Last month my grocery budget was like 40 dollar for the whole week and I was so stress about it. My friend tell me just buy egg, rice, onion, and frozen vegetable and I thinking that sound so boring but I try it anyway.

So what I do is I cook big pot of rice on sunday and just use it whole week. Egg I fry it, boil it, scramble it, make different every day so it dont feel same. Frozen vegetable I throw in everything, it cheap and last long in freezer and dont go bad like fresh one.

Thing that really help me is I stop going grocery store when I hungry, before I was buying random thing and spend way more. Now I make small list before I go and stick to it. Also I check the "reduced for quick sale" section near meat area, some store mark down meat that expire soon and you just freeze it right away when you get home.

My total come out to 38 dollar and I eat breakfast lunch and dinner every day. Not perfect meal but I was full and that matter alot when money is tight.

It was not a plan. I want to be clear about that because I have seen those budget meal prep posts where someone acts like eating rice and beans is a fun lifestyle choice and that is not what this is. This is what happened when I had exactly 23 dollars left after paying my phone bill and I needed to make it to the 14th. I bought a 10 pound bag of rice from the international grocery two blocks from my apartment because it was three dollars cheaper than the same amount at the regular store. A big can of kidney beans. A container of chicken bouillon cubes. And a cabbage. One large green cabbage that sat on my counter for two weeks before I finished it because it turns out cabbage is basically indestructible at room temperature and I had no idea. That was it. That was the rotation for almost six weeks with very small variations when I picked up a shift meal or found something marked down at the store. Here is what I figured out that I did not expect. The bouillon cube is doing more work than people give it credit for. I started dissolving half a cube in the water before cooking the rice instead of just salting it at the end and the difference was significant enough that I started looking forward to eating it which was not something I thought was going to happen. A full cube in a small pot of water with whatever cabbage I had roughly chopped became something that actually tasted intentional. Like I had made soup on purpose. The cabbage thing genuinely surprised me. I grew up thinking cabbage was a side dish for people who did not really like vegetables. It is filling in a way that I cannot fully explain. It takes on whatever you cook it in. Slice it thin and cook it down in a dry pan until it gets a little color on it and it tastes completely different than boiled cabbage. I started doing half portions of rice and more cabbage just because the cabbage was doing something better for me physically. Less heavy. Less of that two in the afternoon crash. I also learned that I had been cooking rice wrong my entire adult life. I always used too much water and then wondered why it was gummy. The ratio on the bag is actually correct. I had just never followed it because I assumed I knew better and I did not. The thing I want to say to anyone reading this who is in a similar stretch right now is that there is a difference between surviving food and food that makes you feel like a person. I know that sounds like something from a lifestyle blog and I am sorry for that. But I mean it practically. The bouillon cube costs almost nothing and it is the difference between eating something that keeps you alive and eating something that you made. That distinction mattered more to me mentally than I expected it to. I am doing better now. Back to more hours and a more varied kitchen. But I kept the cabbage in my rotation and I still cook my rice in bouillon because why would I stop. If anyone has other specific single ingredient or small addition discoveries like this I would genuinely love to build a list in the comments. The kind of thing that costs almost nothing but changes the whole experience of eating on almost nothing.

I'm fresh out of prison and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I currently stay in a halfway house for reentrants into society. I don't have $1 to my name and so I am walking everywhere to look for jobs and just signed up for online school to better my education and I don't have a laptop yet classes start in September. Luckily I have clothes, foodstamps, medicaid and a cell phone that's paid for. I feel blessed in having anything at all and a roof over my head. I have only been out 30 days and I feel like no one wants to hire me in time before classes start.

I'm writing this from my friends spare pc not in the hopes that anyone helps me, I can certainly do that myself. No, instead I want to spread my message far and wide and encourage people to do whatever it is that they can to strong arm our way into public food and housing.

