It goes without saying that being poor sucks. Big time.

Absolutely everything can immediately turn into a struggle when money becomes an issue. Suddenly, you find yourself having to prioritize things that are otherwise considered essentials—food, hygiene, a roof over your head and the like.

One thing’s certain: being poor means experiencing life differently and that can be both a bad and a good thing. Folks online were recently sharing things that poor people knew all too well, but rich folk—probably not so much, and it’s all because money can solve certain problems without even noticing the problem.

More Info: Reddit

#1

The pressure of living to the next paycheck, with no safety net if anything unexpected happens

Image credits: Kylian139

#2

How expensive it is to be poor

Image credits: BillFukngMurray

#3

How to be hungry. Not what it feels like to be hungry, but how to live your life even though you’re hungry all the time. Heh. Edited to add (because somehow this is apparently necessary) that the chosen situation of being on a diet is not the same as being hungry and unable to afford to do anything about it.

Image credits: roxysinsox

#4

Drinking water stops the hunger for a short while

Image credits: Bluebellyfluff

#5

The exact price of everything.

You could probably raise the price multiple times on an everyday item and a rich person wouldn’t even notice. A poor person would notice when something’s 5-10c more expensive than before.

Image credits: MisterMarcus

Poverty is a bit of a confusing definition to nail, but the numbers, as they stand now, all at least provide some understanding of how poor some people can get.

According to Development Initiatives, an organization that aims to empower sustainable solutions for world problems by means of data, there are three poverty lines that most agree on: the official one, which is living on less than $1.90 a day, and the two that many argue are more representative given the higher cost of living in more developed parts of the world, i.e. $3.20 and $5.50.

For context, there are nearly 700 million people (9% of the world’s population) who live on less than $1.90 a day. The number increases drastically when you consider that nearly 3.3 billion people live below the $5.50 a day threshold (pst, there are over 8 billion people on the planet, you can do the math).

#6

The excitement of finding a dollar on the ground

Image credits: DarkMatterSoup

#7

It can be cyclic

E.g. Low income means old second-hand cars, which means poor reliability, high maintenance costs and unreliable work attendance. Car difficulty discourages longer commutes or those without public transport alternatives – further restricting employment opportunities. Limited or unstable employment worsens income and prevents investment in more reliable cars, etc.

The difficulty is finding an exit opportunity to end the positive feedback loop

Image credits: StickyPurpleSauce

#8

that getting a job and moving out at 18 isn’t as easy as people on reddit think it is

#9

How to cook a chicken. I mean like really cook a chicken

Roast the whole bird. Eat 1 breast

Remove the other breast, thigh meat and any other light meat you can

Throw the carcass in a slow cooker for 8 hours with cheap stock cubes, whatever herbs you can afford and the cutoffs from the roast veg – carrot tops, potato peelings etc.

Drain pot into a jug to keep the stock, then pick through the carcass with your fingers for all the meat that now comes off easily

Return that meat and some veg to the pot for 4/8 hours to make a stew

Use the rest of the saved meat for another meal.

A 1.2kg chicken does me for 5 days this way. It’s something I learned from my mum, whose mother raised 3 kids on a very low income post WW2 – this is how they would make the Christmas chicken work for multiple days

Image credits: LivingmahDMlife

#10

1)Putting water in shampoo, conditioner or body wash so it’s “more”,

2)Eating the same food everyday specially at the end of a month,

3)Walking long distances because can’t afford transportation,

4)Watching friends go on vacations when the most they got is going to grandma’s house for *vacation*,

4)Never being able to celebrate birthdays,

5)Parents promising to buy something but they never do,

6)Dad repairing the same shoes again and again just so his children can have better things,

7)Moms skipping meals and lying about it,

8)spending the hot days without a fan because the electricity bill will be too much.

9)Giving parents the money you got as gift from relatives so it can be used for the household etc

10)Pushing yourself to study hard, overwork yourself so you don’t have to pay for education (scholarships)

This is how a “lower middle class” family works in a 3rd world country. My dad got scammed of so much of his pension money and things aren’t going well. Inflation is hell. I’m so glad I got scholarship for university and never have to pay for education. That’s the best I could do for my poor parents. Because I know if I didn’t get the scholarship they’d loan money for it and that’d be so hard to pay off. Also the unknown illness of mother… Can be cancerous. Idk, wdk, she suffers .

