People Who Come From Low-Income Families Reveal What 30 Things They Considered An Absolute Luxury

Money buys security.

Explain irony....when you are so poor and so stressed out as to how you will make ends meet that it makes you sick all the time. But you can't afford to go see a doctor because it costs money you don't have. You don't make enough to pay for medical outright, but you also make too much to qualify for free healthcare. Now that we are making decent money and have good healthcare coverage...we aren't sick anymore.....

Money doesn't buy happiness but it can free you from some of the things that cause stress and unhappiness.

Know that feeling too. I remember being laid off in the early 90’s and having $25 a week for food and gas leftover from unemployment insurance after paying bills. Rode my bike wherever I could to save gas for potential interviews. It is amazing how many fellow church people will ask you to babysit for free and not even offer gas money whenever you are unemployed.

If I was rich I'd still be lazy... I'd just be lazy on a nicer sofa!

This was by stages for me. At the beginning it's about rednecking something broken as cheaply as possible. And then eventually get it somewhat fixed and call it being temperamental. After decades of making do, these days I can afford to deal with it, if only I can find the time.

When I was in my mid-20s, someone hit my car and did about $3K worth of damage. The driver was poor, drunk, and uninsured. All my friends were angry and indignant on my behalf and kept encouraging me to sue (which was pointless, because the man didn't have any money). But all I could feel at the time was gratitude, because I realized that a few years earlier this would have been a huge financial crisis for me. But now I had the $3K in the bank, and all I had to do to make this whole stressful incident go away was write a check and rent a car for a few days.

For a while every time some money came in, something would break. We got in the habit of putting all of the overtime or any surprise money straight into the savings account. Suddenly, when something broke, we had the money on hand to fix it. What a freeing feeling!

Same. I have very little desire to own anything that I do not need.

Anyone that has never lived this absolutely doesn’t understand the degree of hardship & struggle, and how far back it sets you. One problem can be devastating.

It really is the little things !

I'm not judging anyone's lifestyle, by all means have 12 kids if you can afford them. There's birth control, if you cannot afford basic necessities like hygiene, then you should not have that many kids. It's not fair to them.

Not to be judgmental, but your parents maybe shouldn't have had that much children if they didn't have a lot of money? Or was it an assimilated family (is that how you call that)?

This one hit home.

My neighbors moved a year ago and while picking through the trash they put out I got 2 awesome working lamps and 10 huge almost new bath towels. I washed them well with bleach and replaced my 30 year old towels with them. The old towel became the dogs towels. It must be nice to have the money to just throw good stuff away, I've never been able to do that.

Aww, baby wombats! <3

If you are struggling with finance, please for the love of all that is saint, don't get pets... I get it, pets are cute and helpful but they are yet another responsibility that you can't properly care for

Tbf most people would go bankrupt if we had to pay full price for our own medical issues. I can't even afford co-pays for myself so I just don't get medical care. But pet procedures and medicines cost less. There are also lines of credit for pet care. Some veterinarians also by default have an automatic credit. So please at least try to get them care. One is CareCredit, just try to get it paid off in 6 months or less.

A lot of people here are saying don't get a pet if you can't care for one. And I agree, in theory. But a lot of you have not been *really* poor, in neighborhoods or small rural areas where starving strays are common and shelters kill due to capacity. Families giving scraps out to strays and caring about them enough they become "outdoor pets" are common. It's still heartbreaking not to be able to save them. Unless you're actively caring for strays, less judgement please.

Please, please, please don't get a pet if you can't afford vets bills. I know this may sound harsh to some people but hear me out! I had cats when my children were young, I'm not a pet person myself but understood the value of pets for children. One of the cats Missy, went off to live with one of the neighbours despite me spending many hours/days/weeks trying to persuade her to come back, she preferred the neighbours home. She would still visit every day and stay for a few hours before she went off to her "new home". One day she didn't turn up, I went to the neighbours to check if she was okay only to find out she had died during the night 😭. It turned out that Missy had been hit by a motorbike the day before and the neighbours had made a non emergency appointment at the vets for the next day because they couldn't afford the out of hours, emergency vet treatment 🤬. Poor Missy must have suffered hours of agony and suffering before she died, I never forgave the neighbour.

I have no income but anytime I get extra I go to the dollar store and get what I can for crafts for my grandson. He is the same way. He will spend hours making things with just a few items and popsicle sticks.

Growing up my mother wouldn’t by arts and craft things for my twin sister and I. It was a waste, she said. Even if it was for a school project. I had to scavenge through the recycling for anything to use. I always felt ashamed of my work next to those of my classmates.

I want to see a pic of your craft room!! 💖

I'm so happy for you

Good for you!

Wow, thats sad. When we go camping we get to have warm showers thanks to the sun. We leave our big tub of water out in the sun all day so by the afternoon we get a warm shower. Could something like this not be done in areas without hot water access?

We lived "off grid" for a while because we couldn't afford rent on a regular place. To have a hot shower you had to cut firewood and build a fire in the wood stove (which heated the water). Shower pressure was gravity fed so very poor and dam water level was low so showers were extremely short. Mostly we just swam in the dam and rinsed with a hose.

Personally, I hate hot showers. I prefer lukewarm water, but if you like hot, more power to you!

Wow! 👍

I remember nanna boiling the kettle to add to the snow so we could have a bath in the kitchen, Nanna & Grandad went first and 2nd, Then mum, then dad, and one after another, all 4 kids, I was so glad I wasn't the youngest. And everyone used the same towel.

That was so embarrassing when it would fall out during gym class and you had to go to the office to call your folks and tell them to bring fresh undies.

Scotland is the first country in the world to offer free sanitary products .. we ended period poverty. Something I’m really proud of my little nation for !