What the fuk??

How expensive a banana can be since you guys call it treat.

Inb4 food as treat

Parents made 40K a year crew. I never felt like we did without. A lot of stuff's cheaper than you think (fast food for 4 can be done for $10-$12, a dirtbike costs $1000 up front and can ride sunup to sundown on $5 of gas), and we had a 70K house in a dirt cheap COL area which helped greatly. I did have to go clean houses with my mom 3-5 nights a week so she could make extra cash, and that kind of sucked.

The biggest difference was in my education. My parents were pretty clear up front that they had no money for me to go to college, and that I was going to be paying for everything on my own. I knew that it was either going to be scholarships or loans, so I worked my dick off in high school to get scholarship money. And that cheap house we lived in - that was 45 minutes away from my high school, one-way trip. So I commuted 90 minutes and was having to get straight As taking 6 AP classes simultaneously, while everyone else was just dicking around.

I did get scholarship money for college, but it was contigent on me keeping a 3.5 GPA, and any STEM brahs on here know how hard that is to do in engineering. So I get stuck in my apartment working my ass off again just to stay in college, while kids whose parents are paying full freight are again blowing off their homework and dicking around. Makes me kind of ****ing bitter that I've had to put in 7 years of grinding for what half these guys have just been handed.

Maybe they're from a country where bananas are expensive.

I can go to Asian markets today and I see 1lb of bananas 80 cents and it was around 50 or so when I was a kid. If your parents didn't want to buy bananas then they either spent all their money on lotto scratch tickets or had a thing against fruit, lol.

Others mentioned similar things I appreciate -- higher threshold for stress, IDGAF attitude when things don't go my way/resilience to overcome it.
First time I ever flew in a plane was mid 20s. Most of my friends and peers I went to school with had been around the world by that age. It was just a different set of priorities.
I tend to think I might appreciate those things more, too. Who knows if I truly do.

It was rough at times and I wished we had money a million times -- but truth be told I wouldn't change it for one second. Going without has molded me into who I am in a significant way.

Well not just bananas but I don't remember having a lot of foods in the house to snack on. The same with yogurts and stuff. Never had sodas except for vacations, never restaurants etc.

My first job was in a grocery store as a cashier at 16 and I'd look all the foods people were buying all jealous.

Had a 6 month poor period after college. If I wasn't working one chitty job of was working my other chitty job. Ate like a peasant, absolutely miserable existence.

Still poor now, 50k job, but not peasantry.

raised by single mother but had pretty much everything i needed, and lived in a well to do secluded suburban area in the mountains of LA. she made 65k-70k in LA calif since like 94.

now im supporting her by paying her rent its like 1k a month. recession in 07 hit LA hard as fuk and ran thorough a lot of income though.

sharing a bed with 4 siblings. Being the oldest I got to sleep on the edge and made the younger one who wet the bed constantly be on the opposite side.
At christmas we'd all only get 1 or two presents each. When I was older, I began to realize that making even that amount of presents appear under the christmas tree yielded an excessive amount of stress and sadness on my mother.
When we would go out to eat we could never order sodas and my mother would always split a meal with my sister. My brother and I would get our own meals at least.
For sports I would always have to apply for scholarships so that I could play in soccer clubs in my area that would be around the level of my play.
They worst part of it all was having my mother break down several times when I was 16-18. It's terrible seeing someone you love struggle that much and I was already doing as much as I could to help out. Even then it wasn't enough to reduce any stress.

My mother did a really good job at hiding how bad things were for us. In retrospect, I wish she would've made things clearer sooner. I make six figures now in tech, but the need to conserve money isn't well ingrained in me. I don't make big purchases, but rather tons of tiny ones that add up. I don't know how I can start a family with anything under 200k. I live in Texas too.

Fuark.... Plenty of feels itt.

Common theme is a lot of you guys grew up, made something of yourselves, and turned out aalright. Sounds like you're in better positions than you were born into.

We were just an ok family.

I crave the "old money" , quiet rich people lifestyle. Basically millionaire next door where people wouldn't have a clue you're rich because you don't show it off.

I think from the parents perspective the hard part is hiding it from the kids that things aren't very good financially. Most kids don't start catching on until around college age.

School was such a big thing and my folks never entertained any of that "follow your passion / your dreams". It was go into a field where you have a high chance to find work and make some money.

There was also a lot of pressure to finish school and come help out.... Too much expectations and letting the family down,.etc.
All this stuff makes me not want to have children so I don't have to worry about these things. I only need enough to feed myself, put myself under a roof, etc...