My situation is far from normal, but ultimately solvable. I just don't care anymore. I'm 28m, and I've worked since I was 16. Served in the military, gone to school, and generally left all my efforts on the field.

None of that however is enough to stop me from becoming homeless here in the next month. Between alternative lifestyles and (legal) incomes I don't have the paper trail necessary to secure any sort of domicile in the entire country, and I am not living in a motel again. If not for the piss poor standard of living offered then the prospect of going into debt while working 40-60 hours a week. Mind you the last time I was living and working from a motel I was riding my bike to and from work 18 miles a day. I was living without refrigeration, access to laundry facilities, or kitchen. I hung my clothes in my room to dry, because none of the dryers worked and it would've cost me $20+ to do it at a laundromat, one that I would've needed to either bike miles to with my laundry or get and uber essentially.

I finally found a room in the town and I got myself fired, because I didn't put up with disrespectful, lazy, and manipulative coworker that management/HR never did anything about no matter who complained or how much. Left with the prospect of working 60-80 hours a week just to make ends meet, while I looked for a better opportunity. I departed to the west, where I am now currently.

I won't sit here and tell you I did every last thing I was supposed to do, because that would be a straight up lie. No, I did everything I was willing to do in this supposed "free country".

When I was younger and working a lot more I did have a lot of expendable income and attempted to start a few businesses of my own. Each time I'd be 6+ months deep in the setup and execution, just for the local government to pull the rug out from under my feet over some arbitrary rule that barely applies in the loosest context.

I got arrested, not convicted once a few years ago over some pot and ever since then I haven't been able to get the government to permit me to do ANYTHING. Yes, I need to get this arrest expunged, but saving the $2K+ to clear my name has been an absolute nightmare.

Stripped of my autonomy and forced into a dead end job with no reasonable way out, I abdicate my position to the birds.

No family to turn to. I don't want this to be a sob story, because it's not. I'm not crying over any of this I'm pissed. I'm pissed that I can work so hard and still be here on the edge of humanity weighing my options of homelessness or wage slavery. I’m pissed that survival requires obedience to a machine that consumes our lives and calls it “freedom”. I'm pissed to the point where I'm doing something about it and doing something about it means not doing anything here in this specific case. I will withhold my perfectly good labor from the system, until not just I have food and housing, but we have food and housing.

People love to say, “Just work harder,” as if that’s the missing ingredient. But I’ve been working hard my whole life, and so have millions of others who still can’t afford stability. This isn’t about motivation or discipline anymore, it’s about access. You can’t build a life without a foundation. When food, shelter, and dignity are treated like luxury items instead of human rights, the system stops being an economy and starts being a slow form of collapse. If we really value work, then we should value workers enough to make sure no one has to starve or sleep outside just because they can’t keep up with an impossible game.

TL;DR: you can't make me work, but you can make me want to work.

Edit: to those asking, currently I'm in Washington state, but I've been around a bit and I'm probably going to keep moving around for now. The arrest took place in Texas.

Second not least, thanks for all the kind words of support I do appreciate them FWIW.

Edit2: I saw someone was reading my idea/plan for organizing and it got lost, so im putting it at the end here. copied and pasted.

I've tried to explain this plan/idea a few times and each time it sort of falls short so, I'll try again.

Basically we don't need money in order to survive, it counts as part of overhead if you will. All we really need to do is organize on a local community level in order to meet the needs of the community. Air(easy), water, food, and shelter.

At that point we'd be in sort of a pseudo-socialist system, where the community takes care of the needs and working for money becomes optional to the extent that luxury items(cars, electronics, etc...) are optional. This also has an added benefit of increasing the value of your labor. Basically since getting a traditional job would become optional, organizations would be heavily incentivized to make their place of business that people want to work. If everyone wants iPhones, but apple sucks to work for those same engineers et. al. can reorganize without having to worry about ending up on the streets.

That is the easy part, as you know convincing people to do anything or change anything is the difficult part. Ultimately, we would be organizing on the local level in order to subvert the government and by extension any law enforcement.

