What comes to mind for me is the stupid things we have to do to keep our self awake going from one shift to another, like sitting far forward in your car seat and slapping yourself in the face to stay awake. I’ve had to sniff hand sanitizer before lol.
I also want to take a second and acknowledge that you’re worth more than just your struggle. You have so much value, and I appreciate you and everything you do. I’m so proud of you.
Shopping at many diffrent stores to take advantage of all the diffrent deals. Shopping was an all day adventure just to survive. I had 60$ a week to feed and get tolitries for 2 teens
Bread- local corner store you could by day old bread, hotdog buns etc after 12pm each night for $0.25 if they had the good bread by 2 loaves and into the freezer it goes.
Protein
Save on had a 12pk of chicken burgers for 2.99. It was a good day when they went on sale for 1.50 or 1.99
Deli meat ends, save on would package up the un sliced end of thier deli meat. You would get a mix of diffrent meat chunks at 80% discount.
Safeway had the best price on a flat of eggs. It cost the same as a 12 pk anywhere else. They also had the cheapest 2l of pop.
Staples – the bargan shop always had noodles, pasta, sauce, soups etc at up to 75% off. I would do most of my shopping here.
The dollar store was great for tp/pt, spices, toothpaste etc.
If I was lucky id have 5$ leftover to “splurge” on the dollar menu burgers from mc dicks for me and my partner once a week.
It would take me all day to walk all over town just to get supplies for the week. It was utterly exausting trying to stay affloat. One wrong slighty expensive purchase means you are going without in some area.
Being able to drive to, get all my shopping done in one spot while not having to do serious mental math and worry about going over budget is a luxury.
Duck tape is cheaper than buying new stuff or hiring a repair person. I’ve repaired shoes, backpacks, pipes, a car bumper, holes in the wall, and a lot of other stuff with Duck tape.
When I was a kid we were poor, so the electricity company would install these pre-paid meters in our home (I guess so we couldn’t go into arrears). Anyways if you let it run down to 0 credit it required a 20 GBP top up, that is an amount of money we never had, so I used to go check the meter and if it got near 0.00 I’d flip the trip switch to turn the power off to our entire place.
We would go without electricity for the rest of the day because it meant we could then load the minimum amount in to keep it going the next day, which was 5 GBP.
Being in pain/uncomfortable. I can’t afford to go to the doctor. I even finally have insurance now but the copays, tests, etc. are so expensive! I just push through whatever it is and hope for the best or try home remedies.
When I didn’t have insurance and would have something that absolutely needed a doctor, like when my kidney was screaming at me, I got really good at convincing docs to just prescribe their best guess without all the labs and imaging because I couldn’t afford it.
Protip: Walmart has antibiotics that they only charge $5 for, so you can ask your doc if they can pick a suitable antibiotic off that list.
How to work 20 hour days at 3 different jobs. Luckily I didn’t have to do this all the time- but there were stretches of time where I’d be crunched into this schedule while in school full time. Still got my bachelors degree.
Driving with expired license plates. Always looking forward to see who is coming towards you is not as important as watching who is coming up behind you (Im in KS, we don’t have forward facing plates) always planning a strategy for a turn if you see an officer. It definitely makes driving more stressful than it already is.
Accepting whatever you were offered and never asking for more. Not expecting to receive anything more. Putting newspaper in the toes of your shoes cause they were too big. So many things.
Personally it was small things my mother, as she grew up impoverished, taught me:
Eating the entire slice of pizza, including the crust.
Keeping every ounce of change in shoeboxes (my mother grew up very poor)
Getting good at haggling, specifically for stuff at work or school, and sneaking stuff out of buffets whenever people would take you.
Oh! And library visits! We would always read to pass the time, my mother was a very good teacher when I was a child and she taught and helped me in school a lot in early life.
Many grocery stores have a section where baked goods and other self items go on massive sale because they are about to expire soon. You can get some tasty foods that way.
Comments
What comes to mind for me is the stupid things we have to do to keep our self awake going from one shift to another, like sitting far forward in your car seat and slapping yourself in the face to stay awake. I’ve had to sniff hand sanitizer before lol.
Being able to juggle 2 jobs, not even the time commitment but making sure your shifts don’t overlap ect ect
Wasting nothing, and then making something out of said nothing… Not just food. So many things
I also want to take a second and acknowledge that you’re worth more than just your struggle. You have so much value, and I appreciate you and everything you do. I’m so proud of you.
Using coupons to your advantage. Finding that 50¢ off a box of Mac and cheese when it’s bogo something.
Digital coupons are very prevalent nowadays so look even before you go meandering look to double up
Not asking for help
When you grow up in section 8 you have a community that shares items one may not be able to afford at the moment.