Life sucks, brah.

Grew up rich as shyt until college. Then went out on my own, lived in the ghetto for 5 years. When I was young all my friends had parents that were doctors, lawyers, etc. When I lived in North Philly (prob top 10 worst areas in the country) I got to know a decent amount of hood folk.

Most dont work, they just chill all day. In many respects a lot are happier than the rich. I was in school so I cant really comment on what being poor for life would be. But the lifestyle is almost liberating. You chill with whomever all day, smoke some weed, play some bball, chill some more with the homies that are all poor as well. Live in a run down rowhouse but thats all everyone has.


My neighborhood was so bad we didnt have heat in our house and the electric company never came out to shut off our service so we had free electric for 3 years. House was not as bad as youd think. Streets smell like shyt. And walking by yourself at night your afraid for your life as a white person. Kinda miss it to be honest. SRS

When you're very small, you don't really know you're poor. Eventually you get a bit older and you see other people and other kids having stuff that you don't have, going places you've never been, etc...

Some things that come to mind when thinking about growing up poor:

-lunch was 2 slices of bread, some margarine, and a slice of mock chicken
-dinner was ok - meat and veggies are always affordable
-mom and dad constantly lecturing on not wasting food (or wasting anything at all)
-mom and dad constantly lecturing on living frugally and not prioritizing frivolous bs like name brand clothes
-getting yelled at for showering too long or leaving the light on
-asking for toys and games but parents always saying no
-relatives buying me the toys and games after seeing that I don't have them
-parents were always sad

However, there are actually some good things that come from being in a poor, working class family. A lot of times, the parents don't have much to give so they instill in their kids a strong moral compass and compassion for other people and their struggles.

There is a joke in there somewhere about guys on the board being willing to give you all of the banana you want, but I won't bring it up. Not me, nope, so stop asking.

I grew up comfortably middle class but a lot of the people that surrounded me in school growing up were definitely lower class/poverty level. I grew up in average house with two hardworking, working class parents. Even though I wasn't rich, I didn't realize how good I had it until I grew up. I remember thinking back when I was in elementary school why half the kids didn't give a **** about school. Like how would their parents allow them to act like that? Wasn't till I was older that I went to a friends place, found out he lived in a one bedroom apartment with 2 druggy parents and 4 kids. Wasn't until then I realized that these kids didn't give a **** about school because nobody ever taught them to give a ****. Now that I graduated high school and was the only one who got into my university, I look back at all these other guys who have been working at mcdonalds, burger king, etc and thank god for having my parents. They didn't have a ton but whatever they had they gave to me. I know you'll never read this mom and dad but I love you two with all my heart.

Sorry but I don't believe not having bananas has any correlation to being phucking poor. I can get a RACK of bananas for $1 at a street cart in the city. Probably just uneducated parents that didn't buy healthy food.

Grew up in a former eastern bloc country (don't remember communist times though):

- chicken thighsevery fuking night,can't eat them anymore
- ...and when no chicken thighs, fried potatoes (they were good, though)
- pullovers indoors from October to March at the least
- get yelled at for tearing sh!tty, toilet paper-grade clothes
- relatives in the countryside used an out-house
- ...and made home-distilled hard liquor (not bad, though)
- sh!tty transportation + no personal cars = 50 km trip was an adventure
- grandma gave english/german/french lessons because pension was ridiculous

My dad worked for the postal service and my mom was a nurse for the first ten years of my life and things were similar to the above since it was me and two other siblings. Then she also became a postal employee and things started changing rapidly. We went to private school and celebrated more. Xmas was better but still limited. I can't fathom some of the stuff you guys have said and at the same time can't fathom the lifestyles of the rich. Me and my wife both are postal employees and make good money but not nearly enough for comfort for me. We are all going to make it.

I got fat as phuck as a kid. My dad delivered pizzas on the side, so he would always bring home pizza. I also came home from school and pretty much all I could make for myself was microwaved ramen. My mom cooked dinner that was pretty decent and not too unhealthy, and we never ate out very often. Like a couple times a year maybe.

7 is excessive but I've never quite got the disgust some people have for poor people who have children. They have as much right to have children as the same people making dough.

Don't know those feels. Holidays every year in Majorca/Mallorca, Cyprus, Canary Islands and so on.

Everyone has a right to have children. But it makes it frustrating for people who have better income that struggle, when those who have kids and are poor get on the government assistance and keep popping out babies.
I wouldn't say disgust, but I've never understood why you can't pay for food to feed your kids yet you had 4 of them. If I had two and started to struggle I wouldn't have two or three more.