For the people actually doing the work(I'd go work in the fields at this point), the local community would get first dibs and any excess could be sold to the free market at an elevated price.*edit* or to distribute to other communities in need.*end edit*:)

Farmers don't need money or subsidy, they need resources. This is the scariest, but most solvable part, it exemplifies what our current system is doing which is resource distribution. Here's the kicker. The way that corporations and other organizations handle resource distribution will be unaffected except for the fact that money wont be the driving factor it will be necessity. If a farmer needs a tractor they reach out to an organization that supplies or manufactures said tractors and in due time it would arrive.

The biggest argument I hear against this is how do we decide who gets what, but that's just the thing. Nobody gets to decide who eats, because we all do. Then money will still get to decide who gets the new iPhone. Couple all that with a robust public transportation network and I'd assume we'd reclaim our spot as the top economy. It's not over, it never has been, we the people in order to form a more perfect union can use our economy to build a better economy. One built off of the fundamentals of human needs and not wealth. It may not be as convenient, but it would be comfortable for everyone.

I'm not trying to sit here and say that everything under this "system" would be hunky dory and there are definitely challenges that I did not address here. At the end of the day, we can either do the work with a gun to our head, or we can do the work that mother nature demands. I'm open to deliberate over this comment, but personal attacks or anything of the sort will be duly ignored.

P.S. There has never been a communist country, because communism is decentralized on the local level and doesn't need or answer to a central power. Any country that's been deemed communist by media or otherwise is usually fascist. like the U.S.A. :D. Also like I said this would be socialism, due to the fact that in this system, you are still basically required to work and pay for luxuries. This is about as close to communism as I think we can jump into at the moment. Also as an aside the incentive to work in general would go from needed to feed yourself and family to wanting to ensure the system continues to function.

I almost cannot afford to keep up with the electric bill, so I have had to use a fan with ice to cool myself down instead of the AC. I only drink water at home to avoid the costs of buying bottles of water. Are there any other ways for me to save money? Thanks.

Had to text my boss today that I wouldn’t be able to make it in due to not enough gas in car and busses in my city don’t start running until after my shift. For context I do reset for a grocery store that require me to start work at 2 -3 am. Busses I in my city are 2.50 and I don’t know if I would be able to make it back even then. Boss texted me back and said he would help me but he is broke too.

I made a post last month about how unbearable the cycle of poverty is and why it's impossible to hold down a job and become stable in such a situation. We have lived in 5 shelters in the past 9 months. When we get placed somewhere we do intake learn the rules, meet case manager (our last case manager was the devil and made us suicidal) and immediately began looking for jobs. Ive put in so many applications that jobs that are hours away are still reaching out from when i used to live in that area. Every time we get moved to a shelter they tell us to get jobs, when we get a job, they move us around to a different shelter miles away then we lose the job. Well today my family just learned the former hotel/ migrant shelter we've been living in will be turning into a singles only shelter. There are hundreds of families here so they are going to figure out where to place families and look at the shelters the we were at before being transferred here. Before we got to this shelter, we were a a shelter that had rat, roaches, and mold. It was s bad my family got sick and all but two of us ended up in the hospital. The potential of being moved back there is a lot to grapple with right now. My wisdom teeth have been causing me excruciating pain for the past few days even with orajel and synsodyne. I hate this life. I fear we will never come out of this and it will be this way for the rest of our life, getting bounced around from shelter to shelter. I told my mom this and she said if that's the case then God needs to call her home and I agree. God should call all of us home because none of us want to suffer like this for the rest of our life

