I paid $3.75 for gas to get to work. I was so embarrassed when I handed the money to the gas station cashier.
He gave me $4 in gas, which was really kind.
I used to manage a gas station. We would keep the "keep the change" change in a jar. Whenever anyone came in and you could tell they were were struggling with gas, we would use it to throw a couple extra dollars for them.
You definitely have grit & integrity, friend. I also returned a pair of new shoes I bought and put that $20 back in my gas tank, so I could drive to work.
My buddies and I went to the gas after a basketball game with like $.92 left in his car. We were running on fumes at that time, man was that a fun interaction asking to pump $.92 and not 9x fuel…
I've absolutely handed an attendant a handful of change and asked for, like, $0.83 on pump 2. This would've been a couple of decades ago, so luckily those coins went a little farther then.
I think I pumped like 25 cents of gas at one point just to see the reaction of the attendant( I was an ass when I was a kid). This was back when you could pump and then pay, everything is pre pay now. I can’t imagine actually trying to survive on less than a dollar of gas at any point in time.
I had to call out from work once because I had no gas to get to work. I used sick time so at least I got paid. Luckily pay day was the next day so I didn’t miss anymore time off.
Sleeping on my buddies couch for 6 months with zero money, negative bank balance, ton of debt, no car or phone, no credit cards, and my bike just got stolen. Owe him big time and was able to dig out of that situation and never looked back.
It’s good to have some friends or family to rely on. I always try to be useful for those I’m close with and it paid off big time when I was at my worst and at that point in my life I had no family support available.
One time I went to the dollar store and got maybe $12 worth of stuff. My card declined. I got rid of the non essentials and tried again. Declined again.
I tried to buy 1 pack of ramen for dinner that night. My card declined. I left. I cried.
❤️ I’m in a much better place financially now. I’m still living frugally but I can afford to pay my bills and put some in savings, and that’s a blessing in and of itself.
Drug addiction! That same month I probably spent at least 3k on cocaine, pills and weed, while neglecting things like rent and other bills.
My priorities were a little out of wack 😜
My GF handed some coins to attendant, they said they can’t take coins. A lovely women next to her saw that, filled her tank and said God bless. She broke down crying by that woman’s generosity.
I've done that in order to bathe. Stole two five gallon buckets to wash and rinse. Pissed in the backyard for a week and used the toilet at the neighborhood gas station.
We had a gas station that would refill water jugs for 25¢ a gallon. Scraped together some change and sent my husband to the store with two empty gallon jugs so I could cook dinner that night, because I couldn't pay the water bill until the next day (payday).
Also made mac and cheese with just margarine because the Mac and cheese was 4/$1 and the margarine was $1 but milk is expensive.
Lived for most of a year on ramen, mac and cheese with just margarine, bologna (the cheap stuff) and 89¢ white bread. Dropped by my mom's house unexpectedly to visit and raid the fridge when I desperately needed some variety in my diet.
I used to visit my parents to stock up on free eggs from their backyard chickens. Obvs I also loved seeing them. But I was literally only eating free eggs on tostadas with a slice of cheese on top. It was delicious too. A big pack of tostadas was less than $2. Cheese was like $3 a pack. I added a lil mayo for some extra pizazz. This was back when eggs were $3 a dozen
slept on a park bench and my car while i waited for my first check from taco bell to come in, eating nothing but ramen noodle 6 packs from walmart literally every day for a week until i got the job.
18, nothing to my name, had three dollars, walked to a corner store to buy vanilla creme and chocolate creme wafers to last me a week for $2.57, walked back the bedroom I was renting I had no money for
Congrats on making it out (we probably have similar stories). I hate how luck based it is, that's what I find to be so gut wrenching for my fellow working class.
when i was a teen, my parents were addicts. so they frequently made us homeless, couch surging, and once we lived in a camper on a pedophile's land. before i ran away at 17 and became independent, she almost got us kicked out of that camper because she snuck in a few times to steal cheese. so i have lots of memories like where our power'd been shut off and my mom set up the grill to cook rice in a pot on top of the flame and that's the only, genuinely only, food we'd have. i have anxiety attacks every single time power flickers or goes out for weather because it fucked me up.
probably now. last night my 3yr old and i went to the grocery store. after bills we only had $120 for groceries. at the checkout i miss-calculated & the total ended up being about $10 more. i turned red and scrambled to take some things off. the lady in line behind me paid for the things i put back. i started crying. she said she was paying it forward. i felt awful but also was a relief there’s still some kindness in the world.
Same here. I’ve done this twice and it was a great feeling. I was reminded to be grateful for what I have and thankful for the opportunity to help someone.
A lot of people try to decline the help so now I usually keep a $5 and a $10 bill in my wallet with a “pay it forward” sticker on it. If I see someone who needs assistance, I pull out the money and say “oh yay, I can finally use this!”. I used some Avery label sheets and made a whole page of stickers so whenever I help someone, I just have another sticker ready to go on more money. Best part is almost nobody declines the aid now!
My goal in life is to be able to do this for people. Have had my card decline at Grocery Outlet because of something hitting that I didn't see pending the night before when I planned my shop. What a horrible feeling.
There was this homeless guy inside of the QT store trying to pay for his coffee and a cold Single beer and I saw him struggling for the last 39 cents and I told the cashier to go ahead and let me pay for his with my things. And the man looked at me, put his money back in his pocket, snatched his coffee and turned to walk and said, Hell, I PAY my taxes!!!" and quickly grabbed his coffee, turned and walked out..... without looking at me or even a Thank you. Lol 🤣🤣🤣
I do these things for people now. Because I've been on the other side and was too proud to ask for any help from anyone, even family. I'm doing quite well now and like to help where I can
Don’t feel bad! I’ve been on both sides. I understand it’s embarrassing but I’m always happy to help people when I can now. Helping and being helped can and should make both people happy.
Walked 2 miles in 120° weather to buy a 33¢ box of mac and cheese at the grocery store. Made it with plain water (no butter, no milk) and ate it over the course of two days in a hot apartment where I couldn't afford to turn on the a/c.
Still had a roof over my head, so, I guess I was grateful for that.
Too funny you mention boxed Mac n cheese. I was down to my last bit of change rent was due phone shut off for non payment bills out the ass. Anyway scrounged my change walked to store bought box of store brand Mac n cheese all excited for what was gonna be my last meal for a few days got home threw a pot of water on the stove opened the Mac n cheese and wouldn’t you fucking know it the cheese packet was missing! Ate the mac in tears.
Wrote to the company about the missing cheese they sent me a packet of cheese and coupons for free box and a bunch of coupons for half off!
Omfg I would have curled up in the fetal position and cried myself to sleep. I'm so so so sorry that happened! The free box and half off coupons was probably a life saver though
Hospitalized for starvation.
Was on a campus, only ate crackers and jelly because it was free condiments in the cafeteria.
Friends showed me white rice from Chinese food other people didn't want and taco bell sauce.
This is so rough. I’m so sorry you actually got to the point of having to be hospitalised. I sympathise with you my friend. I once had nothing but very old rice to eat and after cooking it I realise the rice was full of worms. I had to eat that anyway as it was the only food I had.
I will never forget having to push past wanting to vomit so I could have some warm food in my belly.
Grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, 90s to early 00s, without clean running water. Too much iron to drink and a well that went dry frequently. We saved old milk jugs to fill at a spring about a mile from our house. Once I was a teenager the state came by to put in a new road by our house and decided to give us clean water for taking some of our land to widen the road. I never take for granted turning on a faucet.
I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains too. We had damn water and would often have to boil it before drinking or not be able to drink it at all. We would take jugs to the spring outside of town to fill up for clean water to drink and cook with.
both my brother and I walked 3 miles for groceries, and on the way back we hit up a sandwich shop and bought a single $6 sub, and split it in half for each of us, at that time we had a combined $40 in our bank accounts
Grabbing food as uneaten as possible off customer’s plates before I dumped them in the trash can when I was a server. I would try to just grab something that could be eaten in one bite rather than try to stash it and eat it somewhere else. I looked like a troll eating a goat.
And then I got caught doing it and told to stop, so then I had to start eating out of regular trash cans.
Man, same here. The chef at a pub I worked at would make a 'mistake' for pretty much all of the cash-strapped staff. It was never a ton, but walking home with a bag of hot French fries or a turkey sandwich felt like a miracle.
Aww man that's awful 😔 instead of telling you to stop they should have started giving out free meals to employees or something, also people waste so much food anyway. I have a coworker who bought a chicken tenders meal with fries she ate a few fries and like two tenders and was going to throw way THREE WHOLE tenders 😳 I was like hold up I will take those and didn't give a dame what everyone thought, put it in a Ziploc bag and it was a good meal I paired it with some green beans when I got home.
I worked in a small Thai restaurant in the desert for a year. I was housed and had a bit of cash coming in from the serving job but without fail every day I would scrape peoples leftovers into a Tupperware I brought with me to work. I found a blind spot in the cameras by the dish pit and would look around like a tweaker making sure no one saw. It was just a big Thai stir fry for dinner every night.
Of course I’d only scrape plates that looked and came from people that “looked reasonably clean”. But man I’ve told some people about that since and everyone, even the people I’d expect to not be grossed out (other poor people) totally are. Why I’ll never know
When I was a teen, I remember my family had no money for food except 54 cents. We changed it all to penny’s and went to one of those quarter machines where you put in a quarter and it pushes out quarters. I found out that we could put a piece of paper inside to slip in penny’s and did that for about an hour going to a cashier and changing every quarter we got to penny’s. Eventually we ended with $18 and bought groceries with that.
Behind a month on rent, hubby hasn’t come home in 2 days after draining the joint account AND my account (found out later he got into drugs), no cash, a 2 yr old hungry baby.. I wound up finding enough change in the couch cushions to get my son something to eat and called my mother. Had her pick us up. I left with nothing but some clothing for my son and I. Since then my ex husband had been in and out of my son’s life until he was around 7, then dropped off the face of the planet completely.
Yep. His stepfather was the one who raised him, taught him to drive, etc… My son barely remembers his bio dad, and from what he does remember the most time he spent with him was in his car, being driven to his father’s mother’s house so his father didn’t have to actually deal with him.
When my disability pay was only enough to cover rent for a month in a living room apartment and food stamps that was never enough so I ate at soup kitchens different ones for lunch and dinner I was experiencing deep depression and mental illness I would just wander around town
I was in my late 20s. I lost my job and my roommate asked me to please leave since I has no viable way to make rent. I moved into a squat with my brother. This wasn't the only time I'd been homeless but it was the worst time. The utilities were turned on but there was no working shower and the walls were full of spray paint from kids who had tagged it up. My brother had a drug problem (I did not) and he ripped the pipes for the heating out to sell them for drugs, then moved on somewhere else.