Sorry it’s like a vent. I had to pay 75% of my monthly money for rent today(I was late to pay). Rest of this month, same free meal from my campus.

Image credits: TragicallyDeadSim

Bored Panda got in touch with Reddit user u/100AltruisticInside who shared some of his personal insights into having grown up in a financially struggling family. Altruist explained that he was one of three kids with both parents and grandma living under one roof. “Let’s just say I had to live with hand-me-downs from my two brothers for years and family vacation really happened maybe once every three or so years and even that was to visit relatives,” he added.

#11

The feeling of watching all your friends go on a field trip without you because your parents couldn’t afford it.

Image credits: EzekielMN

#12

The fear of being poor again once you get out of the vicious cycle.

Image credits: Papercoffeetable

#13

If money does not buy happiness then it sure as f**k is the most common happiness bottleneck out there. More money gives the happiness a lot more traction.

Image credits: thiscantbetheanswer

#14

That there is no family to help you out financially in though situations.

No BIG inheritance waiting for you.

Nothing nil zilch!

No money is NO MONEY !

At all!

Image credits: It_is_Fries_No_Patat

An article by Oro Wealth explains how poverty can be a positive experience, listing how it can teach people to be resourceful, how it fosters empathy, and helps people understand just how resilient they are. This is besides learning how to manage money properly and understanding that you don’t need much to be happy.

However, Altruistic points out that it does come at a cost: “Sure, people can be resourceful and use whatever they have lying around the house to fix and build stuff, but having grown up always hearing we can’t afford this and that, it follows you into adulthood. Suddenly you understand just one hospital visit can set you back miles financially while your budget is minimum wage. So you go through life living with that constant fear and anxiety of not having enough to basically live, it’s exhausting even if you are crafty enough or if you become well-off later on.”

#15

Your paycheck is already gone before you get paid .

Image credits: Traditional-Pick5103

#16

1,001 ways to prepare a potato

Image credits: Delicious-Praline-11

#17

How to make one pad last the whole day

Image credits: stephers85

#18

How long it takes for the power company to shut your lights off if you’re late on the bill

Image credits: munch_the_gunch

#19

When your parents are lying to you saying they’re full when they’re not so you can have the last bite.

Image credits: ElizabethEC

#20

The sheer joy when once a year as a kid, you could have an outfit that hadn’t already been worn by at least 3 other kids before you. This includes underwear.

Image credits: kwunschel316

Altruistic gave us a little insight into how his family got by and from whom he actually learned the ropes:

“[I learned it from my] parents and grandma, she lived with us until her passing a while back. Mom and grandma would always notice and talk about prices at the store, you can say discounts determined what we ate for the day/week. Grandma mostly cooked and always used whatever we had first and only ever needed to go get something from the store once we were all out. Takeout was never an option, [stuff] like that.”

“Dad worked at an assembly line, pretty much learned how to fix the car and anything else around the house with whatever spare stuff he’d find at work that nobody needed. You quickly get into that kind of mentality when you experience it every day.”

#21

How much confidence you lost when you are poor. It seems like everyone around you look down on you. You keep doubting yourself for no good reason

Image credits: Careless-Interest-25

#22

That we don’t have the same rights as rich people.

I mean, yeah, the same laws apply to everyone, but if you’re poor you can’t afford lawyers and are not able to skip work to go to court. And landlords and bosses know this and will drag any procedure as long as possible until you quit.

Image credits: LeBadPilot

#23

A need to chose which bill you gonna pay, electricity, phone or whatever

#24

Being homeless. There is nothing like it. To me, it means that every single person you know has given up on you. Parents, siblings, friends… everyone. Homelessness taught me I have no one. Maybe more importantly, it taught me to have others backs even when they don’t want it.

Image credits: Aabacuss

#25

How to get all the peanut butter out of the jar

Image credits: texbinky

Despite the AskReddit thread tackling things poor folk know that the rich don’t, some still went ahead and shared some things they learned along the way that might end up helping someone who is struggling.

Redditor u/arotrios pointed out just how effective cardboard really is in keeping people warm, how you can actually eat ramen without cooking it, and being aware of all of the possible locations you can go to keep yourself warm.

