20 Things People Shared Being Poor That Other People Don’t Understand

What is it like to grow up with secondhand things and hand-me-downs? What is it like to rely on food stamps? Or worse, what was it like to not have a roof on your head? Poverty is not about what entertainment people can’t afford. It’s about how they’re barely allowed to have three healthy meals a day with their family.

Poverty is more than just about money even. But these people aren’t allowed to think more than that. They can’t afford the time, energy, and resources to enjoy what others have.

1.

“Cycle of poverty is no joke. I got really sick from anxiety. My stomach hurt, I developed an ulcer, I had to go to the hospital. $$$. Ok, so root problem is anxiety and depression. How do I fix it? Therapy and maybe medication. But I’m already in debt from going to the hospital. So I try to do without. Manage on my own. Pay down bills. Anxiety grows from seeing the debt and life under covid. Anxiety. Stomach hurts. We’re back to the beginning.” – HitlersStankySnatch

2.

“It takes up all of your time.” – SparkyValentine
“Yep. I remember not being able to stock up on necessities. So I would have to run to the store a lot more frequently. I couldn’t afford a car so I would either have to bus or walk. All of these little things eat up so much time.” – djflossy

3.

“When you are a kid, the bordome. All my friends had interests. BMX, hunting, ninja stuff, action figures, video games. And their parents fostered their interest and provided funds to grow in the hobby/sport. I had some stuff too, but never had the sort of continual investment to pursue something as a hobby or interest. Everything was 2nd hand, boot-legged, pirated, half-working, etc.” – mechtonia

4.

“You can have a job and still being poor. You can have a job where you earn 1.000€ each month, but if your rent is 600-700€, each month you spend +100€ in food (assuming that you don’t have to take medicine or something similar), your bills, the insurance of your car (if you have one) + the gas, what the f**k do you do with what’s left after that? You can’t do anything.” – glez_fdezdavila_

5.

“I come from money. I work for the government in a stable job now. I married a man who came from much less. It’s hard to state how much help you need to get out from being underwater. No one seems to understand that if you’re born in the hole, you don’t know life outside of the hole.

Poverty is not just bad decisions — poverty is an ENVIRONMENT. It is bad roads. It is a poor city and county governance. It is a lack of generational wealth. It is a lack of access to a grocery store, a doctor, a bank lender, a dentist, plumbers or electricians, a lawyer, a school, a car lot, both financially and geophysically. It is despair in your landscape through forgotten and abandoned buildings that once housed businesses and families, now left to rot, while you are too poor to leave. It is watching others struggle while you yourself are unable to help because you can’t keep your head above water either.” – Ribonacci

6.

“That poor people can’t take advantage of sales or bulk purchases, they literally spend whatever they earn with basic necessities. Being poor is a vicious cycle, and it takes many sacrifices to get out, if ever.” – kotran1989

7.

“Everything you buy has interest attached to it because you’re NOT using that money to pay off debts that you definitely have.” – Kanedi4s

8.

“Being poor is f**king exhausting. It’s draining. Mentally. Physically. It’s just exhausting. Everyone needs a win sometimes. Sometimes that win is finding a way to just afford a f**king meal out or a movie. Yeah, you do have bills to pay and sh** to do. But everyone needs a breath of fresh air sometimes. A struggle needs a f**king break every so often.” – BogeyBogeyBogey

9.

“Good healthy food is f**king expensive after bills, and cheap food makes you feel like sh**.” – TheSexySovereignSeal

10.

“Money is practically all you think about. Money does not buy happiness but not having money certainly buys constant anxiety.” – pajamakitten

11.

“When we save up money, something happens which forces us to use that money we had saved which starts a hard to break loop.” – Chicago1202

12.

“That I can’t just “quit my job” to “find something better”. Interviews take time that I don’t have. I can’t just skip work to go for interviews.” – Juan_Tutri

13.

“Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you automatically get welfare you can make just slightly over the line and still be poor my mom only made $1000 a month but it was still too much to get welfare.” – Kakebaker95

14.

“We can’t be fad minimalists. We don’t let go of most our sh** because, yes, we might need them in the future and we’d rather not buy them.” – thejynerso

15.

“In 90% of the times, you cannot fail or made a bad/wrong decision, If you do it will take years and years to recover from that.” – aspluiz

16.

“The fear. Of something unexpected you haven’t budgeted for. Of a knock at the door from a debt collector. Having to choose which of your children can eat more than once today. Having to choose which days you go hungry so your children can eat at all.” – flossgoat2

17.

“It takes 2-3 times longer to get anywhere on the bus than in your own car. That means leaving for work earlier, coming home later. In many places, the buses don’t run as often on the weekends. Grocery shopping on the bus means just getting what you can carry which means going more often which means more time wasted waiting.” – old-father

18.

“That being physically safe… is a luxury, not a give in. It can be dangerous to not be conscious for a couple of hours. When you’re homeless and sleeping somewhere, you’re not thinking about tomorrow… you’re thinking about “What if I get woken up and there is a knife to my face?” It’s really stressful.

Honestly, it’s one of the most stressful things I’ve gone through. It’s torture. Homeless people don’t go to sleep knowing they will wake up the next day. It’s not even sleep tbh.” – xisnotx

19.

“Constantly having to move cuz your job demands it or cuz rent got too high. 1-2 years is how long I’d stay in one house as a child. Never bothered with friends because I knew I wasn’t going be around them for more than a year or so.” – ClericGaming1

20.

“If you have a bank account, you probably have to pay a monthly fee because your balance is too low. If you overdraft, they charge your broke *ss another $35 even though they can see you ain’t got sh**.” – old-father