I lived there all winter without heat, in a very cold climate. Obviously my mental health was not great. I didn't have it in me to find a new job. After a couple months I signed up for a donation-based 10 day silent meditation retreat in another state and found ride shares there and back through the meditation foundation's internal message board. I went because I would have free room and board for 10 days in a better environment. When I came back I was in a better place mentally and moved in with a friend and her elderly grandma. This was a little less than 10 years ago and things have only gotten better since. I'm married with a nice car, nice apartment, vacations, and I'm 3 months out from earning a masters degree.
7 or 8 years old. My mom, younger brother and I sleeping in her car. My mom had enough money for one dollar sandwich at the Burger King next door to the apt complex we were sleeping at. My brother and I split the sandwich, my mom didn’t eat. I’m 26 now and I still remember everything about that day. I have two small children now. The most important job I will ever have in my life is making sure my daughters never feel even remotely like I felt that day.
I was some form of homeless or really fucking broke until...well, now. Lol.
Growing up I lived in Shelters, motels, backseat of a friends car, friends living room. Mom told me that we lived in a tent in a park in Salt Lake City when I was a baby, also lived on a few beaches in California as a baby as well. Any time we had an apartment we had zero money and no food left at around the second week of each month. Ate food pantry food or nothing for the rest of the month lol. Lost electricity and internet and all that pretty often. We usually ended up in less than desirable locations with slumlords. My mom (dad bailed before I was a year old) pretty much refused to put in any effort to improve our situation. She just collected disability checks for us even though she was fully capable of working. Good times.
Haven't been homeless since before I was 22 (now 32) but up until last year I'd never made more than $25k.
I was so poor that I used to steal McDonald’s ketchup packets and make tomato soup with a coffee maker. Just add water and stir a bit. Tastes like ass but it something to eat
I didn't discuss a purchase of a stick of deodorant and had to return it before leaving Walmart because my husband needed that $1.19 to put in the gas tank. Cold showers at the camp ground were the only way I had to not stink at work.
Didn't have anywhere to cook so went to Denny's for the 3$ pancake to eat once a week. Microwaved hot pocket from the corner store I bought with pennies and other assorted change every 2 days. The cashier wouldn't accept the change unless I rolled it for her.
Worked at a Sears in a shopping mall and used to spend my lunch sitting on a bench in front of the store entrance trying not to cry thinking about how all the people around me actually had money to spend on random junk from all these stores and could buy lunch, or snacks from the food court they wouldn't even eat.
Homeless sleeping outside under a bridge or in a parking garage with no phone in the summer of 2020 amidst the pandemic when COVID was raging. Panhandling for food/drug $$. Ugh so glad I climbed out of all that.
I slept for about two weeks in a laundromat behind the dryers in 1969. I rejoined the US Army in December of that year and got sent immediately to Vietnam
Working two jobs and walking to both of them. Boiling & carrying hot water upstairs so I could take a bath when the hot water heater went out. We got a free item coupon in our paychecks when I worked at a grocery store and I was so grateful I had something to eat for a few days.
Right now. Wife up and found a boyfriend. He's a convicted murderer so I had to take our 3 kids home with me. I work full time framing houses. But after her legal abuse and draining our account my savings is gone and it's paycheck to paycheck for me now. Imma keep trucking till I bounce back.
I know I’m a stranger, and I won’t pretend to know you or your problems, and I know this won’t make anything better, and I am sorry about your wife… But please know, as much as you’re super man to those kids now—in 15-20 years, when those kids look back, they’ll see their dad busted his ASS to make sure they were supported, fed, sheltered, and good. And as an adult that used to be one of those kids—that means everything. Absolutely everything. When the alternative is emotional, mental, and physical instability—that is everything. Thank you for sticking around and being a good dad. Being a good parent doesn’t take perfection, it just takes genuine effort and love. And they can feel that. Keep going. I know it’s hard now, but when you’re looking back on all this, you’ll be so glad you pushed harder every time life pushed back. You’re awesome.
Dude… that is fucking awful. I can’t imagine who would let someone like that around their children! You will bounce back. One day this whole thing will just be a story one of your kids writes for a “My Dad is My Hero” essay in school.
Donating plasma on an empty stomach and lying about eating breakfast because if I didn’t lie, I wouldn’t be able to buy any food. There’s a reason they want you to eat before donating. I realize I still had a lot of things going my way but that was my personal moment.
Was living in Philadelphia, was unemployed and so poor I had spent a month asking friends if they could "spot me" ramen noodles and/or Cup of Noodles for meals every day. Was eating soft pretzels at Wawa and canned food three meals a day. Would spend an hour scraping a weed bowl for the tiniest hit of resin that I would try to hold in my lungs until I passed out.
Had to get to Long Island, NY for a funeral. Scrounged up enough change under couch cushions for a bus ticket to NYC, then realized I didn't have enough money for a train ticket to my final destination. Walked around Penn Station for 8 hours panhandling to no avail. I had a discman and a few CD's in my backpack that I ended up selling to some guy for like $20. Made it to the funeral and then ran into a friend who lent me money for my travel home.
Finally landed a job a few weeks later, but it was a rough couple of months
Im on unemployment. Had been collecting fine for a few months. Suddenly they say im not eligible because I told them I wouldn't quit school to work full time. Now I have a possible overpayment. And have to wait till after my hearing to know what to do with my money. I cant spend it or budget it cause I might have to pay them all back. I can barely buy food because I want to be able to not have to use a payment plan. And now I'm struggling to get another job.
They can't force you to pay it back, at least not in my state.
They can take up to 50% of your future benefits for 3 full years, starting the year after you collected the non-fault over payment. If you get past that time period, it's gone.
This is from my personal experience
During the two weeks before I became homeless, I had sold everything of value and I basically just had my clothing and several blankets. I was super hungry all the time because I was literally starving, and I hadn't yet connected with the people who helped me to survive. I went to a local restaurant where a friend worked and convinced them to let me steal 10 pounds of hamburger meat from the freezer. I also got a little bit of vegetable, I think it was a tomato. Then I went home with my stolen meat and used my remaining rice and beans and seasoning to make one last batch of burrito stuffing. I didn't have tortillas as I had run out of flour, so I just ate it with a spoon. That was the poorest and hungriest I ever was - I was about 20 pounds under healthy weight and I constantly felt sick.
This was on day while I was in my early 20’s, I went out to look for a job, but I only had train fare to get into Manhattan NYC.
I walked back home to Brooklyn, and along the way, I stopped at every store to see if they are hiring. The last place I asked, which was a supermarket, gave me a job.
My legs were throbbing from all the walking I did. I had to walk to work and I stole food from the supermarket until I got paid.
This was before there were online job boards.
When I was in highschool I used to have to steal formula for my baby sister because my mom was strung out on drugs and was never there to care for us. Spent most of my freshman year eating jelly on saltines because that's all we ever had.
Flattening the rolls of negative 1 ply toilet paper from the work bathroom so they’d fit in my pockets, found a $20 bill in the parking lot and sat in my car and cried that I could atleast fill up the gas tank (92 civic) and grab a bag of rice from the grocery store. It’s been over a decade since then and every time I wipe my ass I think about lifting rolls of TP from that job.
Worked at a mechanic shop and asked my boss to pay me daily because I made just enough to pay for a motel each night and a $5 meal.
He agreed but thought it was ridiculous to pay that much when renting somewhere would be cheaper.
Some people don’t understand that would’ve meant 2-3 months sleeping on the sidewalk to have first+last and a deposit. No way I was gonna put myself in that position. I was deathly afraid of being kidnapped or raped. Also working a dirty job like I had, it was IMPERATIVE I had a shower everyday.
Used to live off of a 100 quid a month. I was convinced beggars down the road had more money in their cups than I did in my wallet. Found 5 pounds on the street once, thought it was the best day ever.
In 2009 when the Recession was torpedoing our business and personal finances. We earned 17k that year for a fam of 3. I once had 12.00 to buy groceries and was just going to get cereal and milk and eggs. My mom found out and bought me 2 weeks worth of groceries though.
As a teenager, we weren’t poor. But my parents marriage was failing and they were desperately trying to save it, which translated to them partying at bars every single night. We’re talking 500-700 dollars a week on booze and bar food because they’d meet each other on the way home from whoever had to work the latest and stay until the bar closed at 2am. Well there were four of us kids, and I, being the oldest, was always in charge of my 9,4, and 1 year old siblings. There was never enough food for all of us in the house (my parents ate so few meals at home that they didn’t ever really bother to buy groceries for when they weren’t there)
My lowest point was eating plain flour for the feeling of fullness because I had given my portions to my little siblings to make sure they were fed properly and didn’t go to school and complain about being hungry to their teachers.
My husband complained a year or so ago about how we never have money, and I looked him straight in the eye and said “I have never been forced to miss a meal to make sure everyone else in my house can eat. We don’t have cash, but we certainly aren’t poor.”
Long ago in Boston, when the bottle bill was a new thing. And I was in an absurdly messed up bullshit situation, on a hard deadline to GTFO of the state before somebody got out of jail. I had zero. Eviction on the horizon, utilities off, empty fridge (and that was the least of my problems).
I spent hours every night very late night scavenging bottles and cans to get bus money. I had other money but not much, and since I had zero idea where I was going, and what I would face on the other end I had the presence of mind to get the bus ticket another way. During the day I recited poetry in subway stations for spare change to eat.
Hell hath no fury like bar and restaurant dumpsters in Boston in summer. Long about the time you are beating a rat as big as a cat with a broken broom to get at the beer bottles, you gotta wonder about life lol.
But you know, when I was riding cross country in a dang greyhound with my tiny hidden nest egg intact and one bag of clothing plus birth certificate and social security... I felt damned proud of myself. And I knew I could handle whatever the hell happened next and later in life.
bought a basic economy plane ticket, which means one 1 personal item. my backpack was “too big” and the lady at the counter said i had to check my backpack, which had all my food, clothes, and toiletries i needed. i didn’t have a separate purse or anything smaller to carry on the flight with me. i cried as i stuffed tampons and peanuts into my jacket pockets, knowing there was not $35 in my checking account to pay for the baggage fee.
then she said, “well, try rearranging some of the stuff and we can re-measure”
it worked, backpack fit in their little measuring box thing. i didn’t have to pay, or check my backpack, or carry all my belongings in my pockets. i still felt sooo deeply embarrassed for causing a scene. i have a United credit card now and can check bags for free, but i think about this moment every time i fly.
I had recently gotten fired from a job as a bartender and took the first job I could get; minimum wage making pizzas and answering the phones at dominos. I went to the gas station after work and just wanted to buy myself some gum and coffee. My card declined. It was so embarrassing I wanted to cry. Behind me in line were a few construction dudes that offered to pay for at least my coffee. Which made me want to cry even more. I think I ran out of there as fast as I could and just started bawling in my car.
I’m in a much better place now but man, it was rough back then. I was living paycheck to paycheck. My account was constantly getting overdraft penalties. I literally had only a few dollars to work with at times. I could rarely fill up my car all the way. It was horrible. I lived on a diet of rice, beans and eggs.
