Anonymous wrote:i was a poor immigrant growing up.
Anonymous wrote:Do you shop at WalMart? No. Salvation Army.
Do you eat fast food all the time? No.
How big is your home? 2BR apartment
What do you DO on weekends? play with friends, visit family members, museums
Where do you go on vacations? didn't go on a lot of vacations, but went to the Pacific NW once
Do you have very few clothes? Shoes? not a lot
If you're too poor to go out, what do you do to get together with friends? hung out, went to the movies
Do you have any friends who are well off? yes, had a scholarship to a private school
What do you do for fun? now? hang out with family, workout.
What do you think is the qualifier that makes a person poor? my parents worried a lot about paying bills.
Do your kids know you're poor? yes, i knew when i was growing up.
What do they do after school? sports, hang out with friends.
Do they get teased in school? i did. as i got older, it got better.
I always watch movies about really poor people and this whole lifestyle just fascinates me.
as someone pointed out, it's not a "lifestyle." i didn't choose it. it was what it was. i don't consider myself poor now and looking back, yes, we were "poor" financially. but i never really wanted for anything, i was fed, housed, clothed and LOVED. maybe it wasn't always the right pair of shoes, but who cares now?
I have the same experience as the poster above. I never thought I was poor, but I do remember loving the "grunge" phase, where shopping at thrift shops was cool. During that phase, I had more clothes than ever because I could buy so much more than shopping with friends at the mall. It really is the way my parents raised me, because yeah, sometimes it sucked that I didn't spend any money when out with friends, but I was still able to enjoy being out (i.e. was not embarrassed, or maybe too naive to know the difference between who was spending what). As for the fast food question, no, we didn't eat fast food all the time. We hardly ate any fast food, as eating cooked meals from home was cheaper. We never bought bottled water / soda... always waited to get home and drink water. i also agree with the other poster who said that with money now, time and money is spent on good food and new experiences.
I was just as happy growing up as I am now (with a lot more money). I think in my situation growing up, it wasn't necessarily that we were really poor, but the fact that my parents were good at managing what little money they had. And I say this because they do have some retirement money. Not enough, but nonetheless, they tried to save.
This post sounds offensive, but I see where OP is coming from. I think that's why people pay to visit the slums in foreign countries when they are on vacation.