35 People Who Grew Up Poor Share What Unwritten Rules They Abided By To Get By

This is the way thing ought to be.

This should be taught by every parent.

This is the way.

Only if I had such innocence, salute to you Nd your old man

The whole family and community sound wonderful

Yes, this is why developing countries tend to have a stronger sense of community. As average incomes begin to rise people tend to rely on themselves rather than their family and neighbors, causing them to drift apart. This is partly why developed European countries tend to be socially distant and independent while in most asian and African countries, maintaining good relations with neighbors and family is still very important.

Yeah, but now assholes will sue you at the drop of a hat because you did it wrong or tey become entitled to your help. I had a neighbor who was laid up with a bad back and I'd shovel his walk and driveway whenever it snowed. I was off on travel one week when it snowed and so I wasn't around to shovel. He got a fine from the HOA and expected ME to pay it since I didn't shovel HIS walk WHEN I WAS 1,000 MILES AWAY! I told him he should have hired someone to do it and he told me "I" should have known it would snow and hired someone to do it, Needless to say, the asshole didn't get free shoveling anymore.

It's a wonderful sentiment but sadly I have learned the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished".

My grandmother called this "living in each others' pockets."

I swear poor people, and being one of them, help each other and have less than people with everything and don't. IDC what anyone says.

i'm 31 and still wear s**t i wore in highschool. if it aint broke, dont fix it.

Absolutely. My family of 6 always had hand-me-down clothes from a larger family we knew. (They had 10 kids, there was ALWAYS someone close to my or my siblings' sizes in clothes). Pants ripped? They were patched or stitched up. Coat too small on the older sibling? Hang onto it, it will eventually fit a younger one. We did not have a lot of new clothing, but it was always serviceable and looked decent - not ripped/torn/dirty. Our house was not big by any means (less than 1000 square feet for 6 people), but it was always clean, the yard always tidy and we had a garden to help supplement our food bill.

New pants? Ya'll got new ones? ALL my clothes came from either Goodwill or Salvation Army. But, like you, or whoever posted this, we were to be clean too. My mom and I were homeless for a time but still, we'd go into gas station bathroom and clean up, brush teeth, brush hair and off to school I'd go.

When you're poor you value new clothing differently. If your funding is limited, buying ripped jeans is absurd. You wear new jeans to town and the jeans you wear on the farm all start to look like that over time anyway. Then, you're ahead of the game - if it's still in fashion!

Absolutely true

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By all means, crack the oven after it's turned off, but please NEVER attempt to heat your home with an oven. A running gas oven emits carbon monoxide that could kill you. A running electric oven is safer, but it could still overheat and start a fire. Leaving an electric oven running also is more expensive than running a space heater, so it's not the smartest choice to save money. <3

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I do this all of the time

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I have a modest income, but as I have a big old house, I always let the heat out into the kitchen when done cooking. Did it the other day, when I took the pork tenderloin out.

I've already paid for that heat, might as well use it. Also it feels so nice and toasty in the cold of Canadian winters.....

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I do this, too! But I guess it depends on your situation - my oven is towards the back of the kitchen, so no risk of walking into the door. Also, my oven gets insanely hot - I have to set the temperature at least 75 degrees Fahrenheit lower than I want, or it will incinerate my food - and my apartment is always cold in the winter, so I always take advantage of the little nuclear reactor in my kitchen to heat the place up a bit more. . .

And ALWAYS ASK FIRST!!! It chaps my ass when someone just “borrows” (translate: TAKES) something of mine without asking first. Then not even put it back where they found it, forcing me to go on a treasure hunt to find my own belongings! I was taught you always ask to borrow something, then you f*****g well better return it when you promised you would. If you find you need it a bit longer, you ALWAYS ask for an extension the moment you realize that. If they say no, you do not argue with them. You abide by their “no”, return the item in better condition than it was lent to you, say thank you, and go looking for an alternative solution. If they say yes, you once again set a return date and stick to it.

That IS a good rule. My brother-in-law borrowed my gas grill and returned it so dirty I nearly cried. Never loaned him anything again.

As a Girl Scout leader, we always taught our girls to always leave a place cleaner than your found it.

Brought my trusty Texan pick-up truck with me to Montreal and people were lining up to borrow it on moving day. Not cool. Except for this one guy, a Virgo, who returned it in such mint condition that it took me half an hour to figure out who had parked a sparkling Mazda pick-up in front of my apartment building.

Or at least if something happens to it admit it and replace it and move on

Being poor isn't a reason to take care of your s**t. If you take care of it, you won't waste money on buying a replacement for it.

My mother used to say there was no excuse for being dirty, be it yourself or your home. She'd say soap is not that expensive! (And 50 yrs ago, that was true). I never knew we were poor until I grew up and moved away with my family. Strange, huh?

Amen to this! We were dirt broke, but our little house full of second-hand furniture was always neat as a pin. The yard was always mowed, beds were always made and there was never a dirty dish in the sink or trash of any kind laying around. I think my parents would rather have died than look trashy. And even with very little money, cheap soap, cheap shampoo and cheap deodorant were considered as essential as food. No way were we going to be dirty, smelly poor people. Swearing would get you smacked in the mouth, and you had no idea how close you may be to death-by-parent if you caused a fuss in public or forgot to say please or thank you.

Funny how just about every post in this thread hits home for me. My friends all thought it was terrible that I had chores to do, and actually had a summer job every year from the time I was about 11 years old onwards. Chores were things like washing dishes, hanging/taking down laundry from the clothesline, mowing the grass, vacuuming/cleaning floors, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning my bedroom, hauling in wood for the woodstove, etc. My summer jobs were things like cleaning for elderly church members or family friends, mowing grass, I had a few newspaper delivery routes, babysitting, working as an aide in a childcare center, etc. I grew up knowing how to cook, clean, maintain a house, keep my car maintained, mow grass, etc - all things that helped me in my adult life with my own house and also helped me get side jobs to help supplement my income when needed. I've worked with college-age kids who didn't know the first thing about how to wash dishes, mop a floor, etc.

poor people have more manners than most rich people, they know how to use resources efficiently and are thankful for what they have just cuz they have it.... some rich people might give to the poor but most dont... that 'most' are the people who are not thankful for what they have and are greedy for a new phone each day while the others are fighting small animals in the garbage for food or begging on streets.... im not insulting the rich, im only pointing out to the rich who arent thankful for what they have...