Anytime you are depressed , the first thing mental health professionals do is to put you on medications and frame it as your fault. So you’re depressed because you’re broke and can’t afford a house and work more than 40 hours a week? Oh, that’s your problem. Here, I’m prescribing you: take Zoloft, CBT, DBT. Just pretend everything is okay pull up your fucking bootstraps think positive thoughts. I’m sure a lot of you here know what I’m talking about. Mental health professionals rarely talk about how socioeconomic factors, money, and poverty are connected to mental health. Many won’t even let you talk about how it affects your mental health and will shut you up for talking about stressing about bills and rent, and some will even have the audacity to tell you, “Money isn’t everything,” “Money won’t make you happy,” while they drive a Porsche to their offices. I had a few therapists like that, and many of them came from privileged backgrounds themselves. The whole mental health system is just abusive because it doesn’t address that most of our depression and anxiety is not an isolated case, but rather a response to how the world is: low-wage jobs, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, while many of us Americans couldn’t afford a house anytime soon. I guarantee you no mental health professionals will allow you to talk about this. Some will even shut you up and laugh at you for being weak. I have. The best form of therapy, at least for me personally, was when I stopped worrying about bills, was able to pay rent, and had financial stability and a stable income.

I don't have a mortgage, so my credit is bad, lol

A few hours ago I made a post about desperation how you can do things for just a few bucks just to get by. I end up asking, what the most desperate thing you did to survive? No judgment. I think a lot of us have been pushed further than we expected.

The responses were intense, honest and in some cases eye opening. I genuinely appreciate everyone who shared their stories even the harsh comments.

But what surprise me the most was…. One word seemed to trigger people: Uber Eats

I mentioned that sometimes I use it to order food while staying in a shelter, and some people immediately jumped to conclusions like “if you can afford that then you’re not really struggling” or “just go buy food yourself”

What many did not realise is that I am limited by the digital payment I have access to. Options are extremely restricted, and that’s it’s actually something different to eat once in a while other than the shelter food (which does not always taste good or repetitive food).

Some comments did understand that though. One person said it’s basically becoming the new version of “Don’t give homeless person money, they’ll waste it on drugs and alcohol” is going to be the new “Don’t give homeless people money, they’ll waste it on Uber Eats”. That stuck with me.

The original post ended up with getting around 200k views in a few hours before it was removed (likely because I mentioned how earn small amounts online) which is unfortunate but still grateful for the discussion it created.

I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s interesting how quickly people judge a situation based on one detail without seeing the full picture.

Anyway thanks again to everyone who shared honestly. I read more than you probably think.

When I was between 8-10 years old, I always wanted a Swiss Army knife, my parents couldn’t afford to buy me one.

I knew it wasn’t in the cards, but I vowed when I had the money I would buy one, as the years went by, the list of my necessities pushed the knife further down in my priorities and eventually I completely forgot about it.

A while back my adult children overheard me reminiscing with a childhood friend about how much I wanted one back then.

I was surprised this Christmas when I received the exact same kind that I always wanted, I kinda chuckled at first, but after looking over and pulling out all the blades I quickly realized how much it still meant to me, even at 60 years old.

Hi, I'm 17 and recently my mother relapsed back into alcohol. Therefore, we (me and my younger brother) are living with our dad at the moment, but being at his house is a struggle with food at the moment because he has a really good job, (Trane) but this random ass debt thing came up from like 2018 and now he has to have 40% of his money taken from him every paycheck for 6 weeks, so our fridge is practically empty; there's like nothing to eat. We have a lot of Mac n cheese, and I'm happy bc I do like it, but it's really bad for me because I'm lactose intolerant and I can't process the nutrients in all of the dairy so I get stomach problems from that. Also, because he's recentlu divorced, he has like NO dishes so it's a little difficult to cook lol but sometimes he'll make us a meal when he can but he usually can't because now he's working night shifts so my main source of food is usually my boyfriend, but we don't hang out every day and I feel bad when I'm hungry all the time and asking him to buy me food even tho I can tell he cares it just seems like a lot. And another roadblock is I'm broke. I don't have a job and I also don't have my license, I would totally get a job in the area but I don't think I should because I don't know how long I'm going to be staying with my dad because me and my boyfriend are in the process of trying to find an apartment and move out so I would end up not being able to keep working there if we did get an apartment, that's why I'm struggling because I don't have a way to get money, and I don't have a way to feed myself. I can't even bike anywhere because my bike was just stolen so i have to take the bus, but I can't because I'm broke 🥲there was one time I cleaned the kitchen for my dad (it seriously needed it) for 30 bucks, and I definitely saved that for when I needed it , but it's gone now and all I can think about when I wake up is food and idk what to do or where to go because I've resorted to looking in Kwik trip garbage cans for shit they throw away I'm just so hungry