Shopping at many diffrent stores to take advantage of all the diffrent deals. Shopping was an all day adventure just to survive. I had 60$ a week to feed and get tolitries for 2 teens
Bread- local corner store you could by day old bread, hotdog buns etc after 12pm each night for $0.25 if they had the good bread by 2 loaves and into the freezer it goes.
Protein
Save on had a 12pk of chicken burgers for 2.99. It was a good day when they went on sale for 1.50 or 1.99
Deli meat ends, save on would package up the un sliced end of thier deli meat. You would get a mix of diffrent meat chunks at 80% discount.
Safeway had the best price on a flat of eggs. It cost the same as a 12 pk anywhere else. They also had the cheapest 2l of pop.
Staples – the bargan shop always had noodles, pasta, sauce, soups etc at up to 75% off. I would do most of my shopping here.
The dollar store was great for tp/pt, spices, toothpaste etc.
If I was lucky id have 5$ leftover to “splurge” on the dollar menu burgers from mc dicks for me and my partner once a week.
It would take me all day to walk all over town just to get supplies for the week. It was utterly exausting trying to stay affloat. One wrong slighty expensive purchase means you are going without in some area.
Being able to drive to, get all my shopping done in one spot while not having to do serious mental math and worry about going over budget is a luxury.
Being happy with whatever dinner is.
I couldn’t care less what I eat. It makes dinner plans effortless.
Showing up early at the donut store to buy the bag of day-olds on the counter because they provided the most sweet calories for your money.
Fix my car, shingle my roof, assemble my own computer, I don’t psy anyone for shit if I can help it.
Duck tape is cheaper than buying new stuff or hiring a repair person. I’ve repaired shoes, backpacks, pipes, a car bumper, holes in the wall, and a lot of other stuff with Duck tape.
When I was a kid we were poor, so the electricity company would install these pre-paid meters in our home (I guess so we couldn’t go into arrears). Anyways if you let it run down to 0 credit it required a 20 GBP top up, that is an amount of money we never had, so I used to go check the meter and if it got near 0.00 I’d flip the trip switch to turn the power off to our entire place.
We would go without electricity for the rest of the day because it meant we could then load the minimum amount in to keep it going the next day, which was 5 GBP.
Tl:dr – go below zero, 20 quid. Stay 1p above zero, 5 quid.
Thankfully we are all doing much better these days.
Being in pain/uncomfortable. I can’t afford to go to the doctor. I even finally have insurance now but the copays, tests, etc. are so expensive! I just push through whatever it is and hope for the best or try home remedies.
When I didn’t have insurance and would have something that absolutely needed a doctor, like when my kidney was screaming at me, I got really good at convincing docs to just prescribe their best guess without all the labs and imaging because I couldn’t afford it.
Protip: Walmart has antibiotics that they only charge $5 for, so you can ask your doc if they can pick a suitable antibiotic off that list.
Making something edible out of the very little, and very random shit still in your pantry and fridge.
I have made some things that look and/or sound disgusting when described, but is actually not that bad, and in some cases now comfort meals for me.
Knowing the “good” brands of canned food.
How to work 20 hour days at 3 different jobs. Luckily I didn’t have to do this all the time- but there were stretches of time where I’d be crunched into this schedule while in school full time. Still got my bachelors degree.
Driving with expired license plates. Always looking forward to see who is coming towards you is not as important as watching who is coming up behind you (Im in KS, we don’t have forward facing plates) always planning a strategy for a turn if you see an officer. It definitely makes driving more stressful than it already is.
Refilling a bic lighter with butane and using a push pin to seal it and just refill my Bic 100 times instead of pay 4 dollars for a new lighter
Accepting whatever you were offered and never asking for more. Not expecting to receive anything more. Putting newspaper in the toes of your shoes cause they were too big. So many things.
Personally it was small things my mother, as she grew up impoverished, taught me:
Eating the entire slice of pizza, including the crust.
Keeping every ounce of change in shoeboxes (my mother grew up very poor)
Getting good at haggling, specifically for stuff at work or school, and sneaking stuff out of buffets whenever people would take you.
Oh! And library visits! We would always read to pass the time, my mother was a very good teacher when I was a child and she taught and helped me in school a lot in early life.
Subsistence hunting and fishing: literally grocery shopping in the woods.
Many grocery stores have a section where baked goods and other self items go on massive sale because they are about to expire soon. You can get some tasty foods that way.
You don’t get rich buying stupid shit lol
Rebuilding the air suspension in a 2013 GL 320
I can sus out and match wavelengths to just about anyone behavior wise.
Switching the bar codes on meat. Man, I had my fair share of stealing food back in the day.
Fixing things. If it was not working we fixed it or did without for months.
Sleep very hot and very cold.
Why a poor person would keep their smart phone instead of… selling it to pay rent? Or something?
Pain tolerance. You can endure a lot when you have no choice.
Not a skill, a trait. Resilience.