Living in poverty is something you can’t comprehend unless you’ve experienced it. So Redditor Just_Yesterday_1050 asked, “What’s something poor people do that rich people will never understand? Here’s what people said.
1.
“Back-to-school shopping during the sales will be your clothes for the whole year; take good care of them, or else your mom will be furious. If you really want something, ask near the first or 15th of the month.”
2.
“Considering prices when grocery shopping instead of just tossing whatever you want into the cart.”
3.
“Being keenly aware of when payday hits. There was a time in my life when I woke up at 5 a.m. on payday to get a croissant sandwich as a treat because I couldn’t afford to eat dinner the night before. These days I grin at my good fortune when I don’t realize until noon that it’s payday.”
5.
“Hesitating to seek medical care because you can’t afford to pay for it.”
6.
“Constantly rationing things. I remember rationing everything from dish soap to laundry detergent to lunch meat. When I saw a classmate throw out a half-eaten cheese stick or sandwich, it would make my stomach curl.”
7.
“Spending a windfall like a tax refund on a high-dollar item — like a big television or gaming console. Because it’s the only opportunity you ever get to level up and feel good about something for a change.”
8.
“Trying to fix something instead of replacing it, even if that something is cheap, like $20 Walmart sneakers.”
9.
“You keep using the mostly broken thing because it’s not completely broken. It still works if you jiggle it or hold it a certain way, so you can’t justify spending the money for a new one.”
10.
“I now own enough underwear and socks to last me a month without doing laundry because, as a child, we couldn’t afford socks and had maybe four pairs of underwear.”
11.
“Becoming hyper-capable/independent and able to fix many things yourself instead of paying someone to do it.”
12.
“Eating ‘Wish Sandwiches.’ These uplifting meals are simply just two slices of cheapass white bread with nothing between them. You wish you had a real sandwich, ya know, like a mustard one, ketchup one, or mayo one. 😒😒”
13.
“Learning to buy apples instead of bananas because they last so much longer. And hundreds of similar things.”
14.
“Having to borrow money from family for a necessity. Then stressing out about when and if you’ll be able to pay them back, then feeling guilty cause you feel like you shouldn’t have needed to borrow the money and being stressed out about all of it, then when finally being able to pay them back, needing to borrow more money too soon afterward.”
—pauledwarda
15.
“Adding up the cost of your groceries as you make your way around the supermarket.”
16.
“Cutting open toothpaste and other bottles to get the last bit out instead of buying more.”
17.
“Putting $5-$10 in your gas tank rather than filling it up so you can still get around and still have a couple of dollars in your pocket.”
18.
“Paying monthly for things instead of paying for the year upfront, which would save something like 20% off the whole bill.”
19.
“Poor children wish for something really cheap or nothing at all for Christmas and birthdays instead of what they would really want so they don’t stress out their parents and make them feel bad about not being able to afford what their child wants. That’s something rich children never have to worry about and probably don’t understand at all.”
20.
“Knowing the exact day and time when groceries like meat get discounted at the store, like some kind of broke-person insider trading.”
21.
“Going to sleep when you’re hungry. Sleep for dinner is the uniting phrase that only truly poor people understand. Middle-class people who had the occasional hard time think they’re poor and try to commiserate. But sleep for dinner is the way to find the real ones.”
Do you have something to add? What is a reality or a feeling that people in poverty have probably experienced that people with money can’t possibly understand? Tell us in the comments or in this anonymous form.
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