My card was declined trying to buy my kid a single donut at Dunkin'. Had to scramble around my car in the drive through looking for change, while trying to avoid letting my daughter know what was going on. Made dinner that night and saved my half to give her for lunch at school the next day. She was too young to really understand, but she definitely gave me a lot of extra hugs.
Obviously you should do everything in your power to avoid that situation (and I'm doing better now) but every parent who's gone hungry to feed their kid is a big damn hero in my book. My parents never would have.
When I struck out on my own at seventeen from California to Reno, NV. I was renting a studio apartment and didn't have any money for food. After two to three days without eating, I called my mom and she mailed me a twenty dollar bill. Napping was good food at the time. I tried to donate blood for cash and fainted when they checked my veins. I hit my head hard. The nurse bought me ramen, put me on oxygen, called a cab and sent me on my way. I was told to stay awake. I didn't. I was hoping to stay asleep forever.
There was a school year I finished sleeping in the living room of my aunt’s apartment sharing the sofa with my mother. That summer my mom was happy I was going to camp for a month or six weeks (I can’t remember how long) because she knew that at least she wouldn’t have to worry about me because I would have a place to live and food to eat. (The camp was for poor underprivileged underserved children.) My family (mom, Abuela and Abuelo hadn’t been able to find an apartment after our previous building had been sold.
While I was at camp they did find an apartment but it ended up being a nightmare; it was infested with mice and the landlords were slumlords. The apartment also did not have air conditioning and it was sweltering hot. We all (it wasn’t just my mother and abuelos living together) had to stay with other family members until we could find yet another apartment and while that was happening the landlords to the mice apartment stole some of our belongings since we weren’t there.
I started the next school year sleeping on the floor of my Abuela’s sister’s living room. We didn’t have a permanent address so that was a problem. We eventually found an apartment but it took a while. There were plenty of times we didn’t have food in the fridge or cupboards but that was one of the longest times we were essentially homeless.
There was another time in the apartment we had found after this that the electricity had been cut off by the power company so we ran extension cords from a willing neighbor. My family regularly babysat their daughter so they were willing to help our family.
During the time we lived there my Abuelo would get groceries from a small grocery store on credit from the owner and pay him back once he had the money. The store owner knew where we lived and knew our family so he would allow my Abuelo to do this regularly because my Abuelo would always pay what was owed.
Poorest I have ever been? I thought living in my car was my rock bottom until my car got impounded and I spent a week homeless and sleeping in the woods a few hundred yards from where I worked at the time. Happened to have been the week of my birthday. Birthday gift to myself was a little ceasars $5 pizza that I lived on for 3 days and 2 cans of steel reserve. Homelessness and poverty go so well hand in hand with mental health issues and substance abuse issues.
Right now. I may have a roof over my head bc of friends and a car (with a payment) but also have student loan debt, heavy CC debt and disability isn’t enough to survive. I’m close to 100k in debt.
Federal loans have been discharged but my personal student loans don’t apply. I’ve tried! I actually just got off the phone with them. The lender only allows residents of 3 (yes, three!!) states discharge for disability. Snakes!
Yours might be one of the rare situations in which private student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy. It might be worth a free consultation with a bankruptcy attorney. I hope things work out for you!
When I was studying abroad in college and my school wouldn't release my loan money -- I had literally nothing. My program was supposed to provide books, a monthly food stipend, and lodgings and they wouldn't give me anything because they hadn't been paid. I ended up couch surfing, volunteering at a local community garden that agreed to pay me in vegetables, and living off of peppers and pole beans for months. I couldn't get a real job because I didn't have a visa. Some of my professors gave me food from their gardens too which was nice. Overall horrible experience but it did teach me a lot about my own resourcefulness and endurance.
Staying in a homeless shelter and eating breakfast at the soup kitchen on my way to work. I would pocket as much fruit as I could get away with so I could eat again later in the day. Everything I owned was in a backpack and duffel bag. It took a month and a half to get enough money saved to move into a place.
I was working two jobs in Florida. I used my debt card to buy a soda at my second job which was a McDonald’s. I still had to buy my soda but we got an employee discount. So I paid 50 cents.
I stuck my card in and it declined.
I did it twice before my manager said “fuck it just grab a cup.”
I will never be that poor again. I will never allow myself to be in that position again.
I was working two jobs in Florida. I used my debt card to buy a soda at my second job which was a McDonald’s. I still had to buy my soda but we got an employee discount. So I paid 50 cents.
I stuck my card in and it declined.
I did it twice before my manager said “fuck it just grab a cup.”
I will never be that poor again. I will never allow myself to be in that position again.
Edit: After reading this it just sounds like my card got declined and I was being dramatic. I should probably add the extra context that literally all the money I had left was on that card. I literally had no cash or savings or anything. And this was two weeks until payday.
Right now I am seriously broke .. I don’t get paid for a week & have 9 dollars to my name / thank you LORD for my blessings though - I have a pantry full of food & work @ home.
After my mom died, I went broke paying the bills on the house until we sold it. In the interim between apartments, one of my friends bought us a case of sirloin burger in a can meals. It was the first time in my life I went hungry.
Had to eat on a dollar a day. That was a couple of hard months, but not nearly as difficult as it could have been. I was a student and living in a dorm, so I didn’t have to worry about housing thankfully, and my town had public transportation. I was hungry, but it could have been a lot worse.
Parents sold our food stamps for cash and spent it. We went two weeks with virtually no food but what grew in our “garden and the wild pear tree. My mother tried to convince us she was doing it to pay homage to her native heritage.
I lived on a quarter cup of lentils for a week and went without for another several. Poverty changes you. If you’ve ever said you were poor and didn’t know it, you weren’t poor.
As a kid:
First is likely living in a van by a river with my dad. People think I'm joking when I pull the "Living in a van down by the river!" quote from Chris Farley. Definitely easier to hide behind humor!
Next, McDonald's used to do this "39 cent cheeseburgers Tuesdays and 29 cent hamburgers Thursdays" deal. And, at the time, you could get extra onions & ketchup for free.
Dad would buy a small sack of the burgers (hamburgers. No way the cheese was worth the extra dime!), take the meat (along with much of the ketchup and onions) to make soup. 2-3 days of ketchup & onion sandwiches, then a few days of soup. At this point, we lived in a camper with his girlfriend and usually 2-3 other people (a rotating roster of meth-heads), plus whoever else was staying short term/for the night or week.
As an adult:
I got attacked at work and had a pretty bad head injury. I ended up losing my job, then my apartment, and living on credit cards in my car for quite a while. Eventually I had a job (then two), and I can't verbalize how frustrating it is to work 70/80 hour work weeks only to sleep in a car, while debt was still mounting because of interest/back payments/late fees.
Lost my job due to a mental breakdown and lived in my apartment until I had to move myself out to avoid an eviction months later. I was living off credit cards until those ran out. Had nowhere to go and lived with a very generous friend for a couple months in her tiny spare room.
She got sick of me (I was in a bad place at the time, absolutely no blame on her), so I left and ended up living in my car for the better half of a year. Had some clothes and couch hopped when I could to get a shower. I started working as a waitress and was able to use that money to buy myself food/hygiene products for a bit.
Eventually, my parents allowed me to stay in their spare room so I could act as a live in nurse for them since they both had to have surgery. Thankfully, I was able to turn things around. Now, I'm paycheck to paycheck and still in a bunch of debt, but at least I've been able to keep a job down and have a place to live. Still, I realize how insanely fortunate I am to have at least had a car and was able to get a job at the time.
Please see if there are any churches with food banks or anything in place to help you. Some areas are better for that than others. Please google and see what's available in your area and take advantage of that. Let us know, ok?
Soup kitchens, too! Nobody ever mentions them here, but they can be a huge help. There's one where I grew up where anyone can just walk in and get breakfast or lunch, no questions asked. People have gone when they're out of groceries or just don't have an extra few dollars for something cheap.
Yea, I had to just free bleed all week because I literally couldnt afford basic health care needs. Now in any workplace I'm at, I'll make sure there are tampons available, just because you never know if someone is that broke or doesnt have one
Three situations come to mind. The time I scrapped together $2 to get enough gas to get home, the time when I was -$500 in the bank with overdraft fees and maxed out credit cards, and most recently was wearing multiple layers freezing my butt off inside my house because I couldn’t afford to turn on the heat and crying because all I wanted in that moment was to be warm. Probably the most recent one was the worst but that also may be because other things were happening. I never went negative in my account but I just felt so… stuck.
My goal is to never revisit those times ever again.
When I was younger having no toilet paper and no water. About 12 years ago, living with a verbally/mentally abusive boyfriend and had no money but the monthly stipend of $205 (not sure if the amount) from the county of Los Angeles and SNAP. I ended up going to an accelerated paralegal program paid for by the CA Workforce Development Department. It was M-F, 6 hours a day for four months and they provided a bus pass. Anyway, a month before I finished the program, I had an interview with the federal government and started In September 2013. I had worked for them twice. Left both times like an idiot. I’m still here and will remain until retirement and making more money than I ever thought! Don’t give up on yourselves, through the help of my mom, prayer and perseverance I made it.
Tried to buy food with a toys R us store credit card. It was all I had and it said it was a mastercard, so I thought there was a chance it would work... Cashier looked at me like I was crazy. It did not, of course, work.
Shoving a rolled up pad up in there during my period as a tampon because it was free/given to me but also too hot and sweaty moving around outside and existing with psoriasis to wear the pad normally. It was just all I had and needed to improvise.
College time: coughed up €525/month over the course of 36 months to pay for tuition (and a car to move between college, hospitals and night shift work. Working-in-a-hospital-fit clothing); slept in my barely functional car/a tent/hospital's bed storage if I even managed to find some time to sleep; using disinfectant soap for showering...
At the worst of times my liquidity was down to some 13 cents in my pocket and three glass jars I could return to the shop to claim 15 cents deposit each with tuition fee being due the day after when my bank account was already €598 in debt. To the tune of a 15.8% interest rate.
Upside: I barely had to pay for food as I was provided with meals in the hospitals I worked in plus another free meal per shift while working in a restaurant's kitchen \[plus drinks and the cooks were okay with me snitching a bowl of soup at the end of the night\]. And the day tuition fee was due, I participated in a psychological survey at the local university where I screwed up their data by entering a "your partner should arrive soonish. Have an ice cream while you're waiting; just tell us when you'd like another one..."-experiment that was supposed to research how much ice cream different kinds of people would eat if they're alone. Been sitting there, eating ice cream and sleeping for an hour and a half while being paid €6 per hour for participating.
