How many of you grew up poor?

[Gothgar]

We were so poor that our family could not even afford the O and R. We were just Po!

1/10

I grew up poor for the most part...

My dad was a salesmen, so he either sold really well, or really shitty.

We moved a lot 😛

 

[ivan2]

not really poor, nor really rich before, until i gotten to US, then we are poor. now we are better.

 

[rudder]

1/10

I grew up poor for the most part...

My dad was a salesmen, so he either sold really well, or really shitty.

We moved a lot 😛

Yes it was lame. But I will say this... growing up poor at least you can appreciate money and the hard work that goes into getting it. I am fortunate enough to live in a nice area... but man the number of spoiled kids I see. It is hard to teach kids good money management when the see classmates with ipods, $300 cell phones, etc. Not that it is a rich area by any means.. but the area is made up of people mostly in white-collar type jobs.

My dad worked for the government and I lived in the Philippines a good portion of my life until 18. I think seeing the abject poverty in that country make me not care that I drive a 2001 Honda Civic with 200K miles on it...among other things. We in the U.S. have a lot to be thankful for... if I only I could make my wife understand that.

 

[hanoverphist]

I'd like to say that I don't know what it's like to grow up on Food Stamps & Government cheese. But that would be a lie.

Funny you mentioned the swimming in anything with water. We used to jump our bikes (stolen) into the irrigation canal here in Phoenix. It's amazing that none of us drowned.

haha we did the same thing! but we did lose a couple friends to the canal over by 44th st over the years.

my mom raised me and my bro on a single income, she did the best she could. we always had clothes and shoes, but we werent "well off" most of the time. she turned that around by the time we were in hs and we had a pretty good life. my kids get everything they need, and some of the stuff they want. the grandparents tend to spoil the hell out of them, but thats ok sometimes.

 

[MotF Bane]

Grew up in an orphanage. Only thing I had were books.

That's your cover story. We all know you were programmed in a laboratory. :awe:

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Was solidly middleclass until 9. Then my father had an injury that put him in a wheel chair (was from outside of work). Company "offered" him a different job which there was no way he could take and forced him to take a huge penality on his pension (he was a year or two away from full retirement) because he declined. After that still wasn't really poor mostly because they where able to sell the houes in new york and build a much cheaper house in florida to live, but it was about a low income as you could get and still be middle class.

 

[Rubycon]

That's your cover story. We all know you were programmed in a laboratory. :awe:

The scary part is laboratory and lavatory sound the same - on a cell phone.

 

[glenn beck]

I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi.

lol, you made me spit up my food

 

[rivan]

We lived pretty modestly. Single mom worked her rear off, we lived in a rural community so cost of living was lower. She started a small business; I worked there from age 12-16, 40+ hours a week.

Had little more than the basics supplied, but I didn't really feel like I was missing all that much, either. I'm still very non-materialistic.

 

[Svnla]

.......I learned quick that there isn't any shame in working hard and scraping by but there was plenty of shame in being lazy and feeling entitled.........

QFT. I feel the same thing.

If more native born Americans (especially certain minority groups) have your attitute, we all would be better.

<<-----came to the US and penniless (literally, not a penny in my pocket). Worked hard and so far, not doing too shabby.

 

[Pheran]

i grew up at a place where as a kid you could go off somewheres for hours and hours...did not have to worry about being abducted

Argh, I hate it when people say things like this and frighten parents into not letting their children play normally. To my knowledge, there is no evidence that child abductions are increasing. Stop letting the media brainwash you.

Example: National Estimates of Missing Children: Selected Trends, 1988&#8211;1999

If anyone else has hard info to the contrary, feel free to post a link.

 

[IEC]

There is a reason I read books, books, and more books as a kid. Turned out well for me 🙂

 

[Blackjack200]

We were so poor we ate rusted old car parts for dinner. And we couldn't even afford regular car parts, we had to buy bulk car parts... alternator sized.

 

[Pheran]

Grew up in an orphanage. Only thing I had were books.