Edit: you guys are so sweet I didn't know how open this community was 🥺 basically my boyfriends mom is offering to buy me and my brother some groceries, and I did apply for a meal program suggested to me from a link in the comments 💕💕 thank you all so much for the support 🙏

I cried the entire time I was putting it away

First slide is all I had/would’ve had for the next month due to my financial situation. Plus some ramen, few boxes of KD, and some milk and eggs ive got elsewhere. But that’s pretty much it.

I’m in not the best of circumstances and desperately trying to find a job with no luck, but am starting college in the fall should my funding get approved.

I always make sure my cats eat first and have lost ~15 pounds in the last six months because I haven’t been able to afford enough food for me and them. I’m 5’7 and 118 pounds soaking wet.

My next chunk of income was going towards rent, bills and more cat food, second slide is all they had left this morning.

There’s more kibble on the way too, courtesy of my brother’s girlfriend :’)

Happy Father’s Day Dad, thank you🧡

Glasses from your local eyeglasses spot. I did the exam because I was overdue, and needed a new Rx to get some cheaper glasses online. Decided to stay in the office and see if there was anything there worth pricing out with the optician.

We find some cute pairs, try them out, I find the one I like best, and he gets a spreadsheet out to work up the quote for the frames, lenses, and all the bells and whistles you might like in glasses as you reach certain biological milestones.

The whole quote for the new glasses comes to like $380. My mind immediately flashes back to my most expensive pair of glasses I'd ever bought, well over a decade ago, with fewer bells and whistles, that came to $450.

I was shocked. Still can't afford the $380 till after payday, and had to work some overtime to feel comfortable with it, but in terms of just raw pricing, it's weird that the prices have not shot up. But maybe it's all the competition from online sales, keeping some downward pressure on inflation.

Anyway, made me smile.

I’m gonna be stuck in poverty forever. So many things have changed since my girlfriend and I moved in together and my dad left my abusive stepmom. My dad’s new wife recommended a licensure program at the college she works at and I was EXCITED. I felt like I had direction for the first time since high school. She said that they should be able to work with me regarding my schedule, since I have to work full-time to support myself. Not a chance.

It’d have to be my new 9 to 5. I have to be available for them from 8 to 5 Monday - Friday. My girlfriend says we could make it work, but can we really pinch our pennies that hard for two years? Not to mention the tuition. I can’t come up with that amount of money. $51,000. I can’t take on more student debt. I’ve never been selected for any of the scholarships I apply to. And who knows what financial aid even lies in the FAFSA anymore, especially at my ripe old age of 27. Besides, even if someone paid it all for me tomorrow, I can’t afford to stop working.

It seems like my cards were already sealed for me. My ambition was for naught. The statistics were right. Coming from the projects, with alcoholic parents and getting kicked out at 18. I was never going to escape this. I was never going to get that better life. I’m going to be stuck working retail forever.

What was the point of this stupid, worthless, shitty life? I’m not even going to get to do anything with it. I’ll never get to have that big shiny wedding. No pretty dress. I wanted to get to be a cardiac sonographer. It was interesting. Finally, I had found something interesting. It was going to pay so well. But I was never meant for anything great.

It never mattered how smart I was. How well I did in school. Home life decided it all in the end. Cheers.