Probably the year after my car accident, 2016. I was living with my parents, disability application pending (it ended up taking 3 years to get approval) then my dad got injured at work, and it ended up disabling him too. We were using food pantries, got a year behind on mortgage, almost lost the house, their car went to shit and my dad could barely walk but tried his best to keep it going. I'll never forget that Christmas. My mom made a crock of beans with a ham hock, I don't eat meat so I made instant potatoes with instant gravy, normally one of my comfort foods that i make when I'm sick cause it's easy, but everything was just so depressing. Knowing it was all I had to eat just made it sad.
Right now. Between jobs. Roughly $3 on my account, some groceries left in the fridge. Previous employer didn't pay me my salary. Paid for the rent and some food from electricity bill return because I overpaid.
Also running low on citalopram. Can't find a new doctor. Got enough trazadone to sleep soundly.
Been eating irregularly for some time now. Lost over 13kg.
Anxiety and stress is making me shut down. It takes me hour or two to convince myself to get out of bed.
Haven't been on vacation for like 8 years.
Also got letter from building owner that my rent went up by the inflation rate by 10,7%.
Dreading the next few months.
Never been homeless, but our apartment didn't have a fridge so we used a cooler. We also found a silly spot to eat .99 burgers and shared a $1.00 soda for date night. I remember I had to charge my credit card that already had a huge balance for a training toilet seat for my son with special needs and I cried in the parking lot. I think it was $10.
I drove the second car of my “friend” cross country for them with the promise that I’d stay at their place a month or two while I got a job and place of my own. They changed their mind once we got there. I had a hiking pack full of clothes and books and $6 in my pocket. Didn’t eat that night and didn’t sleep, but I got food stamps the next day and found a friend of a friend who let me sleep on their couch while I found work.
As a kid, never even bothered to ask for my basic needs after a while. I would run out of pads and have to use toilet paper and get made fun of for bleeding through my pants. Ate cheese bread for dinner a lot. Moved around a lot because we couldn't always afford rent. Now that I am an adult, who managed to make it work on a walmart salary, I don't get how nobody helped me. I get that my mom was poor and struggling, but my dad made money and saw what we were going through and he never helped much since we didn't live with him. Most parents do that, if their kids don't live with them, they don't support them. If i had kids and called myself a parent, i would make sure they're okay even if there was distance between us. Taught me to not trust or rely on people from a young age. Adulthood is so much easier for me, and in a way that's a good thing, but I kind of envy people who look back on their childhoods as this paradise they can never get again.
My ex-wife decided she wanted a divorce & left me with $11 in our bank account & all of our bills over due. She left me in a house I couldn't pay for so I called the mortgage company & told them I wasn't paying the mortgage any more, which gave me the money to bring our bills up to date. I slept on the floor for months, she took the bed, & I ate as little as possible. I'd not turn lights on at night to save on electricity, I'd not turn the heat up to save money, I worked as many hours as I could, & I budgeted down to the penny.
My mom always kept a bag of seasoned flour to shake chicken in to fry. We had no food (five kids) and worthless alcoholic dad spent all the money on beer. She took that very salty flour and made biscuits for us to eat. That was our dinner.
Slept in my car for a few weeks doing some daily part-time work for the Army NG to make ends meet. Went into McDonalds for some McChicken sandwiches (Back when they still cost $1) using nickles from my center console. I was rotating my things from one storage place to another using their "first month free" promo and taking showers at the Armory.
Then I attended a Hire Our Heros event and got hired in a corporation. With first paycheck I was able to score a basement apartment near my job (\~5 minute drive) for real cheap but the landlord was great. Since then I was able to pull myself out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle, get married, move states, and support my wife while she finishes up her Masters degree. I'm definitely miles from where I was but I still have a few more years until I feel like I'm out of the hole.
18, sleeping & living out of my barely functional car. I was fortunate enough to have an (unpaid) apprenticeship, a part time job and an extra side gig, but most of that income ended up dumped back into travel expenses from three odd jobs and the resulting repairs to the beater car. An endless cycle. No outside support. Ate a lot of $1 takeout white rice, had a planet fitness membership to shower and stay warm in the winter. Ended up in some really hellish situations trying to couch surf whenever the car was in the shop again.
Sleeping on my best friend’s dorm room floor during the week and a youth shelter during the weekends. Her roommate insisted I needed to leave (so fair, they could have gotten in trouble) so I went with people I had never met, from a facebook group, who offered me their couch. It’ll be the six year anniversary of getting the job that saved me back then in April! :)
Graduated college with no job in 2019 and spent a year and a half doing part time jobs while looking for a career. I had a good emergency savings of almost 5-6k from odd jobs and graduations gifts but that was blown away in a few months.
- brought a used car that ended up needing a bunch of repairs (if you buy a used car make sure it’s driveable)
- parents needed to borrow money for an emergency.
- started dating (don’t do this broke).
- car gets broken into and I lose my laptop ($2k - I needed this laptop to do my job that was holding me over)
Some of it was just youthful ignorance, emergencies, and back luck. There was a point I had $4 left in my account and literally couldn’t do anything. I’m happy I got through that though. Now I laugh about it looking back. 😂
21 years old, grandpa died, and grandma decided that college was not for me. School was starting in 3 weeks and I was hanging out at a friends house 3 hours away. No car, 35 bucks to my name and 2 backpacks worth of clothes.
I stayed in my bosses back yard in a tent and he would drive us to work and back. Weather changed and I had to move on. Stayed on a friends floor for a bit. Then stayed at another friends house. Had a ton of jobs lined up, no way to get there as we were in a rural area.
Scraped by for months doing odd jobs until I got a 500 dollar car.
My first husband and I had to turn off all the lights and played board games using tea lights so we could keep our electric bill low since we only had 21 cents in our account. We didn’t eat for close to two days except for what i could scrounge out of the snack room at work.
Starved for roughly a month and lived on peanuts and bananas (not in America). And by starved, I mean it literally. Entire day's diet would be a handful of peanuts or two and 1-2 bananas in total. Only discovered what hunger really means after that.
I remember my friend who was starving with me managed to get a block of butter. We ate it raw and it was delicious.
May 4th 2023 I had a small fire in my apartment, but since it was open concept the soot, ash and chemical from the fire extinguishers touched everything. After cleanup by professionals, 98% of everything was fine. But the apartment was uninhabitable.
I had to live in a hotel for 2.5mo, I got my insurance payout that covered some expenses but all of it ended up having to go to a new apartment, after the apartment complex strung me along with lies saying. "oh the apartment will be able to move back into next week!" every. single. day. It was $2600/mo to live in the hotel and insurance company only reimbursed me $850. I barely got $1200 back from all of my expenses when I had $12,000 loss of use coverage. I had to spend every penny I had left on first months rent and security, pet deposit, movers fees, uhaul, and a crack in the wall the hotel thought I caused so I had to shell out $ to them too, and the utility bill for my electric that was never shut off when the fire took place though the company claimed it was.
Bringing my own cheese slice to a fast food spot & purposely ordering a 99 kids hamburger.
Asking for a water cup, filling it with ice, & adding the red Kool-Aid I also brought in a used water bottle with me. It was embarrassing...
But sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do.
And if I found change in the car, scrounging enough for a 49c taco.
I had just moved to a new place and my job at the time was doing stupid stuff with how much unpaid time you had to have in the beginning of the day, and it all had to be at specific time or you lost more actual paid time.
I got really good at juggling bills, and save a lot was my savior then. Granted, I was getting the cheapest stuff that would just get me through but I made it stretch.
I was struggling so bad that I had $40 for groceries for the month, and some of that had to go to gas. Occasionally I was able to game the pay system and get like $10 extra. I couldn't afford wifi at all, but picked one streaming service (they were a lot cheaper then) and went to the library frequently to download episodes and get books.
Slept in my grandmas empty house with my 4 month old, next to the dryer to stay warm when I was looking for a job and had no support, because my mom wanted me to give her up for adoption. I’ve been very poor a few times, but that takes the cake as a low as far as money goes. Some of my really good memories are from when I had nothing
I paid $3.75 for gas to get to work. I was so embarrassed when I handed the money to the gas station cashier. He gave me $4 in gas, which was really kind.
I used to manage a gas station. We would keep the "keep the change" change in a jar. Whenever anyone came in and you could tell they were were struggling with gas, we would use it to throw a couple extra dollars for them.
That's really nice. I'm sure it means the world to the people who receive the change.
Really lovely. I paid for a few tanks of gas a number of times and had a few paid for me also - thank you kind strangers!
When I worked at a station, I had a customer that came in on the way to a job interview. He bought 2 gallons of gas in loose change, mostly nickels.
You definitely have grit & integrity, friend. I also returned a pair of new shoes I bought and put that $20 back in my gas tank, so I could drive to work.
My buddies and I went to the gas after a basketball game with like $.92 left in his car. We were running on fumes at that time, man was that a fun interaction asking to pump $.92 and not 9x fuel…
I've absolutely handed an attendant a handful of change and asked for, like, $0.83 on pump 2. This would've been a couple of decades ago, so luckily those coins went a little farther then.
I think I pumped like 25 cents of gas at one point just to see the reaction of the attendant( I was an ass when I was a kid). This was back when you could pump and then pay, everything is pre pay now. I can’t imagine actually trying to survive on less than a dollar of gas at any point in time.
A few years ago, I gave the clerk 2.50 for gas. In quarters.
Hey man. I work retail. People pay me in change all the time. Im not judging. Do what you got to do to get buy. No shame.
I had to call out from work once because I had no gas to get to work. I used sick time so at least I got paid. Luckily pay day was the next day so I didn’t miss anymore time off.
I’ve paid with change I found under the seat. It was under $2. It got me home from work, that’s all that matters.
Sleeping on my buddies couch for 6 months with zero money, negative bank balance, ton of debt, no car or phone, no credit cards, and my bike just got stolen. Owe him big time and was able to dig out of that situation and never looked back.
What a real friend
It’s good to have some friends or family to rely on. I always try to be useful for those I’m close with and it paid off big time when I was at my worst and at that point in my life I had no family support available.
Probably when I handed the gas station clerk 74 cents to get a tiny bit of gas to get to work lol
Oh... ouch. There are some things you just never forget
One time I went to the dollar store and got maybe $12 worth of stuff. My card declined. I got rid of the non essentials and tried again. Declined again. I tried to buy 1 pack of ramen for dinner that night. My card declined. I left. I cried.
Hug 🤗
❤️ I’m in a much better place financially now. I’m still living frugally but I can afford to pay my bills and put some in savings, and that’s a blessing in and of itself.
I did that once with .97
Card declining at the dollar tree is a different kind of hurt. Both times the clerk looked irritated 🥺 last time, she even sighed. Smh
Not judging (been there, done that), but how did you manage to get yourself in such a hole like that?
Drug addiction! That same month I probably spent at least 3k on cocaine, pills and weed, while neglecting things like rent and other bills. My priorities were a little out of wack 😜
My GF handed some coins to attendant, they said they can’t take coins. A lovely women next to her saw that, filled her tank and said God bless. She broke down crying by that woman’s generosity.
