Really good writing on being poor

[likethebeer]

It's from Cracked.com, and explains things in a v. good way:
The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor.

Read it, but I'll give you the run down of the habits:
#5. You Develop a Taste for Shitty Food
#4. Extra Money Has to Be Spent Right Goddamn Now!
#3. You Want to Go Overboard on Gift-Giving
#2. You Become an Obsessive Bean-Counter
#1. You Only Spend with the Short Term in Mind

Comments

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting. It's well-known that you have to have money to make money, but that's all mechanical. Interest, extra money to invest, being able to afford the kind of things that last longer, etc. But this adds a psychological component.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

It explained some things in a simple way that made sense to me. In part the thing about not buying things when you need them (I still do the math - "that's 2 for $5, but this here is $3 so I'll spend the $3); and I've gone overboard, too, and have seen others do it.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Oh - and I totally feel the same way about clothes.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Cyn and I have this conversation, in the grocery store. It's always the same.

"But this big one costs a lot more."
"They'll keep."

It's usually the econo-pack of sandwich baggies or something. I've always bought as big as I could get away with. She buys only what she needs for the week. Even stuff with shelf-life, I prefer to have a lot on hand - mostly for variety's sake.

I agree that the article was well-written. Both insightful and humorous.

[kitchenwitch.livejournal.com]

I read that awhile ago and I didn't like it. Mostly because some of those things are either shared with a whole lot of other people (a taste for shitty food? Most of America, poor or not, loves shitty food; it has all the crap our bodies crave and love... and, y'know, some poor people develop a taste for from-scratch food because that is actually cheaper and what we grew up on) or not necessarily a dumb habit to have (obsessive bean-counting). I was a bit annoyed at the suggestion that if someone's smart, they'll save their tax return money and not spend it frivolously, but waiting for tax time to buy something instead of, say, using a credit card sounds like a decent idea to me.

I dunno. I think plenty of the habits you pick up might have more to do with your lifestyle and where you live. I grew up in a time/place where if you had gadgets (like a phone in your room) and jeans with a "label", you were a "rich" kid. We went to McDonald's every two weeks on *payday* because that was a special treat for us. It's just so, so different from what "poor" is now, it seems.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

They guy seemed to me like he was talking from experience so the crappy food thing as he said was due to canned & frozen food. And the obsessive bean counting I know - like you know where every.single.cent is in your entire life. It's just a stress that's a headache to walk around with. And your idea on the tax return sounds good but I took that to mean that this is true once you get out of the whole - you can't conceive of actually having money in the bank for anything other than bills so spend, spend, spend.

It's crazy to me that I can look back on living like that (and I'm always worried that I'll go right back to it in a second). I can remember my parents giving me money for xmas and knowing that I'd spend maybe 10% of it on something "nice" (like a CD) and the rest on bills, then it would be gone and I'd be just as broke as before I started.