How poor were you?

[Fern]

We've all had times in our lives (hopefully, not now) when times were tough and we had to scrape to get by. Looking back on it now with a little humor might help. Got any "favorite" memories of the tough times?

Mine: There was a time, in my early 20s,when i could fit all of my worldy possessions in the back of my small Datsun pickup. My idea of weekend entertainment was to walk the 2 miles into town to buy the Sunday paper. I rented the 3rd floor walk up apartment of a Vermont farmhouse, very bucolic looking, surrounded by pasture, cows and rolling hills, but in reality the place was infested with cockroaches and houseflies.

[shengmei]

There had been times when I had to subsist on $100 a month.

[Bluezy]

I remember in my early undergrad years at uni in Florida, making a small order of chicken nuggets last for two days. What a skinny student I was.

[PrincessPerky]

As a kid we were broke, and we did the unheard of we played outside .

We were never hungry though my Dad did try peanut butter soup, which is gross and I love peanut butter. Not sure if it was cause peanut butter was cheap or just wanted to test it, but either way it resides as a memory for me .

Course as a teen after I left home I lived in my car for months, but I don't think those were fond memories! (niether was the odd things I did for a night in bed)

[singinjeannie]

In college. One Thanksgiving weekend I was completely broke. (I had an out of state boyfriend and had spent all my money on phone bills. What a dunce!)

Anyway, I stayed at school to work the Thanksgiving weekend and the College emptied out. I had one can of soup and a few crackers to get me through 4 days. It was frustrating to know feasts were occuring in most houses around me and I was starving.

-Jean

[mccartygirl]

I grew up incredibly poor. There are too many stories. It was my mom, brother and I. My mom was a waitress until I was 14. There were years she made $5000-6000. The worst time was when my stepfather threatened the 3 of us so my dad came and got us, when we got back to the duplex (1 bedroom, about 500 sq feet) all of our stuff was sold - EVERYTHING! Mom didn't have enough money to buy us anything and she refused to go on welfare, she did it for one month for food stamps and said we'd find a way without going it. Well, everynight my mom would wash out our underwear in the sink and we'd share the 1 towel we had. My dad bought us a few extra outfits. Eventually my mom would buy a towel every week or 2 and some unders. My mom did a good job finding fun things for us to do. Ate a lot of Spam - Ugh, makes me gag thinking about it. But we went to the beach a lot, it was $2 for the carload. My grandpa bought us bikes for X-mas one year and we'd bike there. My mom work 6 days a week, 10 hours/day. It was rough times and I hated it, the welfare kids picked on me a lot because my mom waited on them. But we did a lot of fun things. It wasn't funny at the time but I can look back now at my brother running around at 3 or 4 bare butted while mom washed his underwear. Needless to say, 20 yrs later, he doesn't mind being nekkid in front of anyone. I can't imagine raising a family on that nowadays. Not to mention Spam is gross! Ragu also makes me gag to this day. Ugh.

[akaivyleaf]

Potted meat and I were friends... although I don't think we were poor. My mom made all my clothes aside from my school uniforms. I don't recall ever going without what I needed and as I scan with my minds eye, don't recall my grandparents ever rationalizing one thing over another. They are both deceased now, so I can't go back and ask them, but if we were struggling, I never knew.

[Jorge]

I would LOVE to be able to place all of my worldly possessions in my car! I honestly don't think that has ever happened to me. Even when the only food left in the house was a cup of yogurt (I was pregnant and trying to support myself on my own with very little money) that I didn't eat for dinner because I was saving it for breakfast, I had too much stuff. Tons of furniture and too many clothes. Boy did I have my priorities messed up (I'm ashamed to say). Please don't be too hard on me - I was taking my prenatal vitamins... and the pregnancy went fine.

[mehmeh]

Originally Posted by mccartygirl

Ragu also makes me gag to this day. Ugh.

lol the pasta sauce? i eat that stuff today, it's the most bland spaghetti sauce and i have to deal w/ it because i hate begging my folks for money