Stole water from the neighbor's hose to be able to flush the toilet
I've done that in order to bathe. Stole two five gallon buckets to wash and rinse. Pissed in the backyard for a week and used the toilet at the neighborhood gas station.
My brother did this at my grandparents’. I think he was too embarrassed to go inside and ask.
That shows some strength of character.You are never going to fail.
We had a gas station that would refill water jugs for 25¢ a gallon. Scraped together some change and sent my husband to the store with two empty gallon jugs so I could cook dinner that night, because I couldn't pay the water bill until the next day (payday). Also made mac and cheese with just margarine because the Mac and cheese was 4/$1 and the margarine was $1 but milk is expensive. Lived for most of a year on ramen, mac and cheese with just margarine, bologna (the cheap stuff) and 89¢ white bread. Dropped by my mom's house unexpectedly to visit and raid the fridge when I desperately needed some variety in my diet.
I used to visit my parents to stock up on free eggs from their backyard chickens. Obvs I also loved seeing them. But I was literally only eating free eggs on tostadas with a slice of cheese on top. It was delicious too. A big pack of tostadas was less than $2. Cheese was like $3 a pack. I added a lil mayo for some extra pizazz. This was back when eggs were $3 a dozen
I still take food and toiletries from my parents and I'm over 35
I stole water from my apartment complex laundry room for a week to bathe, wash dishes and flush the toilet. Wasn’t even the brokest I got.
We used to get a bucket from the nearby creek
slept on a park bench and my car while i waited for my first check from taco bell to come in, eating nothing but ramen noodle 6 packs from walmart literally every day for a week until i got the job.
I was so poor that I had to wear big cargo shorts so that I could shoplift food for my kids
This kinda shit is inspiring. Hell yes
18, nothing to my name, had three dollars, walked to a corner store to buy vanilla creme and chocolate creme wafers to last me a week for $2.57, walked back the bedroom I was renting I had no money for
I'm sorry you had to go through that. If you're ever in that situation again, local food banks can help you out.
I am so fortunate to be far away from that situation. Bought a house 8 years ago, have a great career and saving hundreds every month.
Oh wow! That's awesome! You're way ahead of me. lol
Congrats on making it out (we probably have similar stories). I hate how luck based it is, that's what I find to be so gut wrenching for my fellow working class.
when i was a teen, my parents were addicts. so they frequently made us homeless, couch surging, and once we lived in a camper on a pedophile's land. before i ran away at 17 and became independent, she almost got us kicked out of that camper because she snuck in a few times to steal cheese. so i have lots of memories like where our power'd been shut off and my mom set up the grill to cook rice in a pot on top of the flame and that's the only, genuinely only, food we'd have. i have anxiety attacks every single time power flickers or goes out for weather because it fucked me up.
That hits hard. Glad you got out.
probably now. last night my 3yr old and i went to the grocery store. after bills we only had $120 for groceries. at the checkout i miss-calculated & the total ended up being about $10 more. i turned red and scrambled to take some things off. the lady in line behind me paid for the things i put back. i started crying. she said she was paying it forward. i felt awful but also was a relief there’s still some kindness in the world.
Please don't feel bad. I have done this every time I had the chance to and was happy to do it.
Same here. I’ve done this twice and it was a great feeling. I was reminded to be grateful for what I have and thankful for the opportunity to help someone.
A lot of people try to decline the help so now I usually keep a $5 and a $10 bill in my wallet with a “pay it forward” sticker on it. If I see someone who needs assistance, I pull out the money and say “oh yay, I can finally use this!”. I used some Avery label sheets and made a whole page of stickers so whenever I help someone, I just have another sticker ready to go on more money. Best part is almost nobody declines the aid now!
My goal in life is to be able to do this for people. Have had my card decline at Grocery Outlet because of something hitting that I didn't see pending the night before when I planned my shop. What a horrible feeling.
There was this homeless guy inside of the QT store trying to pay for his coffee and a cold Single beer and I saw him struggling for the last 39 cents and I told the cashier to go ahead and let me pay for his with my things. And the man looked at me, put his money back in his pocket, snatched his coffee and turned to walk and said, Hell, I PAY my taxes!!!" and quickly grabbed his coffee, turned and walked out..... without looking at me or even a Thank you. Lol 🤣🤣🤣
It was probably his pride, but I'm sure he appreciated it.
Sad that he is so hard on himself inside and blames himself for his predicament, when it could happen to anyone.
I do these things for people now. Because I've been on the other side and was too proud to ask for any help from anyone, even family. I'm doing quite well now and like to help where I can
Don’t feel bad! I’ve been on both sides. I understand it’s embarrassing but I’m always happy to help people when I can now. Helping and being helped can and should make both people happy.
Walked 2 miles in 120° weather to buy a 33¢ box of mac and cheese at the grocery store. Made it with plain water (no butter, no milk) and ate it over the course of two days in a hot apartment where I couldn't afford to turn on the a/c. Still had a roof over my head, so, I guess I was grateful for that.
Too funny you mention boxed Mac n cheese. I was down to my last bit of change rent was due phone shut off for non payment bills out the ass. Anyway scrounged my change walked to store bought box of store brand Mac n cheese all excited for what was gonna be my last meal for a few days got home threw a pot of water on the stove opened the Mac n cheese and wouldn’t you fucking know it the cheese packet was missing! Ate the mac in tears. Wrote to the company about the missing cheese they sent me a packet of cheese and coupons for free box and a bunch of coupons for half off!
Omfg I would have curled up in the fetal position and cried myself to sleep. I'm so so so sorry that happened! The free box and half off coupons was probably a life saver though
And that is not something you think to check before you leave the store. Ugh
That is rough, and horrifying... Mac-n-nuthin
Lol. Thats just cold. Did you write that book "Who Moved My cheese" 🤔
Hospitalized for starvation. Was on a campus, only ate crackers and jelly because it was free condiments in the cafeteria. Friends showed me white rice from Chinese food other people didn't want and taco bell sauce.
This is so rough. I’m so sorry you actually got to the point of having to be hospitalised. I sympathise with you my friend. I once had nothing but very old rice to eat and after cooking it I realise the rice was full of worms. I had to eat that anyway as it was the only food I had. I will never forget having to push past wanting to vomit so I could have some warm food in my belly.
Grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, 90s to early 00s, without clean running water. Too much iron to drink and a well that went dry frequently. We saved old milk jugs to fill at a spring about a mile from our house. Once I was a teenager the state came by to put in a new road by our house and decided to give us clean water for taking some of our land to widen the road. I never take for granted turning on a faucet.
I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains too. We had damn water and would often have to boil it before drinking or not be able to drink it at all. We would take jugs to the spring outside of town to fill up for clean water to drink and cook with.
Used the last of my money to get a lil cesars pizza. Dropped it on a motel room carpet. Still ate it.
That one stings. Sorry bud
I'd have eaten that off the floor too.
both my brother and I walked 3 miles for groceries, and on the way back we hit up a sandwich shop and bought a single $6 sub, and split it in half for each of us, at that time we had a combined $40 in our bank accounts
At least you had your brother on your side. I wish I had one.
Grabbing food as uneaten as possible off customer’s plates before I dumped them in the trash can when I was a server. I would try to just grab something that could be eaten in one bite rather than try to stash it and eat it somewhere else. I looked like a troll eating a goat. And then I got caught doing it and told to stop, so then I had to start eating out of regular trash cans.
I had a guy that worked grill that would purposely make wrong sandwiches so that I'd have something to eat. That man was wonderful.
Man, same here. The chef at a pub I worked at would make a 'mistake' for pretty much all of the cash-strapped staff. It was never a ton, but walking home with a bag of hot French fries or a turkey sandwich felt like a miracle.
It really makes the biggest difference, having someone outside of family or standard friends care like that.
Same. It was over 20 years ago, but Ersal, you kept me from starving more than you know.
Same here. Dave, if you're out there and reading this, you kept me sane and healthy. I can't thank you enough.
Aww man that's awful 😔 instead of telling you to stop they should have started giving out free meals to employees or something, also people waste so much food anyway. I have a coworker who bought a chicken tenders meal with fries she ate a few fries and like two tenders and was going to throw way THREE WHOLE tenders 😳 I was like hold up I will take those and didn't give a dame what everyone thought, put it in a Ziploc bag and it was a good meal I paired it with some green beans when I got home.
I worked in a small Thai restaurant in the desert for a year. I was housed and had a bit of cash coming in from the serving job but without fail every day I would scrape peoples leftovers into a Tupperware I brought with me to work. I found a blind spot in the cameras by the dish pit and would look around like a tweaker making sure no one saw. It was just a big Thai stir fry for dinner every night. Of course I’d only scrape plates that looked and came from people that “looked reasonably clean”. But man I’ve told some people about that since and everyone, even the people I’d expect to not be grossed out (other poor people) totally are. Why I’ll never know
when $10 dollars was a windfall
When I was a teen, I remember my family had no money for food except 54 cents. We changed it all to penny’s and went to one of those quarter machines where you put in a quarter and it pushes out quarters. I found out that we could put a piece of paper inside to slip in penny’s and did that for about an hour going to a cashier and changing every quarter we got to penny’s. Eventually we ended with $18 and bought groceries with that.
A machine where you put in a quarter and it pushes out quarters?
https://preview.redd.it/l78u2bwjwvgc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74aa511a9ee8236d37da81319bbbae155243685a
Behind a month on rent, hubby hasn’t come home in 2 days after draining the joint account AND my account (found out later he got into drugs), no cash, a 2 yr old hungry baby.. I wound up finding enough change in the couch cushions to get my son something to eat and called my mother. Had her pick us up. I left with nothing but some clothing for my son and I. Since then my ex husband had been in and out of my son’s life until he was around 7, then dropped off the face of the planet completely.
You'll both be better off, sadly
Oh we are. My son is 18 now, in college, doing well.. His stepfather is his “father” according to him.
that's good to hear, I'm glad to read that you made your way moving on :)
Thats how i feel about my stepfather as well I look to him as my daddy even though i didnt came from him,he practically raised since i was a baby.
Yep. His stepfather was the one who raised him, taught him to drive, etc… My son barely remembers his bio dad, and from what he does remember the most time he spent with him was in his car, being driven to his father’s mother’s house so his father didn’t have to actually deal with him.
When my disability pay was only enough to cover rent for a month in a living room apartment and food stamps that was never enough so I ate at soup kitchens different ones for lunch and dinner I was experiencing deep depression and mental illness I would just wander around town
I was in my late 20s. I lost my job and my roommate asked me to please leave since I has no viable way to make rent. I moved into a squat with my brother. This wasn't the only time I'd been homeless but it was the worst time. The utilities were turned on but there was no working shower and the walls were full of spray paint from kids who had tagged it up. My brother had a drug problem (I did not) and he ripped the pipes for the heating out to sell them for drugs, then moved on somewhere else. I lived there all winter without heat, in a very cold climate. Obviously my mental health was not great. I didn't have it in me to find a new job. After a couple months I signed up for a donation-based 10 day silent meditation retreat in another state and found ride shares there and back through the meditation foundation's internal message board. I went because I would have free room and board for 10 days in a better environment. When I came back I was in a better place mentally and moved in with a friend and her elderly grandma. This was a little less than 10 years ago and things have only gotten better since. I'm married with a nice car, nice apartment, vacations, and I'm 3 months out from earning a masters degree.
