I never was behind the 8-ball poor where loans, debt or child support were setting me in the hole, but I used to make 8-9 an hour as a young adult and paid all my own bills

Yup. Grew up like the Gallaghers from Shameless. It carried over until my 20s. Just worked my ass off and managed my money. Now I have no debt and live in a condo across the street from an NFL coach.

I was so poor I had to live in a basement. I didn't even have enough money to live above ground.

All me lyfe

I was technically just above poverty line when I first got out of college with my first job. Thankfully I never had school loan debts. Parents and grandparents saved for me, but was required to work during the summers for them to keep paying. Very thankful.

Something simple like picking up the tab for your parents later on in life feels like a huge win.

I remember thinking I made it when I was 19 and used some savings for a 42 inch tv and an Xbox One lol.

Yea somewhat. Family grew up lower middle class/middle class-ish. Dad lost his job in 09/10 after the 08 crash going into my second year at college. Took on more loans, commuted to the school I transferred to, and soccer only covered about half my loans.

I had no food plan and was legit a college athlete that got by because females would buy me food at school. It was a ripoff. A piece of chicken was like 5$ and nothing was buffet style. A typical dinner plate for example would be $13. I needed 3 meals at least and had to be at school from 5:30 am to at least 6:30 pm every day. If I didn't know anyone to buy me food I'd go to practice hungry. I eventually would get the cafeteria ladies to give me 3 slices of white bread for free if I needed it, bought a giant tub of jif peanut butter I kept in the locker room, stole a cafeteria knife, and would eat peanut butter and bread for calories so I could practice and workout without dying of hunger.

I still don't know how I got through the last 3 years of college with basically 0 money. All the money I made in the summer was for gas and basic things I needed. But I had a home to go back to and it all worked out. Didn't have a care in the world though and made it work. Some of the best times of my life.

I grew up poor. I had a single mom who worked three jobs to feed us three kids. Tho she was never on government assistance. My dad rarely paid child support, and when he did it wasn’t much. I learned to make due and be creative with less when I was older. I moved out at 18 and know how to turn a bag of potatoes into breakfast lunch and dinner for a week.
Potatoes, rice, and Top Ramen was a way of life lol. I’m not even mad tho. It was very humbling and I appreciate all I have these days.

Once I was so poor that first thing in the morning I had to jerk off the dog , just to feed the cat

Lmao

Yep,
$3.50 for a meatball sub

Every 3 days

Lived in a tree fort ,went swimming to bathe


The good Ole days

Grew up extremely poor. Parents divorced young. We barely had enough food to eat. I had to work from a young age to help. We were homeless at one point.

I've been broke but not poor

Yes.

Poor starting out in my early 20's...parents didn't support me, started working at age 16.

Up and down through the middle...worked up to better jobs over time, but still had to deal with debts [not all mine] and lay offs [mostly my ex, not me].

Poor again since my separation/divorce 2018.

There has just been no let up. ATM I've gotten my brother moved out and I'm working on making the best of where I'm at. I was near a *zero margin* monthly budget and now prices continue to increase.

I think I've got to take on a paying roommate. Or go ahead and sell if I could move to a better situation. But I have to get to a certain level on clearing/fixing stuff first.

I have been but there is always someone who had it worse. Lost my job at tech startup right out of uni. My £600 car went up in flames and I couldn't pay my rent or replace it. Was rationing food and electric, I'd close all the doors and only heat one room in my flat.

Gf stood by me through all of this. We'd make sandwiches and sit in the park because I had no car and couldn't afford food from a cafe.

Not that far off when I was a kid, my parents had me far too young and my dad was still heavily into partying n chit

Lived in crappy subsidized housing that was meant for international university students. There was a point where my parents opened up a bank account under my name and were writing bogus cheques to it and cashing them just to put food on the table, that plus payday loan type places. They eventually filed for bankruptcy.

Nope, thankfully my parents weren't financial idiots, we lived fairly frugal when I was a kid while my dad worked his way up the career chain and then lived pretty comfortably until I finished college and got my first job making $43k/year during which I also lived frugally until I began making more money and now I'm living very comfortable in my mid 30s.