TV. I remember we would go visit them and they would have maybe a couple of old, cheap and broken toys. We would go under the neighbors porch and make mud pies. Sometimes they had toilet paper in the outhouse and sometimes they would have old newspaper or something. One of my other cousins was also poor, but more like my family was. But I remember a lot of times they lived in very substandard housing. Older houses with rooms you could not go in because the floor would break through and you could get hurt. Or houses way out in the sticks. My mom told me about a house they lived in that I was too young to remember. You had to park by the road and walk a good distance into the woods to one of those old abandoned houses that had been forgotten. But now as adults, all of us have a really strong work ethic and make sure our children do not have to live that way.
We ate caned vegtables, refried beans, that i would eat for the whole day, one can a day. Got food from churchs, i also broke a flipflop, my only shoes. And had to ask the church to get me shoes. I asked for 1$ outside of stores. I would get use to only eating a few bites of food throughout the day and my stomach finally stopped hurting.. From starving. When i had an opportunity to eat a plate of food, i could only eat a small amount and give the other part to my dog. When we ate spaghetti my cats would eat it too. This happened in my 50s. I hope i don't have to go through that again!
These hit so close to home. Our treats as children was to get Burger King coupons from the mail and spend $10 once a month to get as much of the "dollar menu" items we could. This was split between my three siblings, me, and my parents. I'm literally on the verge of tears because of how much I feel for these people
Ruining a childhood just sucks... it's the one time in your life you can actually enjoy yourself worry free.
Mad love and respect to anyone who grew up poor and still made a life for themselves. I’ve personally never experienced being homeless, going hungry, growing up with only one or neither of my parents, not being able to go to school and get an education or any other hardships that being poor tends to bring into one’s life. Seeking it happen with my own eyes to others has helped keep me down to earth and grateful for what I have been blessed with
If you have never slept for dinner, you don't know the struggle!
It's easy to fast for health now!
Honest
I think rich people do this for fasting benefits
Yeah, makes you want to cry but you can't because you're hungry and don't have the energy to do it.
Dudeee....I used to be embarrassed to ask for more food...this hit
I remember being comfortable and then suddenly becoming poor. As a 12 year old who was used to the comforts of modern life I was then forced to get used to being poor. The first thing that changed was having no garbage bags and having worse tp then I had before. I would also eat free lunches at my school everyday and I didn’t have to pay for it because of my mother’s income. We also ate a lot of rice and beans and pasta. Life became harder, and Christmas instead of getting a lot of presents I only had one. Another scary thing was no health insurance. That was some of the little things. But I learned to truly be happy during this time and I became close with my family. I learned a lot of lessons, and now my family is doing well and my mother had finally gotten another job in her very competitive field.
kix cereal. so much kix cereal. there's also sleep for dinner. and the free water at wawa
Yeah kix pretty decent cereal though tbh
Ok Cory
Tbh who didn't get free ice from Wawa's? Dude I still get hype whenever there's a free coffee day. I'd wake up early and grab like five large cups and get out of there before the business people come in
I love kix. That’s my favorite cereal😂
We could afford Kix when we had WIC, but after that it was giant bags of marshmallow mateys, coco-roos, apple crisps, or frosted mini spooners. Mostly frosted mini spooners.
I had a hard life as a child, but it must've been a million times harder for my mom. We were extremely poor and my dad was a drug addict and alcoholic. We had a hard time getting away from him. We had to change our socials, names, and move out of state. Anyway, I was always told no when I asked for something. It really sticks with you. I'm married now and I see so many cute things I want at the store, but I don't ask for them because I think I'll be told no. My husband told me once that it hurts his heart when I see something I like and he says I can get it, but I tell him it's ok I don't really need it and I just like looking at it. He'll take it off the rack and say we're buying it, but it makes me feel bad, so when he's not looking I put it down somewhere else. I'd rather go to the $1 store for something than spend $32 on a shirt. I know I can be messed up sometimes because of my childhood, but it blows my mind that he loves me so much.
Cadiz you have a good man and he loves you in glad you have him everyone deserves love
I remember having Raisins at school, and I would literally go around and ask people for their raisins to bring home because I didn't have much to eat at home at all, worst part of that was when my stash got raided by ants and still eating some of the boxes... Had a really cool friend who would spot me some of his Lunch tho
I loved raisins as a kid... I was not poor but when I was like 2 or 3 I whould always hide some under my pillow or just at other random places just for later...My mom whould just ask ANDY WHAT ARE YOU EATING?! And then I was eating some raisins I saved up from like 3 days😂😂 its funny because I am still always saving food and when I like eat a bag of ships I always leave about 1/6th just for later and it works... because 3x 1/6th is still a half a bag of chips for when you really want ships and you cant get some (this is just a stupid example but I do this a lot and it accually saves me money)
My brother was fine with eating bugs in his food but I honestly prefer to go hungry. At least I got my teenage body back lol.
@@Drie_Kleuren cute! I love that
I remember friends in h.s. thinking I was funny for eating the free ketchup packets at lunch. It was either that or starve. I survived off off ketchup,water, and salt packets masquerading as tomato soup for 3 months as a homeless teen.
it’s crazy how you can grow up without realizing how poor you really were.. my life wasn’t as bad as a lotta people on this, but it’s still got me cryin thinkin bout a lotta shit..
The Lego one got right in my heart
Same
Glad the parents got to hear the story from the grandma. Hope they make up for it to this day.