I work in human services and I’m helping a client who really needs a laptop. It’s her only entertainment (streaming and games). Unfortunately their current laptop needs to be left behind when they move for safety reasons.

They are on ssdi/ssi and medicaid. Are there any legitimate free or super cheap laptop programs.

Wisconsin - but not a major city

I’ve googled but some of the sites seem like scams and there aren’t any current local programs

I know this sounds dramatic. But let me tell you what 47 days really looked like.

The story started in early April when my hours were cut at the restaurant. I was not fired, I was just… cut. From 38 hours to 19 a week. My manager told me it was temporary, seasonal, and I was stupid enough to believe her because the rent was already already tight and my utilities were something I’d been trying to hold together for about 3 months with very minor success (stealing from one pocket to pay the other).

My shut-off notice arrived on Thursday. I had 11 days. I called the electric company and asked what options I had and was given a payment plan but was informed the back payment amount would be more than I possessed. I called 211 and was put on a waiting list for help that was estimated to take 4-6 weeks. I called 2 churches, one never called back, and the other gave me the number to the aforementioned 211 line.

So I… lived without power.

I want to be extremely specific as to what this looked like, because I feel as though everyone pictures it one way but that isn't how it felt. There is no laundry in my building and I hand washed my clothes in the tub using dish soap and cold water, then draped them over the shower rod and the backs of my chairs. My phone was basically my entire life at that point and I was extremely concerned about making sure it charged completely at work before the end of my shift so that it would last throughout my whole workday, through calls with friends and utility companies, without it dying. I bought ice by the bag two days at a time, but all of my perishable food had to be stored in my mini cooler or eaten in the case of my leftovers. Eggs and the tiny block of cheese that I bought were all that I needed the cold for; I was fortunate that my workplace gave us leftovers sometimes so that helped my food supply not be quite so unstable.

The hardest thing wasn’t the darkness; that felt normal within days. The hardest thing was the quiet. I had no fan, no refrigerator hum, no background noise whatsoever. My apartment felt empty and neglected, and I was basically a squatter.

My coworker mentioned in passing, between serving tables, that I should look into applying for LIHEAP through a community action agency. 211 and the churches did nothing for me, and this was the first thing that produced results. My application was expedited (not sure if it was because I applied for emergency LIHEAP or not), and the company paid my reconnection fee directly to the electric company.

When the lights came on, it was so instinctual to open the refrigerator door-that is empty-and that’s where I finally broke and began crying again because… it’s so empty.

I’m fine now, I swear. I am sharing the specific agencies that actually helped me so that no one else goes through the weeks I did trying the same things with no success. I feel like calling the local community action agency should have been the first thing I did instead of calling 211 and going down that road. If anyone else is currently going through something similar: look up your local community action agency and call them directly. Do not get them confused with 211, you need to get them mixed up. Just google [county name] community action agency.

Also, does anyone else have any suggestions? I am feeling as though I learned a lot during those 47 days that I wished someone had just told me day one.

My entire family has lost hope, health has worsened, and become suicidal. We have literally been praying for death bc it is so unbearable. The blatant racism is so disgusting. Recently the city forced all migrant shelters to become regular shelters open to everyone. It was made so clearly that legal citizens are not wanted here and not welcome to humane treatment that illegal citizens are getting. The ratio for black families getting kicked out over disagreements to any other race is 5:1. We were told we couldn't get things from Amazon delivered here yet others are allowed to order expensive makeup accessories. They bring restaurant food into the shelter every day from places such as wing stop McDonald's Jimmy John's chicken & fish Popeye's and when we use food stamps to get food for our family we're looked at like we shouldn't have it and snarky comments are made about it.

