This was sent to me by a friend in NYC. I thought you might like to share ?[b]

Being Poor.



Ok, this is not exactly funny, but I thought is quite sobering and interesting to read. Here is a list of what being poor actually means….

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.

Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.

Have your own to add? Please reply!

I personally would not class some or most of that as being poor, some of that is just not being able to "keep up with the Jones".

Being poor is having No food, No clothes, No money, a shack for a house, eg the lives of those in third world countries etc.

I have been to some of those countries and seen what poor really is.

Thats just my opinion.

I think how poor/rich you see yourself, is dependent on how you compare your current situation to the worst situation you've ever been in. If you apply that way of thinking, then you are both correct.
Molly, you have seen/experienced with your own eyes one of the worst states of poor in this world, therefore you could come to the UK, live in a council house and live on ASDA betterbuy and still say, "atleast i don't have it as bad as those that i have seen in third world countries."
Whereas the worst state of being poor i have personally experienced, would probably be when me and my mum had to stay over at a friends house in-between moving houses, because we hadn't found a house we liked yet, but had already got to the point where we couldn't put off the sale on our house any longer. Yes we still had by mums income so we could still buy clothes and food, but we were living in a very crowded house (considering my mums friend had a husband and 3 young kids). Yes i know full well there are far, far worse states of poor in this world. Hell we see it on the television, hear it on the radio all the time. But i don't think it truly hits home until you've experienced it yourself.

I also experienced what you experienced. I moved home about 8 years ago with my family, and had to move into a caravan until my house was ready.

At least we had a roof over our heads, as had you. The conditions we where living in may not be what we are used to and it was of our own makings that we chose these conditions as did your mum for the sale of houses to go through.

But that isnt being poor.

From what I seen in third world countries, these people literally had nothing, as you say we have seen it all on tv etc, but when you see it in real life it hits home differently.

The people here on benefits ( an im not saying there is anything wrong with people on benefits) earn more per week than what some of these people earn in a month or even two months.

I have personally spoken to one man who earned $40 approx £20 per week working 10 days on and two days off starting at 9am and finishing at midnight and they where classed as being "well paid".

They bought some of their groceries etc in the same shops as we did but grew alot of their food and had animals to care for and then eat when needed.

BUT, these people where alot happier than many of us. They could learn us a few lessons.

That is what I call being poor.

This thread has been taken the worng way and I suppose it was the way in which I described it. Initiatially it was about being Poor at Christmas time in Europe and the USA. I am pleased it has developed into 3rd world countries etc. After all, this is a forum. Let's all have our say and interpret things the way we see them.

I've had to really economise and stretch my money, but i've never been what i believe to be poor. And i dont agree that living in a caravan while you wait to move into a new house is poverty. Cos poor people wouldnt be able to afford the new house.

Agree with you 100%, there is no such thing as being poor in this country

I wasnt saying that living in a caravan was poverty. I was saying in response to JonoF that is was poorer compared to what we where used to until our house was ready but that this was our choice at the time.

And our caravan is far from being poor, it has all the mod cons that you need from heating to washing machine to freezer to microwave etc.






Thats exactly what I was saying.

I wasnt saying that living in a caravan was poverty. I was saying in response to JonoF that is was poorer compared to what we where used to until our house was ready but that this was our choice at the time.

And our caravan is far from being poor, it has all the mod cons that you need from heating to washing machine to freezer to microwave etc.

I know you werent saying poverty was living in a caravan, molly, its ok And i totally agree with you and FBG that poverty doesnt exist in this country