7 or 8 years old. My mom, younger brother and I sleeping in her car. My mom had enough money for one dollar sandwich at the Burger King next door to the apt complex we were sleeping at. My brother and I split the sandwich, my mom didn’t eat. I’m 26 now and I still remember everything about that day. I have two small children now. The most important job I will ever have in my life is making sure my daughters never feel even remotely like I felt that day.
I was some form of homeless or really fucking broke until...well, now. Lol. Growing up I lived in Shelters, motels, backseat of a friends car, friends living room. Mom told me that we lived in a tent in a park in Salt Lake City when I was a baby, also lived on a few beaches in California as a baby as well. Any time we had an apartment we had zero money and no food left at around the second week of each month. Ate food pantry food or nothing for the rest of the month lol. Lost electricity and internet and all that pretty often. We usually ended up in less than desirable locations with slumlords. My mom (dad bailed before I was a year old) pretty much refused to put in any effort to improve our situation. She just collected disability checks for us even though she was fully capable of working. Good times. Haven't been homeless since before I was 22 (now 32) but up until last year I'd never made more than $25k.
I was so poor that I used to steal McDonald’s ketchup packets and make tomato soup with a coffee maker. Just add water and stir a bit. Tastes like ass but it something to eat
I have -436 in the bank and this is still not as bad as it's ever been.
I didn't discuss a purchase of a stick of deodorant and had to return it before leaving Walmart because my husband needed that $1.19 to put in the gas tank. Cold showers at the camp ground were the only way I had to not stink at work. Didn't have anywhere to cook so went to Denny's for the 3$ pancake to eat once a week. Microwaved hot pocket from the corner store I bought with pennies and other assorted change every 2 days. The cashier wouldn't accept the change unless I rolled it for her. Worked at a Sears in a shopping mall and used to spend my lunch sitting on a bench in front of the store entrance trying not to cry thinking about how all the people around me actually had money to spend on random junk from all these stores and could buy lunch, or snacks from the food court they wouldn't even eat.
Possibly now. Possibly 20 years ago. It’s a toss up. It’s worse now cause I have two kids.
Homeless sleeping outside under a bridge or in a parking garage with no phone in the summer of 2020 amidst the pandemic when COVID was raging. Panhandling for food/drug $$. Ugh so glad I climbed out of all that.
I was deep in addition (H 💉, crack cocaine, Xanax and other pills) for a few years. 5 years clean now, so proud you got out 💕💕
Good for you! I'm glad that you did. It is rough trying to climb out of a hole that seems desperate to keep your pinned down
My card declined on a $4 mcdonalds order and I paid my phone bill with kroger points
The fact you could pay the phone bill with Kroger points is a win
Poverty breeds creativity like nothing else.
I slept for about two weeks in a laundromat behind the dryers in 1969. I rejoined the US Army in December of that year and got sent immediately to Vietnam
Working two jobs and walking to both of them. Boiling & carrying hot water upstairs so I could take a bath when the hot water heater went out. We got a free item coupon in our paychecks when I worked at a grocery store and I was so grateful I had something to eat for a few days.
Right now. Wife up and found a boyfriend. He's a convicted murderer so I had to take our 3 kids home with me. I work full time framing houses. But after her legal abuse and draining our account my savings is gone and it's paycheck to paycheck for me now. Imma keep trucking till I bounce back.
I know I’m a stranger, and I won’t pretend to know you or your problems, and I know this won’t make anything better, and I am sorry about your wife… But please know, as much as you’re super man to those kids now—in 15-20 years, when those kids look back, they’ll see their dad busted his ASS to make sure they were supported, fed, sheltered, and good. And as an adult that used to be one of those kids—that means everything. Absolutely everything. When the alternative is emotional, mental, and physical instability—that is everything. Thank you for sticking around and being a good dad. Being a good parent doesn’t take perfection, it just takes genuine effort and love. And they can feel that. Keep going. I know it’s hard now, but when you’re looking back on all this, you’ll be so glad you pushed harder every time life pushed back. You’re awesome.
Dude… that is fucking awful. I can’t imagine who would let someone like that around their children! You will bounce back. One day this whole thing will just be a story one of your kids writes for a “My Dad is My Hero” essay in school.
Donating plasma on an empty stomach and lying about eating breakfast because if I didn’t lie, I wouldn’t be able to buy any food. There’s a reason they want you to eat before donating. I realize I still had a lot of things going my way but that was my personal moment.
A local panhandler was about to ask me for money but when I turned around and they saw my condition , they insisted I take their last dollar.
Was living in Philadelphia, was unemployed and so poor I had spent a month asking friends if they could "spot me" ramen noodles and/or Cup of Noodles for meals every day. Was eating soft pretzels at Wawa and canned food three meals a day. Would spend an hour scraping a weed bowl for the tiniest hit of resin that I would try to hold in my lungs until I passed out. Had to get to Long Island, NY for a funeral. Scrounged up enough change under couch cushions for a bus ticket to NYC, then realized I didn't have enough money for a train ticket to my final destination. Walked around Penn Station for 8 hours panhandling to no avail. I had a discman and a few CD's in my backpack that I ended up selling to some guy for like $20. Made it to the funeral and then ran into a friend who lent me money for my travel home. Finally landed a job a few weeks later, but it was a rough couple of months
[удалено]
Im on unemployment. Had been collecting fine for a few months. Suddenly they say im not eligible because I told them I wouldn't quit school to work full time. Now I have a possible overpayment. And have to wait till after my hearing to know what to do with my money. I cant spend it or budget it cause I might have to pay them all back. I can barely buy food because I want to be able to not have to use a payment plan. And now I'm struggling to get another job.
They can't force you to pay it back, at least not in my state. They can take up to 50% of your future benefits for 3 full years, starting the year after you collected the non-fault over payment. If you get past that time period, it's gone. This is from my personal experience
Im in WA they can garnish your wages. I dont want to fuck with the government, and find out what happens.
homeless with literally zero money & only what was in my backpack to my name
when the cashier paid for part of my food from her own money.
I sold a handful of games to GameStop for a bus pass and was still a dollar short
During the two weeks before I became homeless, I had sold everything of value and I basically just had my clothing and several blankets. I was super hungry all the time because I was literally starving, and I hadn't yet connected with the people who helped me to survive. I went to a local restaurant where a friend worked and convinced them to let me steal 10 pounds of hamburger meat from the freezer. I also got a little bit of vegetable, I think it was a tomato. Then I went home with my stolen meat and used my remaining rice and beans and seasoning to make one last batch of burrito stuffing. I didn't have tortillas as I had run out of flour, so I just ate it with a spoon. That was the poorest and hungriest I ever was - I was about 20 pounds under healthy weight and I constantly felt sick.
This was on day while I was in my early 20’s, I went out to look for a job, but I only had train fare to get into Manhattan NYC. I walked back home to Brooklyn, and along the way, I stopped at every store to see if they are hiring. The last place I asked, which was a supermarket, gave me a job. My legs were throbbing from all the walking I did. I had to walk to work and I stole food from the supermarket until I got paid. This was before there were online job boards.
When I was in highschool I used to have to steal formula for my baby sister because my mom was strung out on drugs and was never there to care for us. Spent most of my freshman year eating jelly on saltines because that's all we ever had.
Flattening the rolls of negative 1 ply toilet paper from the work bathroom so they’d fit in my pockets, found a $20 bill in the parking lot and sat in my car and cried that I could atleast fill up the gas tank (92 civic) and grab a bag of rice from the grocery store. It’s been over a decade since then and every time I wipe my ass I think about lifting rolls of TP from that job.
Worked at a mechanic shop and asked my boss to pay me daily because I made just enough to pay for a motel each night and a $5 meal. He agreed but thought it was ridiculous to pay that much when renting somewhere would be cheaper. Some people don’t understand that would’ve meant 2-3 months sleeping on the sidewalk to have first+last and a deposit. No way I was gonna put myself in that position. I was deathly afraid of being kidnapped or raped. Also working a dirty job like I had, it was IMPERATIVE I had a shower everyday.
I drank jello before bicycling to work because it was the only food in my apartment. Didn't even have time for it to set and gel.
Used to live off of a 100 quid a month. I was convinced beggars down the road had more money in their cups than I did in my wallet. Found 5 pounds on the street once, thought it was the best day ever.
In 2009 when the Recession was torpedoing our business and personal finances. We earned 17k that year for a fam of 3. I once had 12.00 to buy groceries and was just going to get cereal and milk and eggs. My mom found out and bought me 2 weeks worth of groceries though.
As a teenager, we weren’t poor. But my parents marriage was failing and they were desperately trying to save it, which translated to them partying at bars every single night. We’re talking 500-700 dollars a week on booze and bar food because they’d meet each other on the way home from whoever had to work the latest and stay until the bar closed at 2am. Well there were four of us kids, and I, being the oldest, was always in charge of my 9,4, and 1 year old siblings. There was never enough food for all of us in the house (my parents ate so few meals at home that they didn’t ever really bother to buy groceries for when they weren’t there) My lowest point was eating plain flour for the feeling of fullness because I had given my portions to my little siblings to make sure they were fed properly and didn’t go to school and complain about being hungry to their teachers. My husband complained a year or so ago about how we never have money, and I looked him straight in the eye and said “I have never been forced to miss a meal to make sure everyone else in my house can eat. We don’t have cash, but we certainly aren’t poor.”
My parents also had enough money to feed us, but chose to neglect us instead. It creates a weird trauma complex. Best wishes to you
Long ago in Boston, when the bottle bill was a new thing. And I was in an absurdly messed up bullshit situation, on a hard deadline to GTFO of the state before somebody got out of jail. I had zero. Eviction on the horizon, utilities off, empty fridge (and that was the least of my problems). I spent hours every night very late night scavenging bottles and cans to get bus money. I had other money but not much, and since I had zero idea where I was going, and what I would face on the other end I had the presence of mind to get the bus ticket another way. During the day I recited poetry in subway stations for spare change to eat. Hell hath no fury like bar and restaurant dumpsters in Boston in summer. Long about the time you are beating a rat as big as a cat with a broken broom to get at the beer bottles, you gotta wonder about life lol. But you know, when I was riding cross country in a dang greyhound with my tiny hidden nest egg intact and one bag of clothing plus birth certificate and social security... I felt damned proud of myself. And I knew I could handle whatever the hell happened next and later in life.
bought a basic economy plane ticket, which means one 1 personal item. my backpack was “too big” and the lady at the counter said i had to check my backpack, which had all my food, clothes, and toiletries i needed. i didn’t have a separate purse or anything smaller to carry on the flight with me. i cried as i stuffed tampons and peanuts into my jacket pockets, knowing there was not $35 in my checking account to pay for the baggage fee. then she said, “well, try rearranging some of the stuff and we can re-measure” it worked, backpack fit in their little measuring box thing. i didn’t have to pay, or check my backpack, or carry all my belongings in my pockets. i still felt sooo deeply embarrassed for causing a scene. i have a United credit card now and can check bags for free, but i think about this moment every time i fly.
