Did you grow up poor?

[Crich73]

I didn't. We had a big house, ok cars, and knew we had money. However, my dad and mom grew up dirt poor and it was thru my dads hard work that we had as a family.

That carried over in how we lived, or rather how we spent. Dad was a blue collar guy, worked at a metal yard as a crain operator. He had a great boss who let him work alot, so every day it was 7-5:30, and Saturday was a half day, 8-4. When I was 9ish about once every three weeks we would head over to the swap meet to sell shit he accumulated from work, stuff that was tossed out. We would pack up the night before, get up at 4:30 and off we went, but not before we stopped to grab a coffee and donut. That shit was brutal for a 10 year old. We get home around 5ish and I'd pass out.

After my mom passed in 2015 I was his sidekick. We would go and work on their house, and by we i mean he would sit in the garage drinking coffee while reading the paper while i was tearing down wallpaper, painting, cleaning, moving shit. While i was cleaning their room i found a old paystub from his work, in 1980 my dad was making $3.25 an hour.

When he passed early that next year he left me and my brother, sister and her kids nine houses to split between us.

While I can at times spend like I hate money, I also can live off of $500 a month, not counting the mortgage. I owe my dad alot. Not just from what he left me, but from what he taught me through example.

 

[9Mounties07]

I didn't. We had a big house, ok cars, and knew we had money. However, my dad and mom grew up dirt poor and it was thru my dads hard work that we had as a family.

That carried over in how we lived, or rather how we spent. Dad was a blue collar guy, worked at a metal yard as a crain operator. He had a great boss who let him work alot, so every day it was 7-5:30, and Saturday was a half day, 8-4. When I was 9ish about once every three weeks we would head over to the swap meet to sell shit he accumulated from work, stuff that was tossed out. We would pack up the night before, get up at 4:30 and off we went. Not before we stopped to grab a coffee and donut. That shit was brutal for a 10 year old. We get home around 5ish and I'd pass out.

After my mom passed in 2015 I was his sidekick. We would go and work on their house, and by we i mean he would sit in the garage drinking coffee while reading the paper while i was tearing down wallpaper, painting, cleaning, moving shit. While i was cleaning their room i found a old paystub from his work, 1980 my dad was making $3.25 an hour.

When he passed early that next year he left me and my brother, sister and her kids nine houses to split between us.

While I can at times spend like I hate money, I also can live off of $500 a month, not counting the mortgage. I owe my dad alot. Not just from what he left me, but from what he taught me through example.

Good story

 

[scanodd]

Yes, grew up on military bases until I was 18.

 

[tiderollsonu]

Grew up in a 2 BR apartment with my mom and older sister..... Try sharing a bedroom with an older sister by 5 years.... Now I make a 6 figure income and my daughter has never gone without. Sister runs a pharmacy at a hospital so she is doing okay for herself too.

 

[Edgehollow]

My dad took over the family business, but lost it in 1988 to a fire (underinsured). Dad didn't come from a rich family, but they lived comfortably. We had a nice house, but he shacked up with the bitch from hell grades 6-9. After they split, he lived in a 3br trailer on the property the business was on until he got a job in Eastern KY. He is still there today, has a nice 10 acre mini farm. He's hoping to sell out this spring and move to Florida.

My mom, after they divorced, married into a poor family, and still lives hand to mouth. They have a little 2br single-wide on 9 acres that I'm fairly certain illegally dumps their septic because she never had a septic tank put in. My step dad is on disability (beetus), and mom retired from Caesars casino in Indiana (she was a switchboard operator, but I tell everyone she stripped). I haven't talked to Mom in probably 7+ years. Last time I drove by their place, the grass was so high you could barely see the cars.

Mom's place now is a mansion compared to where we lived the year I lived with her (freshman year of HS). We had that same singlewide sitting in the middle of a 2 acre patch of woods that was gifted to them by the farmer my stepdad "worked" for. He mainly just tended cattle. The singlewide had no water, no sewer, no electricity. For entertainment, they had a 6" battery powered television hooked up to the old Chevy truck.

For all the teasing I took from the kids for living like bums they year I lived with Mom, I know that if the shit hits the fan and I lose everything...I can live with nothing. I won't like it, but I can do it because I've done it.

 

[ChicagoFats]

My dad took over the family business, but lost it in 1988 to a fire (underinsured). Dad didn't come from a rich family, but they lived comfortably. We had a nice house, but he shacked up with the bitch from hell grades 6-9. After they split, he lived in a 3br trailer on the property the business was on until he got a job in Eastern KY. He is still there today, has a nice 10 acre mini farm. He's hoping to sell out this spring and move to Florida.