Another user, u/MrSpindles, explained how water can help feel less hungry, and sleeping can help put off the feeling of hunger for a longer time. And this fellow, u/TragicallyDeadSim, listed a whole bunch of ‘hacks’ that helped his family pull through, some of which can be used by anyone.

#26

How to make it happen (for better or worse). Poorer folks know how to work through incredible restrictions such that their kids don’t realize that they’re poor, how to fund a vacation they didn’t know they could until the week of, how to make a car that isn’t suitable transportation get to work and back for 6 more months, how to make a bad marriage last for 5 more years because it’s the only or best relationship they’ve ever known. More well off folks make everything a catastrophe when things don’t go exactly how they planned despite never knowing actual hardship from those plans not working.

Edit: seeing downvotes. Sorry your deal fell through and this thing that’s never existed in your life will not be added to your resume and I should feel bad because your dad said it would be really important but wow 2 years later and here’s another. Enjoy it! You earned it!

#27

Cardboard is an excellent insulator and will keep you warm on the street if you’ve got nothing else. Pad the ground before you cover yourself – you’ll lose most of your heat to the concrete otherwise.

You can eat ramen without cooking it. Often known as ghetto cookies.

Smokeable cigarette butts are currency when you’re poor enough. Mixing said tobacco with marijuana in your pipe will make both last longer.

When giving someone Narcan to prevent an OD, make sure they’re lying on their back, not their side.

The experience of being unable to go inside to escape freezing cold for more than 48 hours at a time.

Knowing the location of every church, library, police station and shelter within walking distance.

That two weeks on the street will completely destroy your average pair of shoes.

#28

Desperation. Getting to a point that you will do anything to be able to feed yourself or your child, even if it means selling your posessions, or your body.

Image credits: NathanK55

#29

The length to which “disposable’ items can be reused/upcycled.

Image credits: SyninHex

#30

To walk into a grocery store with a list, get everything on it, and go home to put up groceries as it’s just another item to check off of your to-do list.

VS

Finding everything on sale or generic, weighing the cost of fuel into how much driving you do to get groceries on sale, not getting everything on your list due to costs yet knowing what the food bank gives out that you don’t need to buy while also hoping the church you pretend to go to will have a good week with donations.

Lastly, we asked Altruistic for some advice on what helped him getting through adult life, and he had this to say:

“What really worked for me was planning my money. Plan your grocery shopping around what you have and what’s on sale, look for a lower price for the same thing (works best with more expensive stuff), and get by with what you have already. My phone’s 6 years old, still works, don’t fix what ain’t broke. You learn to live on the little you have and the extra buck or two saved helps.”

“Also stay positive and there is no shame in asking a friend for help every once in a while and being open about it. My life isn’t as difficult compared to those who commented in the AskReddit thread, there’s some real hardship there, but it gives perspective and helps appreciate what you have.”

#31

how to choose between medicine and food

#32

What it’s like to feel guilt when you’re offered a treat because you know they can’t really afford it so you pretend you don’t want it

Image credits: splendidwaxpenises

#33

Using coupons and getting excited that you saved a whole 5 bucks.

Image credits: uncultured_swine2099

#34

Life is flimsy. Most people are only a series of choices away from losing everything. The middle classes tend not to see it because when enough choices have been made, society doesn’t see the person anymore. The poor have less choices, and can often see rock bottom from where they are. For some, they resign themselves to letting the fall happen. Others run from it.

Image credits: GooseberryCinnamon

#35

How to instinctively be more sustainable about everyday activities.

Rich people can scream and yell about it, but it’s mostly the poorer middle class that is sustainable

#36

What to do if you’ll ever find yourself in a month without money. Everybody can lose money and become poor,but it feels a bit more ‘safe’ if you already went through it and know how to survive with as few as possible

Image credits: Zach20032000

#37

that if you add water to an empty A1 bottle, it makes more steak sauce with no taste difference

#38

Dollar stores are life savers

#39

How to fix everything. How to cook from scratch. The vending machine foods with highest calorie content to cost ratio (used to be honey buns last I checked)

#40

The 5 second rule is more of a suggestion

#41

The fact that prepay utilities exist because the utility company won’t give you credit

#42

The price of one banana.

I mean, what could it cost? Ten dollars?

Image credits: jadayne

#43

Price of public transport

Image credits: NotCardioMachine

#44

Other poor people.

#45

How to sell and buy food stamps.

#46

Government cheese.

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