I parents, particularly my mom, did a really I good job of hiding how bad it really was so it wasn't until I was an adult that I really understood the struggle.

My parents made a point to buy a home in the "poor" part of town of an upper middle class community so that their kids could go to good public schools. This was great because it afforded me certain opportunities, but it also meant most of my friends were well off and never knew the burdens I knew.

- Power being shut off
- Shopping at discount stores that none of my friends ever heard of
- All of my friends had stay at home moms. Both parents worked 10+ hour days
- Bankruptcy and losing our house
- Having to live with my grandparents for 6 years in the basement because my parents lost the house and having every friends as why my family lives my grandpa's basement.

I started working at 14 and never stopped. Put myself through undergrad and graduate school with zero financial aid (parents made enough to not get any help but not enough to help -> white brah) and incurred insane amount of student loan debt.

As an adult now with a good salary and education (neither parents went to college) it's now me trying to help them out. Funny enough though, even with all of the lack of funds growing up my parents always tried their hardest. My sisters and I were able to shop before the new year of school to get "stylish clothes" even though it probably overdrafted their accounts. We always had cake and whatever food we wanted on our Bday. If there was as special event or field trip they would always kick me cash. I don't know how they did it but they always made sure their kids didn't feel like outcasts because their parents didn't make 6 figures like everyone else's. Looking back I was actually pretty fortunate and I am blessed to have parents that provided ENOUGH and didn't provide so much that it ruined us. More than half of the kids I grew up with are lazy and would be on the street without mom and dad's help even in their 30's.

I know people that had it much worse than me and my heart goes out to those folks. I had to work my ass off to get where I am and my parents did everything they could and I am happy I had to struggle. Them student loans though... Fuuuuuuuuuuuu.

I wasn't poor poor but we were comparatively poor. It sort of was like being Canadian. You'd get everything everyone had but you'd get it like 4 years later. So, you'd be known as the person with no cellphone and when they're talking about their favorite shows you'd never know what was going on cus no cable.

Grew up with hood rich immigrant parents. Never starved but couldn't afford new experiences, educational opportunities needed for today's young minds, I think that is serverly underrated. Basically free school lunches through high school, can't go out cuz parents won't loan me $20, etc general BS like that. I wouldn't be so resentful if my parents would have admitted to their social status but being uneducated immigrants they felt a lot of pressure to live the American dream thus huge debt on cars, tech, even house.

As an adult I have a paranoid relationship with money. Im obsessed with saving because of the mental comfort it provides. My parents almost lost their house dozens of times lol. I'm doing ok, no debt, close to 60k yearly at 26. Still feel like a failure tbh more so from my stunted mental state and under developed confidence. I feel like I'm 18 in terms of life experience because I missed out on so much. Currently trying to catch up in a healthy way.

OP y is ur location always switchig btw Germany N Turkey?

My family went from living comfortably to moving 2+ times a year after my mother divorced my father. She didn't work and lived off the state, so she moved us to the ghetto lol It was a huge shock moving from a small town to a huge city where a decent amount of people were d*cks. Basically life went like this:
-fastfood was mostly for dinner (if we had money)
-pancakes, bread & butter was a staple
-lived in horrible housing conditions (c*ckroaches, etc)
-watching your older brother spend his saved money to buy you one last Christmas gift
-the local gas station was a main part of your diet
-never buying new school clothes until 1+ years

Or parents were so poor they'd be banging on their 5 year olds money box trying to get some cents out so they could afford to purchase HALF a loaf of bread. Guess it all depends on how poor we talking sir.

wasnt really poor, but nowhere near class. mindblown at kids at school spending $5 per day on food and getting an allowance??? Kids be getting $20/week for doing nothing but complained that it wasnt enough

I made $150 last me for a year multiple times

Ok, but they don't have the right to force other people to pay for their children.

lol i can confirm on getting stuff 4 years later.


Lack of being able to go out, not being able to go to the doctor/dentist, stuff like school materials for projects being unaffordable, lack of opportunities for sports or recreational classes. Stuff like a bike was expensive. Even minor things that have a big impact on your day to day convenience like no allowance.

people who are better off tend to have access to more opportunities, can communicate better and aren't in a grouchy mood all the time.

If you're really poor then it's not as bad since you can get a lot of stuff subsidized, if you're borderline poor but rich on paper then you're pretty much screwed as a kid, but better off when you're older since your parents might have more disposable income to help you out.