Wow, if you are not kidding about this then huge props to you, because I have great respect for the knowledge you exhibit in your forum posts.

 

[Doodoo]

We grew up poor...my parents are 1st gen immigrants and came over with practically nothing. I was born the first year they were here, and my sis a year later...so my mom had to stay home and take care of us. My dad had to walk about a mile to the bus stop so he can get to his job to make 3 bucks an hour. I remember living in a ghetto apartment building...i would always be afraid to take the stairs because there would always be some drunk bum in the staircase. We moved up a bit when IBM got big around here and my dad got a job there. Now I'd say we're middle class...all have good careers and all that. And yes kids these days are spoiled...but you can blame that on the parents.

 

[DT4K]

I guess we'd be considered middle class.
I never went hungry and we always lived in a decent house, though small and very modest.
But money was always very tight and we didn't have any fancy luxuries or go on expensive vacations. Most of our trips were either to see family, or budget trips like camping a few hours from home.

I grew up in a neighbhorhood filled with fairly small homes built in the 50's, but if you went a couple miles East, you got up into the hills where the rich people live. So I always felt pretty poor compared to a lot of the rich kids I went to school with.

Both my parents had college degrees, but my dad spent a good portion of my childhood as a college student, first getting his bachelor's degree, then spending about 8 years working on a PhD. He's a very intelligent guy, but had a severely fucked up childhood and has dealt(or more accurately, not deal) with a lot of mental issues. So my mom supported the family on her modest local government employee income.

 

[Arkaign]

Both. Rags to riches and back again several times.

 

[Train]

Not dirt poor but very frugal compared to most.

My parents would NEVER buy name brand sneakers or clothes. NEVER ate out. Powdered milk, hand me down clothes, no Atari or Nintendo. NEVER took family vacations unless it was to a cousin's farm out in the country or something.

Probably did as well if not better than most of my friends parents but my parents had a lot of kids and had different priorities. Insisted on private school over crappy inner city public even if it meant scraping the money together and having the kids do work study programs.

 

[Cogman]

My parents grew up poor, I did not.

Where you come from doesn't necessarily indicate where you are going. (The good thing about my parents both growing up without much is that their habits were pretty much the same as if they didn't have any money. They saved their money)

 

[Rubycon]

Wow, if you are not kidding about this then huge props to you, because I have great respect for the knowledge you exhibit in your forum posts.

Definitely NOT kidding about that. The Library was my escape. That built a good foundation on fundamentals. 🙂

 

[2Xtreme21]

Wore canvas shoes and went to the mall every day in the summer because it was the only place with AC. My dad was laid off for a while and my mom quit her job to have my brother. Christmas didn't really exist for us one year.. and was pretty meager most others.

Still, I remember having so much fun as a kid. Running around the neighborhood playing with the billion other kids at the park. God, it's nothing like that today. My brother was 7 or 8 when we moved to the neighborhood they currently live in. He doesn't have a single friend in the whole housing plan and never ever went outside to play. HELL, he never even learned how to ride a bike! My parents still pamper the fuck outta him (he's gonna be 18 this summer).

Even though we had it kinda rough at the old house, I wouldn't trade those years for anything. I made so many friends and had so much fun that it didn't really matter what was going on in the house. Now kids get stir crazy and don't know what to do with themselves if the damn electricity goes off for an hour.

 

[MrMatt]

I remember making powdered milk, wearing high waters o plenty, cramped shoes and mac and cheese a great deal with peanut butter sandwiches. We lived fairly meagerly until around 10 or so when mom got a career and my father got on at the nuke plant. Interesting. At the time, I did not think we were poor, because I went to school with people who had dirt floors and were even poorer than us...but they were all very good people, helped out at the chili suppers and with others in need. quite different today...my kids have everything, so do we...my wife and i are quite charitable. getting older now and reflecting back on things... i grew up at a place where as a kid you could go off somewheres for hours and hours...did not have to worry about being abducted...we built forts outside, went fishing, camping and swam in anything with water in it...bleh...lol...

perspective is good...sometimes i think kids these days need a great dose of it.