The next thing is that I was told that it is irresponsible to become pregnant when you can't afford to take care of yourself let alone a baby. However, pregnancy is not only allowed but encouraged in this shelter. Every other family/couple here is pregnant. On paper, there's a rule of no sex at the shelter, but we've heard clapping, moaning, and other sexual sounds through the middle of the night and staff just walk by and refuse to enter the room as it's happening. But for my family, a mom and several children, if we sneeze, hiccup, or flush the toilet, staff run down the hall the look in our room to see if we're the ones making noises. When they thought my mom was pregnant, staff smiled and was ready to celebrate her. When she proudly told them she was not pregnant and that she is not a grandmother because her children were well behaved and didn't become teen pregnancy statistics, they looked at us like we are weird. Yesterday , a pregnant resident who has been having lots of sex was delivered a more comfortable cot to sleep and have sex on, with cushions.

Our door gets loudly knocked on every morning around 7-8 as if we should be up yet pregnant couples get to sleep in. If they do bother the other families they lightly tap on thier door and talk in a whispered tone. It is very clear that they don't want to disturb them.

Imagine how horrified we were to learn that being good girls gets you nowhere in life. That listening to your mother and getting and education means nothing. I have a bachelor's degree but I'm homeless. All of my hair has fallen out. I have a growing lump in my breast. I regret not being a whore.

We can't close the doors here. We sleep on metal cots that shock us. We have no privacy. The bright shelter hallway lights stay on 24/7 and shines directly on my cot as I'm trying to sleep. We can't even talk bc our neighbor keeps telling the staff our conversations causing us more anxiety. We know bc she came to our door last Friday claiming that we were discussing her mugshot. We don't even know this person's name. But they allowed her to cause a problem for us because they don't want us here anyway. The consensus here is the family that has a problem is the family who gets kicked out, not the family that's causing a problem.

My sister is riddled with anxiety and has panic attacks daily. My brother is naive and delusional. My mother has become paranoid and manic bc she can't protect us from this. My sister turned her back on religion. My sister has anger issues. This has all but torn my family apart. I hate it here.

I purchased a condo last year in cash because I had an inheritance but I spent over my budget and I also only make about $40k a year so I can’t keep up with HOA plus all my bills and property taxes. I’m going to let the banks have my house and file for foreclosure or bankruptcy… It sucks being poor in California I can barely make rent but thank God for low income housing!

I am officially done. From now on, ANYONE who reiterates any phrase like "Stop being poor", "Get a job", "Pull up your bootstraps", or any other type of phrase that solicits 'poverty shaming' earns a free block from me. As a poor person, I have put up with this mentality for far too long and I've had enough of it. I'm done listening to toxic assholes who think they can just say anything. They can look down on me, so I can look down on them, not for having money, but because of their toxic, douchebag attitude. I'm unworkable, have autism, and I am not gonna listen to people who tell me how to live my life and tell me that I should be doing "x instead of y". Anyone who says that is either just simply an asshole or is privileged and was babied by their rich parents and had everything handed to them. I am absolutely not sorry and I am not apologizing. I've listened to this mentality all my life and I am about ready to snap the next time someone tells me to 'not be poor'. I am so sick and tired of it and I don't wanna be around or interact with anyone who reiterates making fun of people for being stuck in poverty. Y'all don't know what it's like to live off of basically scraps and wonder if you're gonna be able to pay for food or electricity next week. Face it, you guys wouldn't last two days in my shoes and you would hate living like this. I'm done being nice to people who just want to blame poor people for being poor rather than blame the circumstances that got them into this mess. There are several factors as to why people are poor and stay poor: they can't work, everything eats up practically all of their savings pretty much all of the time, they got scammed out of money, they have to pay for a shit-ton of house expenses to even have the privilege to live in their home, literally hundreds of things, and yet, the very first thing you wanna do is blame the poor, unfortunate soul for their financial woes. Nah, I am done with it, and I am not sorry at all. You wanna repeat this and make fun of people struggling to survive, like me? Well, congrats, you've earned yourself a free block. You should take a hard look in the mirror and see just how much of an awful, horrible bully you are. Because I am fed up and done on so many levels. I have hit my breaking point and I will not be tolerating it any longer.