My mom, after they divorced, married into a poor family, and still lives hand to mouth. They have a little 2br single-wide on 9 acres that I'm fairly certain illegally dumps their septic because she never had a septic tank put in. My step dad is on disability (beetus), and mom retired from Caesars casino in Indiana (she was a switchboard operator, but I tell everyone she stripped). I haven't talked to Mom in probably 7+ years. Last time I drove by their place, the grass was so high you could barely see the cars.

Mom's place now is a mansion compared to where we lived the year I lived with her (freshman year of HS). We had that same singlewide sitting in the middle of a 2 acre patch of woods that was gifted to them by the farmer my stepdad "worked" for. He mainly just tended cattle. The singlewide had no water, no sewer, no electricity. For entertainment, they had a 6" battery powered television hooked up to the old Chevy truck.

For all the teasing I took from the kids for living like bums they year I lived with Mom, I know that if the shit hits the fan and I lose everything...I can live with nothing. I won't like it, but I can do it because I've done it.

Damn man that seems pretty rough. Sounds like you have persevered through some tough times though. You should pat yourself on the back.

 

[BurtReynoldsMustache]

Stepdad ended up making some serious money once I hit late middle school years, but we were broke as fuck for a while before that. I remember getting peanuts in my stocking for Christmas . Funny thing is, the family vacations we took in those years were the ones I have the fondest memories of.

 

[Edgehollow]

Damn man that seems pretty rough. Sounds like you have persevered through some tough times though. You should pat yourself on the back.

When you're a kid, you don't know that it's as bad as it is. Hell, that was some of the best times of my life. I worked in hay/cutting wood/tobacco and was about in the best shape of my life. Had some friends that lived nearby that I pretty much hung out there all the time.

 

[Renegadenole]

My dad grew up dirt poor with 9 siblings on a dirt floor shack back in the 40's and early 50's. The old shack was still there on family ground up until I was in high school (80's). My mom and dad married when he was 17 and she was 15 and went on to have five kids. I'm the youngest. He went to work for Publix in the 70's and did well for himself. We weren't rich but we didn't need for anything. Dad was very frugal and retired at 55 with all the Publix stock he bought (my brother did the same at 58 with 40 years working for Publix).

My dad and all his siblings went on to do well for themselves. It's crazy how we baby kids these days.

 

[Jtrain80]

I wasn't poor growing up.

I got married and had children before 21. Then I was actually poverty level lower class.

 

[Oskie918]

We farmed around 5k acres of wheat and soybeans in the 70’s-90’s. My dad said he could have walked away from the farm with around $2million in 1980. We were completely broke by 1984 after the farm crisis of the 80’s. We went from living very comfortably to having absolutely nothing. We’re Cherokee, so dad went and got a bunch of commodity groceries from the tribe, and we lived on those for a couple years. Luckily, my dad is one of those types that somehow always ends up successful. The Federal Land Bank had foreclosed on us, so we had an auction to liquidate all assets. At said auction, an FHA representative walked up to dad and said “we know you’re a good farmer, and we think this recession is going to be short lived. We’ll 100% finance your operation going forward, if you’re interested”, so dad bid on his own place and bought it back. He never looked back from there. He sold the farm in ‘95 for a million dollars, built a nice home on the lake and retired. He did get bored in retirement and started a Right of Way clearing business in ‘98, but re-retired last year at 80 years old. He’s an extremely private person, but he slipped up and told me awhile back that he has around $2million in CD’s now, a few IRA’s that he didn’t specify, and I know he has a fat stack of cash hidden somewhere (he’s a conspiracy theorist as well). So allllll that said, my life from birth to 18 was a financial roller coaster. We worked our asses off on that farm and it taught me many valuable lessons, so I’m thankful for every minute of that ride.

 

[yankmenoodle]

I grew up in a 700 square foot house. I've never lacked for anything. Every time we'd have chicken, when we threw the bones down, dad would eat what little meat was left on them and say, "Y'all have never been hungry." When we had fish, his fish bones looked like fossils. You couldn't find a speck of meat on them. He grew up on a farm. His dad died when he was thirteen, so he struggled.

 

[BigBucnNole]

My entire family stayed close by each other and was kind of communal during my childhood. My aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins all lived down the street from me and all of the grandchildren going to the same schools.

My dad had his own private plane, helicopter, boat, and fast cars. We lived in a modest 7,000 sqft home with a tennis court, pool, shuffle board, guest house, and greenhouse. My grandparents had another similar size home on the golf course plus a giant 10k sqft home in the keys over looking the southern tip of Florida. They had a plane and a pilot, a 80ft yacht, and a third home in Highlands NC. We spent a lot of my youth on the holidays travelling between those three places. My fondest memory was my 8th grade graduation gift of a two week trip to Europe.

Would also take girls on spring break to the Keys, it was a great way to grow up.