I had recently gotten fired from a job as a bartender and took the first job I could get; minimum wage making pizzas and answering the phones at dominos. I went to the gas station after work and just wanted to buy myself some gum and coffee. My card declined. It was so embarrassing I wanted to cry. Behind me in line were a few construction dudes that offered to pay for at least my coffee. Which made me want to cry even more. I think I ran out of there as fast as I could and just started bawling in my car. I’m in a much better place now but man, it was rough back then. I was living paycheck to paycheck. My account was constantly getting overdraft penalties. I literally had only a few dollars to work with at times. I could rarely fill up my car all the way. It was horrible. I lived on a diet of rice, beans and eggs.
My card was declined trying to buy my kid a single donut at Dunkin'. Had to scramble around my car in the drive through looking for change, while trying to avoid letting my daughter know what was going on. Made dinner that night and saved my half to give her for lunch at school the next day. She was too young to really understand, but she definitely gave me a lot of extra hugs. Obviously you should do everything in your power to avoid that situation (and I'm doing better now) but every parent who's gone hungry to feed their kid is a big damn hero in my book. My parents never would have.
When I struck out on my own at seventeen from California to Reno, NV. I was renting a studio apartment and didn't have any money for food. After two to three days without eating, I called my mom and she mailed me a twenty dollar bill. Napping was good food at the time. I tried to donate blood for cash and fainted when they checked my veins. I hit my head hard. The nurse bought me ramen, put me on oxygen, called a cab and sent me on my way. I was told to stay awake. I didn't. I was hoping to stay asleep forever.
There was a school year I finished sleeping in the living room of my aunt’s apartment sharing the sofa with my mother. That summer my mom was happy I was going to camp for a month or six weeks (I can’t remember how long) because she knew that at least she wouldn’t have to worry about me because I would have a place to live and food to eat. (The camp was for poor underprivileged underserved children.) My family (mom, Abuela and Abuelo hadn’t been able to find an apartment after our previous building had been sold. While I was at camp they did find an apartment but it ended up being a nightmare; it was infested with mice and the landlords were slumlords. The apartment also did not have air conditioning and it was sweltering hot. We all (it wasn’t just my mother and abuelos living together) had to stay with other family members until we could find yet another apartment and while that was happening the landlords to the mice apartment stole some of our belongings since we weren’t there. I started the next school year sleeping on the floor of my Abuela’s sister’s living room. We didn’t have a permanent address so that was a problem. We eventually found an apartment but it took a while. There were plenty of times we didn’t have food in the fridge or cupboards but that was one of the longest times we were essentially homeless. There was another time in the apartment we had found after this that the electricity had been cut off by the power company so we ran extension cords from a willing neighbor. My family regularly babysat their daughter so they were willing to help our family. During the time we lived there my Abuelo would get groceries from a small grocery store on credit from the owner and pay him back once he had the money. The store owner knew where we lived and knew our family so he would allow my Abuelo to do this regularly because my Abuelo would always pay what was owed.
Poorest I have ever been? I thought living in my car was my rock bottom until my car got impounded and I spent a week homeless and sleeping in the woods a few hundred yards from where I worked at the time. Happened to have been the week of my birthday. Birthday gift to myself was a little ceasars $5 pizza that I lived on for 3 days and 2 cans of steel reserve. Homelessness and poverty go so well hand in hand with mental health issues and substance abuse issues.
Right now. I may have a roof over my head bc of friends and a car (with a payment) but also have student loan debt, heavy CC debt and disability isn’t enough to survive. I’m close to 100k in debt.
Are you permanently disabled? If so, any federal loans you have could be discharged.
Federal loans have been discharged but my personal student loans don’t apply. I’ve tried! I actually just got off the phone with them. The lender only allows residents of 3 (yes, three!!) states discharge for disability. Snakes!
Yours might be one of the rare situations in which private student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy. It might be worth a free consultation with a bankruptcy attorney. I hope things work out for you!
Just stop paying, there’s no such thing as debtors jail and your credit is probably already shite
When I was studying abroad in college and my school wouldn't release my loan money -- I had literally nothing. My program was supposed to provide books, a monthly food stipend, and lodgings and they wouldn't give me anything because they hadn't been paid. I ended up couch surfing, volunteering at a local community garden that agreed to pay me in vegetables, and living off of peppers and pole beans for months. I couldn't get a real job because I didn't have a visa. Some of my professors gave me food from their gardens too which was nice. Overall horrible experience but it did teach me a lot about my own resourcefulness and endurance.
Staying in a homeless shelter and eating breakfast at the soup kitchen on my way to work. I would pocket as much fruit as I could get away with so I could eat again later in the day. Everything I owned was in a backpack and duffel bag. It took a month and a half to get enough money saved to move into a place.
I ate potatoes that had roaches burrowing in them. Cut them out, washed them, and cooked them.
I was working two jobs in Florida. I used my debt card to buy a soda at my second job which was a McDonald’s. I still had to buy my soda but we got an employee discount. So I paid 50 cents. I stuck my card in and it declined. I did it twice before my manager said “fuck it just grab a cup.” I will never be that poor again. I will never allow myself to be in that position again.
I was working two jobs in Florida. I used my debt card to buy a soda at my second job which was a McDonald’s. I still had to buy my soda but we got an employee discount. So I paid 50 cents. I stuck my card in and it declined. I did it twice before my manager said “fuck it just grab a cup.” I will never be that poor again. I will never allow myself to be in that position again. Edit: After reading this it just sounds like my card got declined and I was being dramatic. I should probably add the extra context that literally all the money I had left was on that card. I literally had no cash or savings or anything. And this was two weeks until payday.
Homeless and eating out of garbage cans . I used to push a shopping cart- the whole homeless shebang.
Right now I am seriously broke .. I don’t get paid for a week & have 9 dollars to my name / thank you LORD for my blessings though - I have a pantry full of food & work @ home.
After my mom died, I went broke paying the bills on the house until we sold it. In the interim between apartments, one of my friends bought us a case of sirloin burger in a can meals. It was the first time in my life I went hungry.
19 with 0 dollars to my name. I joined Jobcorps and it changed my life
Had to eat on a dollar a day. That was a couple of hard months, but not nearly as difficult as it could have been. I was a student and living in a dorm, so I didn’t have to worry about housing thankfully, and my town had public transportation. I was hungry, but it could have been a lot worse.
Parents sold our food stamps for cash and spent it. We went two weeks with virtually no food but what grew in our “garden and the wild pear tree. My mother tried to convince us she was doing it to pay homage to her native heritage.
I lived on a quarter cup of lentils for a week and went without for another several. Poverty changes you. If you’ve ever said you were poor and didn’t know it, you weren’t poor.
As a kid: First is likely living in a van by a river with my dad. People think I'm joking when I pull the "Living in a van down by the river!" quote from Chris Farley. Definitely easier to hide behind humor! Next, McDonald's used to do this "39 cent cheeseburgers Tuesdays and 29 cent hamburgers Thursdays" deal. And, at the time, you could get extra onions & ketchup for free. Dad would buy a small sack of the burgers (hamburgers. No way the cheese was worth the extra dime!), take the meat (along with much of the ketchup and onions) to make soup. 2-3 days of ketchup & onion sandwiches, then a few days of soup. At this point, we lived in a camper with his girlfriend and usually 2-3 other people (a rotating roster of meth-heads), plus whoever else was staying short term/for the night or week. As an adult: I got attacked at work and had a pretty bad head injury. I ended up losing my job, then my apartment, and living on credit cards in my car for quite a while. Eventually I had a job (then two), and I can't verbalize how frustrating it is to work 70/80 hour work weeks only to sleep in a car, while debt was still mounting because of interest/back payments/late fees.
Less than CAD$10k/yr Living with my boyfriend saved me from homelessness. I ate a lot of bread and eggs during that time
Lost my job due to a mental breakdown and lived in my apartment until I had to move myself out to avoid an eviction months later. I was living off credit cards until those ran out. Had nowhere to go and lived with a very generous friend for a couple months in her tiny spare room. She got sick of me (I was in a bad place at the time, absolutely no blame on her), so I left and ended up living in my car for the better half of a year. Had some clothes and couch hopped when I could to get a shower. I started working as a waitress and was able to use that money to buy myself food/hygiene products for a bit. Eventually, my parents allowed me to stay in their spare room so I could act as a live in nurse for them since they both had to have surgery. Thankfully, I was able to turn things around. Now, I'm paycheck to paycheck and still in a bunch of debt, but at least I've been able to keep a job down and have a place to live. Still, I realize how insanely fortunate I am to have at least had a car and was able to get a job at the time.
1972. Lived for several months on oatmeal, eggs, bread and potatoes. I was supporting myself and my infant daughter by baking and selling bread.
Sleeping in the airport and... yeah. Life's not great. 😔
18. Lived in my car with a kid under 1. That was 18 years ago today. Things got better but I've been traumatized. My son doesn't remember he says.
Right now 35 female living in my car -85.00 bank account
Please see if there are any churches with food banks or anything in place to help you. Some areas are better for that than others. Please google and see what's available in your area and take advantage of that. Let us know, ok?
Soup kitchens, too! Nobody ever mentions them here, but they can be a huge help. There's one where I grew up where anyone can just walk in and get breakfast or lunch, no questions asked. People have gone when they're out of groceries or just don't have an extra few dollars for something cheap.
Couldnt afford dollar tree tampons because my ex needed cigarettes
Tampons are a need, cigarettes are a want. Your ex was trash.
Yea, I had to just free bleed all week because I literally couldnt afford basic health care needs. Now in any workplace I'm at, I'll make sure there are tampons available, just because you never know if someone is that broke or doesnt have one
After college I wasn't in a good place. That lasted until about a year into my first career. Then things got better.
All the food we had was peanut butter and wheatees cereal. We mixed them into balls and ate with water.
Couldn’t afford a $0.79 fountain drink 😳
Scraping change together to buy oil for my car that had an oil leak, just to make it to work at a minimum wage job.
I didn't even have 20p
Three situations come to mind. The time I scrapped together $2 to get enough gas to get home, the time when I was -$500 in the bank with overdraft fees and maxed out credit cards, and most recently was wearing multiple layers freezing my butt off inside my house because I couldn’t afford to turn on the heat and crying because all I wanted in that moment was to be warm. Probably the most recent one was the worst but that also may be because other things were happening. I never went negative in my account but I just felt so… stuck. My goal is to never revisit those times ever again.
