People Discuss What It's Like to Grow Up Poor

If you know, you know. Growing up without a lot of money is a pretty specific experience. Obviously, the degree to which you experienced financial woe is a sliding scale. No one person's experience is the same as the next. The main things that I remember, at least from childhood, are things like utilizing the free lunch program at school, receiving ridicule for what I was dressed in, never taking a vacation, living off the least expensive food possible, and having the not-so-quality house that my friends made fun of. The list goes on and I'm sure it does for a lot of people with a similar experience. 

One person posed this very question, "What's a dead giveaway you grew up poor?" to the r/Askreddit subreddit. Of course, a lot of people who related decided to chime in and give their two cents. It's definitely one of the most relatable discussions I've read in a hot minute. Unfortunately, a lot of people grew up without much means, but at the very least we can commiserate about growing up broke. 

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  • 01
    Font - What's a dead give away you grew up poor? I was having a conversation with a friend and mentioned when a bar of soap gets really thin I've always just stuck it to the new bar and let it dry to get full use out of it. He told me that was my dead giveaway. 15.3k ↑ Share 12.3k
    via www.reddit.com/user/Tired0fW8ting
  • 02
    Font - velociravenous +1. 18h 3 Awards You're always afraid to use your nice things because you might ruin them and then you never get to really enjoy what you do have. Meramec Jet 17h ● ... Reply 5.8k Everytime I friggin buy something, I just feel like I dont deserve anything nice because it's just gonna break on me anyways. ... 619
    via www.reddit.com/user/velociravenous, www.reddit.com/user/MeramecJet
  • 03
    Font - Saria Hannibal • 17h Disproportionately wasting a ton of time to save up a few dollars. It's going to cost $2 less if I go to this grocery store, even though it will take 30 minutes longer to walk there? Sign me up. ... Reply 599
    via www.reddit.com/user/SariaHannibal
  • 04
    Font - saltychica +2 17h ● 1 Award Food hoarding. All the people I know who grew up poor have too much food expiring in their pantries, myself included. trainofwhat ... +2.16h Reply 2.6k Even if I don't eat it, my emotional state actually drastically improves when I have a full pantry. 4772 ↓ ...
    via www.reddit.com/user/saltychica, www.reddit.com/user/trainofwhat
  • 05
    Font - +3• 18h paypermon Saving a milk jug to mix powdered milk in. My brother wouldn't eat syrup unless it was Mrs Butterworth so mom would refill a glass Butterworth with generic syrup fooled him for about 20 years. Reply 902
    via www.reddit.com/user/paypermon
  • 06
    Font - MegaManSE 18h Never eating out and saving all leftovers. Always having peanut butter and bread and pasta just in case. Constantly being scared of losing your money/being overly frugal about everything Excessive couponing Being scared to invest because you could lose money Not having traveled anywhere Reply 1.3k
    via www.reddit.com/user/MegaManSE
  • 07
    Font - carlwheezerspants +1. 17h 1 Award Having no control over my spending habits because now that I have money I want to buy everything I couldn't as a kid. Also apparently hot dogs in Mac and cheese being one of my staple meals ... Reply 1.2k
    via www.reddit.com/carlwheezerpants
  • 08
    Font - Great-Local-2607 +3• 18h Elementary school teacher told each of us to bring in a bar of soap for some carving art project. Me: Mom, I need a bar of soap for school tomorrow! Mom: For what?! Me: Art project in Ms. Davis's class. Mom: Does she not know how expensive a bar of soap is? NO. Take the zero! ... Reply 858
    via www.reddit.com/user/Great-Local-2607
  • 09
    Font - whitedark40 • 18h Another soap related one i do. If i cant get the last of the shampoo/dish soap out i put in a little water and mix it around to get the edge soap. Reply 41.3k
    via www.reddit.com/user/whitedark40
  • 10
