What are some signs that indicate you grew up poor?

If you are regular caller to a sports talk radio show. You probably grew up and still are poor.

Yes that's a good point that there are different kinds of poor and also poor people are all different and have different experiences and reactions to being poor. What my family did might be quite different from another family.

(Truth be told, my family was poor, but I was the youngest and if at all possible I was kind of a spoiled poor kid, but I never took advantage because I was aware of our problems)

Juice Springsteen wrote:

Being stingy about electric and heat/cooling

Saving food/leftovers

Wearing clothes as long as their still good and not caring if they’re out of style

When you don't consistently know the difference between their and they're.

Oh wait - that's stupid, not poor.

Being stingy about electric and heat/cooling

Saving food/leftovers

Wearing clothes as long as their still good and not caring if they’re out of style

+++++++++++

I do all these things and grew up far from poor.

I do well now but live in a lower middle class neighborhood by choice. I live well below my means and don't discuss my financial situation even with close friends.

I never went to daycare or after school program once I was old enough for school (6 yr). When school got out it was free time until my mom came home, including summers.

I have a deep distrust of people with money, probably from being ridiculed by them as a child for my "poor kid" clothes and hand me down bike, run down neighborhood, etc.

I buy absolutely everything on sale or used, though I could afford not to. I sell used stuff on ebay or craigslist, even though it is probably more cost effective for me to take it to goodwill and spend my time working. I have never owned a new car nor have I ever made a payment on one.

I rarely hire someone to do work for me - house work, car work, yard work, even in my business. I'll do it in the evening or weekend myself to save money.

I have empathy for poor people because I know that my single teacher mom worked hard and we still struggled financially.

I spent some time in a couple of countries in Africa. If you had at least running water, electricity, clothes on your back, and someone who cared enough to make sure you ate 1-2x a day you grew up wealthier than about 80% of the people I met and talked to and stayed with in Africa. Not saying that to shame or compare, it's just what I saw made me realize that though I grew up "poor" according to American standards...it was nothing like what those people endure.

just the facts wrote:

My parents never owned a credit card their entire lives. I was very nervous when I got my first card and over many years have never paid an annual fee or a penny of interest on a card. That fear was ingrained.

I didn't qualify for any credit card because I had no credit history. And then one day, AT&T gave me an offer after paying their phone bill (landline, I didn't have a cell phone) for years. They charged me $20 a year for the privilege of using their card. A year later, I got an offer from another company with no annual fee. I called AT&T to cancel my card, and they agreed to waiver my annual fee.

Yeah, but I have paid the balance every month. And I paid my 10 yr mortgage in 8 yrs, although I would have been better off with putting the extra money in my retirement account.

Having a single mom raising you.

Not my usual HN wrote:

I didn't qualify for any credit card because I had no credit history. And then one day, AT&T gave me an offer after paying their phone bill (landline, I didn't have a cell phone) for years. They charged me $20 a year for the privilege of using their card. A year later, I got an offer from another company with no annual fee. I called AT&T to cancel my card, and they agreed to waiver my annual fee.

Yeah, but I have paid the balance every month. And I paid my 10 yr mortgage in 8 yrs, although I would have been better off with putting the extra money in my retirement account.

We sound very similar. My wife & I had a 30 year loan for lower rates and in case we ran into financial trouble someday (something my upbringing comforted). We paid it off in 9-10 years by making as much extra principal payments as possible. We invested in beach properties, land-no structures, and that has paid off well to help retirement. Both being runners & hikers that was our entertainment. We never pined for new cars, fancy vacations, or elaborate expenses although my wife was from a middle class family. Growing up closer to poor than not ingrains some good habits.

lovelybones wrote:

Grew up with a single Mom and three brothers and my Mom was paying for monthly day care, a $1700 mortgage payment at above 10% ( this was 80's and 90's)...

That seems like a pretty big mortgage for an 80's era poor person. A 30 year mortgage at that rate has a PV just under $200K. In my area, $200K probably bought a mansion at that time; my family moved in to a 2700 square foot new construction in a good area for half that in 1986 (I was 6 years old at the time but was talking recently with my Dad about this). Even now in my area (southeast VA) you can get a passable house for that money and there are plenty that are cheaper. I'm not doubting your story but wondering a bit about this part. Were you in the NYC region or something?

Also, it's amazing the difference in PV (price of the house) using 10% rates vs. current 3% rates over a fixed 30 year.

It was in Denver and after my parents divorced, so there was no longer a duel income and it was on a 15 yr mortgage. I remember when the appraiser came by when I was a kid the guy thought my Mom was selling coke on the side to make the payment. I remember eating frozen waffles and store brand cereal for dinner getting free lunches at school and thinking it was the best thing ever so there was some stuff in there that if you didn't grow with money, you really didn't know the difference.