When I was a kid for a period of time we were piss poor, my mom would go to the market after hours (in Asia there are farmers market everywhere, and they started to pack around 7 ish) to buy those beat up vegetables and almost rotten meat. Since they had to throw those away anyways, they would charge next to nothing or just gift them. I ate porridge and pickled carrots for a whole year before seeming semi fresh vegetables and meat. I would ride tricycles and deliver water to earn some extra cash and take some weight off my parents's shoulders. It was tough but also weirdly, kinda fun
When I was married my husband was a heroin addict, I didn't know and I was completely blind to the worldly things.I worked a good job but only had just enough to put food on the table. I couldn't understand how the money never was enough. he hid the fact that he was using. I said one day I was leaving he said he would kill the children and I knew he would he at times was crazy, I had to wait until the children were old enough to take care of themselves, then I left. My children blame me for the horrible life they had to live with that monster. thank GOD I am free from him today, also the reason I married a loser like him was my family growing up treated me like I was a nothing my self esteem was nothing. too bad we don't have classes in school that teach little girls that they are not crap, that they are special beautiful and worth being loved. What is happening now is they are being bullied and hurt, to the point some take their own lives, If they only would read some books on how to grow on self-esteem, they could learn to be strong people and find that husband that will be the one they need. NOT the creep that beats them.
If you have low self esteem its fine if yo want to be with a psycho, just to not bring kids into the picture. I told my mother to abort her last child because I had been explaining her daddy issues to her since I was 16 years old (it isn't rocket science) when she left me with my violent father to go start dating another psychopath. My brother and I are suicidal, I am homeless and being sexually exploited, he is on the run from the aw after getting caught up in gangs trying to avoid being at home with our dad. No surprises when my brother and I have to put our lives on the line and risk going to prison fighting her boyfriend to save the baby he tried to kill who is now traumatised and fucked for life already.
when that guy had to steal hygene products i felt so bad. it was like that one part in the bible where someone stole a fork, and then he got caught but the shop owner didnt get mad at him and instead gave him a full silver set of forks knives spoons, and toilet paper. all the shop owner said was return it when your ready. i always loved that story
That wasn't the bible... it was Les Miserables.
ccggenius12 was it?
I remember hearing it in a Christian Science camp so it could be either
@@slavichwalker9856 There was no toilet paper in biblical times?
When I was 17/18 I had a lot of hard times, weeks when I wouldn’t even have two pennies to rub together. I went hungry a lot of the time, I was working but as I was so young I wasn’t getting many hours. When I needed toilet paper, I would take a big purse into the gas station and take it from the bathrooms. I would unravel the roll until my bag was full. When I would get paid I would have to use whatever money I had to fill up my gas tank for two weeks and buy enough ramen and cheap food from the dollar tree to last me until next pay day. So I would do the toilet paper thing about 3 or 4 times a month because I didn’t have money to spare for paper products. That was such a hard time in my life.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm going to be moving into my own apartment this summer and I predict I'll be very poor and hungry for a long while so that toilet paper thing sounds like a stellar idea.
10:10
Wow. That's actually the most amazing story I've seen from Reddit/this channel.
Not sure which situation is worse, being the kid or the mom/dad finding out that your kid actively refuses to ask for things because they've always been declined.
grew up on the the rez, never had electricity or plumbing not to mention running water... thank God I got out of there
What is rez can you explain!
Jesus
the rez is short for reservation as in native reservation, its a small piece of land that is governed by its respective tribe... they are not a safe place to live, most dont have police stations or hospitals, everything is handled on our own...
@@tsimshian NPR reported that there is a female genocide going on in the rez. Make it sound like white ppl do it. I love how NPR twists stories around against whites. Damn NPR.
My uncle married my aunt and got out of the Dakotas rez. They had a good life in Tx. His spirit took her home when she died.
I remember reading this thread a few years ago. The one with the dad taking them to dollar movies had a lot of judgy replies.
We could not always afford toilet paper. So when phone books were delivered, I would keep them and use that nice thin paper as toilet paper.
To this day, I barely use paper towels, I use them like they are made of silk or something, because paper towels were something we never had.
As for pads; when I first started my period around 12 years old, I noticed pads were just paper with a soft plastic waterproof back. Once discovered, I would place toilet paper in a shower cap and use that as a pad.
In 5th grade, I would get hungry during class and would eat bits of paper. I eventually was sent to the counselor's office.
My parents had a change of fortune when I was about eleven years old, we had been very poor but my dad put himself through night school to be a bricklayer. I never asked for anything either. My brother who was born when I was thirteen had a totally different life, he was totally spoiled rotten, rc cars, then motorbikes, cars, they even bought pot for him. Now I'm a teacher and hes in prison for aggravated rape, guess there's a lesson here.!
My sister and I were raised differently like you. I remember the poor years. My dad did the same..night school for telecommutions computer something...he got lucky and we moved to upper middle class. We had a privileged life..but I was treated differently. I think bc I reminded them of hard times or something. My mom hit me and they cared so much about what people thought..I was a trophy or doll. I actually longed for the simpler times..the money big house and keeping up with the Jones's stressed them out and stressed me out. I grew up to be a complete loser. My sister has a career husband kids nice house etc...this Christmas I visited her and she was very cruel to me. Money doesnt buy happiness.
Going to a restaurant that has free ice cream with any purchase (Jason's Deli), buy a $1 brownie for the family, and enjoy a full dessert for everyone for basically nothing.
Dad became disabled when I was 4. A kind of disabled that couldn't work anymore. My whole childhood I thought we were better off than we were. Until I grew up and thought back on it and we were dirt poor. Mom being a great cook with what she had helped since those bowls of rice and maybe meat that week always tasted different.