I did. Dirt poor at first. Didn't have heat in the winter really so my mom and I would sit in front of the oven after my mom made breakfast to warm up. I remember watching cartoons in ski pants & a parka. My mom denies it now but I think she would skip meals so I could eat 3 per day.

We never could get on welfare because my parents only had one kid, and we had two cars...of course the cars were over 40 years old combined. The dodge dart we had growing up had a hole in the floor. My mom had to cover it with plywood. I was sad because I couldn't watch the road go by underneath anymore. It also lacked reverse and high gear, and the doors were held shut with bungee chords. People used to shove garbage in the rot-holes in the sides. My dad would constantly by 15 year old impalas for like 200 bucks and drive them til they broke down.

Every piece of clothing I had came from salvation army. Pretty much everything had holes & patches on it. We couldn't even get into JC Penny or places like that because security would follow us around, they thought we were going to rob them. Heck I remember in little league the park we used for practices got changed to the park in my neighborhood, and kids parents threatened to pull their children off the team if it stayed that way. It stayed that way. Kids weren't pulled off the team. One of my friends from the rich school I went to came over to visit once. His mom dropped him off, then calls him back to the van, gets in, and she says to my mom "I'm sorry...I didn't realize what neighborhood this was until I pulled up just now. I don't feel safe with [friend's name] being here. I'm so sorry." and then she drove away.

I actually went to 3 different schools in 5 years without moving once because our neighborhood was 'ethnic' and whenever a school inspection in the city was coming up they wanted to make it look more 'diverse' so they'd send us there or the year, and then shuttle us to the next one. Plus we were poor so no one really gave a shit if they were tearing us away from our friends. I was always smart in school, but I'll never forgot another teacher saying to one of mine "Don't bother having any hope in him, he's just one of those Miller Street kids". The teacher did still have faith in me, and I'm glad. I skipped multiple grades, started college when I was 16, and by the time I was 17 was taking junior level courses.

We had a garden in our backyard, and no matter how poor we were, we still donated food out of it, that's something I'm proud of my mom for doing, to this day. There's always someone worse off than you. My dad eventually settled down and picked a job and stayed there, my grand parents started helping us out, and by the time I was 13 we had gotten to middle class, and actually bought a house in a gorgeous town near the one I grew up in. Looking back though I was never really aware of what poor was. To be honest I was blind to the fact that my clothing was rattier, or that we didn't have as much as others around us. I was just a happy kid.

 

[KeithTalent]

We were definitely poor. Single Mother raised me and we were even on welfare for a bit. Worked out ok though, she's now worth seven figures and looking toward retirement and I'm doing pretty well overall.

KT

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I wouldn't say "poor" because my mom barely made enough money to feed me and keep me in K-mart and good will clothes, but we lived with my grandparents so housing wasn't an issue. I'm still not sure how much financial assistance they gave her/us. It taught me the value of a dollar very early on. It also made me more determined to succeed in life so I could have nice things.
My mom still doesn't make even decent money as for lack of a better term, is afraid to seek better employment in a more public position. She has never really gotten over being raped 30 years ago and is pretty much a recluse and does not like going anywhere where there are lots of people unless I go with her.

 

[Demo24]

Not poor, but not wonderfully well off either. Parents divorced and my dad has a good job, so his child support probably kept us from anything bad. Mom decided to go back to school when I was around 4-5, so times were tough then. We lived in a house on the same land as my grandmother(in my great-grandmothers house, who moved back in after we left) so I doubt she had to pay rent, just power as we live in the country. Still we had enough for food, clothes, and maybe sometimes a couple extras. It wasn't until she got a teaching job that things started to improve. Although it cost her as she is still in a fair amount of debt. Things are pretty good now in comparison, although it's not like we can go out and blow money on frivolous stuff. If she can ever sell her house, then we will be a lot better off, aka. debt payoff.