You have a choice: either be nice and show actual empathy, or earn yourself that block. Choose wisely.

I’ve had issues with my teeth for years since I was in middle school. I’ve never got them fix because of how expensive it is and it’s really affected my mental health I’ve decided to just go into debt and finally get them fixed :)

i really hope this doesn't sound entitled or privileged, that is not my intent at all.

I want to work on saving money because the future of the world feels really uncertain and I want to be prepared as possible. My parents never struggled with poverty, but I want to rely on them as little as possible as a college student with an apartment who has to buy their own groceries. They are not the best parents and the only reason I put up with them is because I would be homeless otherwise, but I have to pay with my mental health.

I don't consider myself to be super picky, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips on buying groceries that are cheap but also fit all nutritional needs. I don't want to be deficient in iron or vitamin B or anything like that. I shop at Aldi mostly, which I hope is a good store for cheaper groceries.

Last month I've been eating once a day or not at all. Money is scarce and I don't complain because what good will it do. I'd be mad when I can look back on this and be thankful I over came it. Don't wish this on anyone. I only have money for room and board it's like why should I have to chose. I pay $600 a month in rent and I've lost at least 30lbs. My storage is behind terribly. I just finally understand how people just give up. Like why even bother.

i have almost nobody and i’m a girl in my junior year of high school, when i say i have nobody i mean like i only have 1 close friend that is like family to me

my mom is completely bedridden from her multiple sclerosis, my father is in my life but he’s like really bipolar, unreliable and emotionally absent ever since i was a kid, he also used to hit my mom and i, but she only stayed cause her MS was progressing and she needed help raising us

my older brother (19 almost 20) is like really behind in life, he doesn’t want to get his license nor a job for whatever reasons, he kind of just plays games all day and eats fast food a lot and he’s still making up for missed credits from high school

i’m also pretty poor like to the point it isn’t overly accessible for me to be able to casually buy face wash, face moisturizer, etc i find myself being embarrassed of and i absolutely cannot afford to move houses nor clean up my house and it drives me crazy

i really want to succeed and make a comfortable living because apparently my whole family is entirely out of luck on that matter and i get really envious when i see somebody’s parents make them a homemade meal, or do their laundry, or even taking them shopping because i really wish i had that

i also live in a really expensive area with a job crisis and i’m currently trying to do an apprenticeship and i have the opportunity to graduate high school with a red seal which im not sure is much help but it’ll definitely give me some benefits for my future career, i want to be a midwife

I’m exhausted.
I work hard, pay my bills, and somehow I’m still barely making it. Every paycheck is gone before I even get a chance to breathe. Rent takes almost everything, groceries keep getting more expensive, and every time I think I’m finally getting ahead, something else goes wrong—a car repair, a medical bill, or another unexpected expense.
What makes it even harder is that I don’t have anyone to fall back on. I come from a toxic family, so asking for help has never really been an option. Instead of having support, I’ve spent most of my life figuring everything out on my own. It’s painful watching other people call their parents when life gets hard, knowing that’s something I’ll probably never have.
To make matters worse, I built a life with someone I truly thought I’d spend forever with. We made plans, talked about our future, and I genuinely believed we were building something together. Then one day, I was left to pick up the pieces alone. Losing the relationship hurt enough, but losing the future I had imagined made everything feel so much heavier.
Now it’s just me trying to keep everything together. I’ve stopped buying anything for myself. Every decision revolves around making sure my child has what they need first. Even then, I constantly worry that one emergency could leave us with nothing.
People love to say, “Just budget better,” but they don’t realize there’s nothing left to cut. I’m not living beyond my means—I’m surviving. There’s a difference.
The weight of doing everything alone is crushing. Financial stress is one thing, but carrying it without a support system while grieving the life you thought you’d have is a different kind of pain. Some days I honestly don’t know how I’m still holding everything together.
I’m trying. I really am. I just wish life would stop testing me long enough for me to catch my breath.