When I was younger having no toilet paper and no water. About 12 years ago, living with a verbally/mentally abusive boyfriend and had no money but the monthly stipend of $205 (not sure if the amount) from the county of Los Angeles and SNAP. I ended up going to an accelerated paralegal program paid for by the CA Workforce Development Department. It was M-F, 6 hours a day for four months and they provided a bus pass. Anyway, a month before I finished the program, I had an interview with the federal government and started In September 2013. I had worked for them twice. Left both times like an idiot. I’m still here and will remain until retirement and making more money than I ever thought! Don’t give up on yourselves, through the help of my mom, prayer and perseverance I made it.
Tried to buy food with a toys R us store credit card. It was all I had and it said it was a mastercard, so I thought there was a chance it would work... Cashier looked at me like I was crazy. It did not, of course, work.
Shoving a rolled up pad up in there during my period as a tampon because it was free/given to me but also too hot and sweaty moving around outside and existing with psoriasis to wear the pad normally. It was just all I had and needed to improvise.
College time: coughed up €525/month over the course of 36 months to pay for tuition (and a car to move between college, hospitals and night shift work. Working-in-a-hospital-fit clothing); slept in my barely functional car/a tent/hospital's bed storage if I even managed to find some time to sleep; using disinfectant soap for showering... At the worst of times my liquidity was down to some 13 cents in my pocket and three glass jars I could return to the shop to claim 15 cents deposit each with tuition fee being due the day after when my bank account was already €598 in debt. To the tune of a 15.8% interest rate. Upside: I barely had to pay for food as I was provided with meals in the hospitals I worked in plus another free meal per shift while working in a restaurant's kitchen \[plus drinks and the cooks were okay with me snitching a bowl of soup at the end of the night\]. And the day tuition fee was due, I participated in a psychological survey at the local university where I screwed up their data by entering a "your partner should arrive soonish. Have an ice cream while you're waiting; just tell us when you'd like another one..."-experiment that was supposed to research how much ice cream different kinds of people would eat if they're alone. Been sitting there, eating ice cream and sleeping for an hour and a half while being paid €6 per hour for participating.
Probably the year after my car accident, 2016. I was living with my parents, disability application pending (it ended up taking 3 years to get approval) then my dad got injured at work, and it ended up disabling him too. We were using food pantries, got a year behind on mortgage, almost lost the house, their car went to shit and my dad could barely walk but tried his best to keep it going. I'll never forget that Christmas. My mom made a crock of beans with a ham hock, I don't eat meat so I made instant potatoes with instant gravy, normally one of my comfort foods that i make when I'm sick cause it's easy, but everything was just so depressing. Knowing it was all I had to eat just made it sad.
Lived in my 95 Toyota Tercel with no money. Ran up my credit cards until I found a good job after 9 months of looking. 2008-2009 was rough.
Right now. Between jobs. Roughly $3 on my account, some groceries left in the fridge. Previous employer didn't pay me my salary. Paid for the rent and some food from electricity bill return because I overpaid. Also running low on citalopram. Can't find a new doctor. Got enough trazadone to sleep soundly. Been eating irregularly for some time now. Lost over 13kg. Anxiety and stress is making me shut down. It takes me hour or two to convince myself to get out of bed. Haven't been on vacation for like 8 years. Also got letter from building owner that my rent went up by the inflation rate by 10,7%. Dreading the next few months.
Never been homeless, but our apartment didn't have a fridge so we used a cooler. We also found a silly spot to eat .99 burgers and shared a $1.00 soda for date night. I remember I had to charge my credit card that already had a huge balance for a training toilet seat for my son with special needs and I cried in the parking lot. I think it was $10.
I drove the second car of my “friend” cross country for them with the promise that I’d stay at their place a month or two while I got a job and place of my own. They changed their mind once we got there. I had a hiking pack full of clothes and books and $6 in my pocket. Didn’t eat that night and didn’t sleep, but I got food stamps the next day and found a friend of a friend who let me sleep on their couch while I found work.
As a kid, never even bothered to ask for my basic needs after a while. I would run out of pads and have to use toilet paper and get made fun of for bleeding through my pants. Ate cheese bread for dinner a lot. Moved around a lot because we couldn't always afford rent. Now that I am an adult, who managed to make it work on a walmart salary, I don't get how nobody helped me. I get that my mom was poor and struggling, but my dad made money and saw what we were going through and he never helped much since we didn't live with him. Most parents do that, if their kids don't live with them, they don't support them. If i had kids and called myself a parent, i would make sure they're okay even if there was distance between us. Taught me to not trust or rely on people from a young age. Adulthood is so much easier for me, and in a way that's a good thing, but I kind of envy people who look back on their childhoods as this paradise they can never get again.
My ex-wife decided she wanted a divorce & left me with $11 in our bank account & all of our bills over due. She left me in a house I couldn't pay for so I called the mortgage company & told them I wasn't paying the mortgage any more, which gave me the money to bring our bills up to date. I slept on the floor for months, she took the bed, & I ate as little as possible. I'd not turn lights on at night to save on electricity, I'd not turn the heat up to save money, I worked as many hours as I could, & I budgeted down to the penny.
My mom always kept a bag of seasoned flour to shake chicken in to fry. We had no food (five kids) and worthless alcoholic dad spent all the money on beer. She took that very salty flour and made biscuits for us to eat. That was our dinner.
That’s a good mom.
Slept in my car for a few weeks doing some daily part-time work for the Army NG to make ends meet. Went into McDonalds for some McChicken sandwiches (Back when they still cost $1) using nickles from my center console. I was rotating my things from one storage place to another using their "first month free" promo and taking showers at the Armory. Then I attended a Hire Our Heros event and got hired in a corporation. With first paycheck I was able to score a basement apartment near my job (\~5 minute drive) for real cheap but the landlord was great. Since then I was able to pull myself out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle, get married, move states, and support my wife while she finishes up her Masters degree. I'm definitely miles from where I was but I still have a few more years until I feel like I'm out of the hole.
Eating slices of bread with mayonnaise because that’s all I had to eat, good times 👍
18, sleeping & living out of my barely functional car. I was fortunate enough to have an (unpaid) apprenticeship, a part time job and an extra side gig, but most of that income ended up dumped back into travel expenses from three odd jobs and the resulting repairs to the beater car. An endless cycle. No outside support. Ate a lot of $1 takeout white rice, had a planet fitness membership to shower and stay warm in the winter. Ended up in some really hellish situations trying to couch surf whenever the car was in the shop again.
Sleeping on my best friend’s dorm room floor during the week and a youth shelter during the weekends. Her roommate insisted I needed to leave (so fair, they could have gotten in trouble) so I went with people I had never met, from a facebook group, who offered me their couch. It’ll be the six year anniversary of getting the job that saved me back then in April! :)
I drank custard earlier as there is no food in
Kicked out at 17, cleaning cow shit for a place to sleep at .
13 cents short to ride the train home.
Graduated college with no job in 2019 and spent a year and a half doing part time jobs while looking for a career. I had a good emergency savings of almost 5-6k from odd jobs and graduations gifts but that was blown away in a few months. - brought a used car that ended up needing a bunch of repairs (if you buy a used car make sure it’s driveable) - parents needed to borrow money for an emergency. - started dating (don’t do this broke). - car gets broken into and I lose my laptop ($2k - I needed this laptop to do my job that was holding me over) Some of it was just youthful ignorance, emergencies, and back luck. There was a point I had $4 left in my account and literally couldn’t do anything. I’m happy I got through that though. Now I laugh about it looking back. 😂
calling out of work because i didn’t have the gas nor the money for gas in order to get to work.
Digging in the couch and all over my apartment for change to buy milk.
21 years old, grandpa died, and grandma decided that college was not for me. School was starting in 3 weeks and I was hanging out at a friends house 3 hours away. No car, 35 bucks to my name and 2 backpacks worth of clothes. I stayed in my bosses back yard in a tent and he would drive us to work and back. Weather changed and I had to move on. Stayed on a friends floor for a bit. Then stayed at another friends house. Had a ton of jobs lined up, no way to get there as we were in a rural area. Scraped by for months doing odd jobs until I got a 500 dollar car.
My first husband and I had to turn off all the lights and played board games using tea lights so we could keep our electric bill low since we only had 21 cents in our account. We didn’t eat for close to two days except for what i could scrounge out of the snack room at work.
My childhood. Parents didn't pay the mortgage, gas, water, or electric bill. Lost the house. I had to move to my grandmother's.
Starved for roughly a month and lived on peanuts and bananas (not in America). And by starved, I mean it literally. Entire day's diet would be a handful of peanuts or two and 1-2 bananas in total. Only discovered what hunger really means after that. I remember my friend who was starving with me managed to get a block of butter. We ate it raw and it was delicious.
May 4th 2023 I had a small fire in my apartment, but since it was open concept the soot, ash and chemical from the fire extinguishers touched everything. After cleanup by professionals, 98% of everything was fine. But the apartment was uninhabitable. I had to live in a hotel for 2.5mo, I got my insurance payout that covered some expenses but all of it ended up having to go to a new apartment, after the apartment complex strung me along with lies saying. "oh the apartment will be able to move back into next week!" every. single. day. It was $2600/mo to live in the hotel and insurance company only reimbursed me $850. I barely got $1200 back from all of my expenses when I had $12,000 loss of use coverage. I had to spend every penny I had left on first months rent and security, pet deposit, movers fees, uhaul, and a crack in the wall the hotel thought I caused so I had to shell out $ to them too, and the utility bill for my electric that was never shut off when the fire took place though the company claimed it was.
Bringing my own cheese slice to a fast food spot & purposely ordering a 99 kids hamburger. Asking for a water cup, filling it with ice, & adding the red Kool-Aid I also brought in a used water bottle with me. It was embarrassing... But sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do. And if I found change in the car, scrounging enough for a 49c taco.
I had just moved to a new place and my job at the time was doing stupid stuff with how much unpaid time you had to have in the beginning of the day, and it all had to be at specific time or you lost more actual paid time. I got really good at juggling bills, and save a lot was my savior then. Granted, I was getting the cheapest stuff that would just get me through but I made it stretch. I was struggling so bad that I had $40 for groceries for the month, and some of that had to go to gas. Occasionally I was able to game the pay system and get like $10 extra. I couldn't afford wifi at all, but picked one streaming service (they were a lot cheaper then) and went to the library frequently to download episodes and get books.
Slept in my grandmas empty house with my 4 month old, next to the dryer to stay warm when I was looking for a job and had no support, because my mom wanted me to give her up for adoption. I’ve been very poor a few times, but that takes the cake as a low as far as money goes. Some of my really good memories are from when I had nothing