Calling one of the brojos "Big Bossman."

The three listed by Juice plus I wear my running shoes until the upper tears out or the sole gets holes.

buzzcolorado wrote:

use of utensils wrote:

They don't make use of the knife when dining. A normal person uses the knife as a backstop to help scoop food onto their fork. A poor either awkwardly stabs and scoops at food that continues to escape them, or puts their thumb right in their plate to push things onto their fork.

I've yet to see anyone born in the US use a knife and fork properly. Fork in the left and knife in the right when cutting, then you switch hands to shovel food in your mouths with the fork in your right hand smh...

This one made me laugh because only the snobbiest people in America eat this way. I grew up in a more middle-class rural/suburban area. I remember in high school one of my friends was eating the "proper" way at some dinner event. We all made fun of him mercilessly as kids used to before we became a bunch of snowflakes.

Ironically he was probably from one of the lower-income families in the group. He was also Latino, although there were other Latinos in the group and we all shared in giving him crap equally.

just my experience wrote:

You obsess over money all the time because that's all your single mother did, even though she tried to hide it. I remember getting a pair of sweatpants in middle school. They were special because they came from the local fitness store and were Adidas branded. I wore those things to school multiple times a week because I loved them so much. Then one day in PE I slid on the gym floor and put a friction hole in them. I started crying because I felt so much guilt knowing what my Mom had sacrificed to buy those pants.

So that's my personal answer. *Shrug*

My hand me down pants were fixed with iron on patches

Before the hoes and the divorce, not poor but neglected. No braces. No bike as a little kid. No baseball mitt. No field trips, as they cost $. Never learned to win until 22 years old. Eyeglasses were hard to come by until the school forced the issue. Caddied at 13 to get my first bike. Dad was enraged and received several beatings as a bike meant I could get away. from the house. Before that, walked everywhere. Probably good for me, but chores all the time. We would not spend a dime on home stuff, I cut the lawn, shoveled, fixed things as well as I could.

Although not done with my character in mind, the chores or violence threat was good for me. I actually liked 2/3's of the chores I did. The deal was if he had to ask about the chores, you ass was grass. Unlike, a lot of boys, my life was constant anticipation.

After the divorce with Dad spending on pretty young things and Mom in rehab-Ramen noodles and pancake mix all the time. No clothes, but my crowd valued being a hippy. Gotten over a lot of it, although it really sucked that I couldn't apply for aid for college as I had high grades, scores, etc. . They made me go through my Dad and he was scamming on taxes and hiding stuff so he didn't want anyone looking at his finances. So clueless that he would announce to everyone there is no way I am filling out aid forms as my taxes are a work of fiction.

A constant war between hoes and me for resources from Dad. At 17, I gave up the fight and got used to being poor and started doing any favor I could for the old people in the neighborhood. This worked great, as they helped me.

Folks never understand higher education. Both were P/E majors and both flunked out. Rednecks from good families who were the black sheep of the family. DUI's, theft, STDs, you name it. Father asked me at 24 yrs old if I graduated from undergrad and what the hell is this NSF thing you got? It was three years!

Bottom line: It is better to have poor parents with integrity versus an abused parent and a narc dad.

My grandma recycled plastic baggies and tin foil until she passed away last year. She also always bought the 99cent bag of rotten bananas bc they were a good deal and bananas would be at the next six meals.

She grew up poor as one of 12 siblings on very poor farm ground in Nebraska. She turned down a full ride academic scholarship to university of nebraska because she had to make money for the family. She became a one room school teacher until she married and had 8 kids of her own. She married a man even poorer than her but he became known as the hardest working man in the area.

She later provided $10,000 education trusts to each of her 24 grandkids and then $25,000 trusts to over 50 great grandkids. Her half of the estate upon death was $4.9 million. Grandpa is still living (and working the farm at 92)

Dovetailing off the ones above.

- the thermostat had a red line for where we could set the heat. It was 60-62 degrees

- as poster above described with meat is what I do with apples when my kids are finished with them. My older brother eats the core even

- "free on the curb" always leads to the question of "can I use this? If not, can I sell this?"

- plastic wrap and the window and blankets rolled up and pushed against doorways

To this day, I don't have garbage service or cable tv. Have probably saved $5k on garbage and $12k on cable.

Fix my own flat tires. It's super easy, faster, and cheaper. One kit can fix a decades of flats and costs about $6

When you’re a top runner and charge only 600hr... bonus Covid only fans discount

Helping out the common man