    Font - papaco22 +1. 17h 5 Awards My mother in law was a bank account manager, so my girlfriend didn't struggle at all while growing up, and sometimes she asks me stuff I don't know how to answer. She told me about birthday parties she had in nice places, and asked me if I had the same. My "parties" were my mom baking a cake and cooking something for the family. She told me her bedroom was such color, and asked about mine. I lived in a 1 bedroom house, where all of us slept. I slept in a crib unt
    via www.reddit.com/user/papaco22
  • 11
    Font - UrMomsKryptonite . 17h Never, ever, ever, ever turn down free food. ... Reply 322
    via www.reddit.com/user/UrMomsKryptonite
  • 12
    Font - Real_Railz ● 17h You look for off brand everything ... Reply 473 Saywitchbitch I was bullied as a kid because my Payless "Adidas" had four stripes. Called me "four stripe." Very creative lol. 144 ↓ 14h ...
    via www.reddit.com/user/Real_Railz, www.reddit.com/user/Saywitchbitch
  • 13
    Font - ohitsanightmare +1. 17h Genuinely thanking someone about any type of food you are being given. My friends parents pointed it out to me when we got older, they always made sure my brother and I were well fed and looked after with them
    via www.reddit.com/user/ohitsanightmare
  • 14
    Font - Technical Contact836 +2. 17h Saving the extra things for eating out. Condiment packets, napkins, unused plastic silverware all go into the drawer. Reply 893
    via www.reddit.com/user/Technical_Contact836
  • 15
    Font - Goodlife1988 +1. 17h Still packing food (bread, deli meat, chips) for road trips. My husband and I can afford to eat out every meal, but when we do a road trip, I still pack "cooler" food for lunches, instead of eating out. Btw, packing hack for homemade cookies. Make them small enough to fit in a cleaned out Pringles can. They stay fresh and don't break. Reply 1.2k ...
    via www.reddit.com/user/Goodlife1988
  • 16
    Smile - paypermon +3• 18h Collecting pop/soda cans from random places even pulling them out of the trash because 10cents man 292 ... Reply
    via www.reddit.com/user/paypermon
  • 17
    Font - Alman54 18h ● I never knew the soap thing meant growing up poor. I'm 52 and STILL stick the previous soap bar to the new one. What am I going to do, throw away the old soap? I never knew it was an issue. Reply 643
    via www.reddit.com/user/Alman54
  • 18
    Font - King_of_Lunch223 17h Never showing teeth when smiling. I grew up dirt poor and never received dental care until I was well into my twenties. I'm now forty, only recently (after many dental procedures) have I began to feel comfortable showing my teeth. Reply 382 ...
    via www.reddit.com/user/King_of_Lunch223
  • 19
    Rectangle - veotrade 18h ● S 1 Award Anyone else eat rice with soy sauce as a full meal by itself? Reply 819
    via www.reddit.com/user/veotrade
  • 20
    Font - one_oh_1 18h 3 Awards I thought everyone ate breakfast cereal with a fork, so they could pass the bowl of milk to the next person. I was wrong. ... Reply 1.1k
    via www.reddit.com/user/one_oh_1
  • 21
    Font - averagehumansperson. 18h 2 Awards I have so many poverty flags flying that you could probably mistake me for a circus from a distance. Reply 707
    via www.reddit.com/user/averagehumanperson
  • 22
    Font - Thumbs Up2323 +2. 17h Always ordering the cheapest thing on the menu, even if you could now literally afford to buy the whole restaurant. kelshy371 +1 17h ... Reply 342 This. My family rarely ate out, but my friends' families sometimes invited me- and I always ordered the cheapest thing on the menu because I felt guilty they were buying me food. 149
    via www.reddit.com/user/Thumbsup2323, www.reddit.com/user/kelshy371
  • 23
    Product - FaerieQueeneeee After dinner was over, my grandfather used to fry up gristle and fat that was cut off everyone's meat and eat it smothered in ketchup +2 18h ... rediKELous +1 17h ● Reply 313 I've been poor, but never frying gristle poor. ... 309
    via www.reddit.com/user/FaerieQueeneeee, www.reddit.com/user/rediKELous
  • 24
    Vertebrate - MAHOT efxmatt +1 • 18h When you now make a decent living but still get nostalgic comfort from eating Totino's Party Pizzas. Reply 537
    via www.reddit.com/user/efxmatt
  • 25
    Rectangle - Visual-Key-2037 18h Saving my butter bowls for Tupperware use later. Reply 287 ↓ ...
    via www.reddit.com/user/Visual-Key-2037

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