Money makes life easier, but even folks who don’t have it find ways to make do. That is even more true for people who grew up without money. As people often do, they take a bad situation and make the most of it.
Someone asked “People who grew up poor, what's a skill you developed that rich people don't have?” and netizens shared their examples. From all the experience any handyman could ever want to wholehearted respect towards service workers, get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
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I'm nice to service industry workers.
Gratefulness. Learn how to be grateful for everything because there are people in situations that are worse than your own.
This is why I am so thankful for the childhood I had. It was JUST bad enough to make me realize it wasn't that bad. Yes there was abuse, some foster homes in there. But at the end of it all I turned 18 in a loving home (my uncle). And I can look back and be grateful for what I did have, and take what I didn't as a lesson.
I treat my stuff with care and it stays in good shape long after I purchase it. I also perform maintenance. I take the extra few seconds to prevent damage rather than dealing with the aftermath.
People always treat me like I'm a woodland sorceress when I tell them I sew up holes in my clothes
Determining wants from needs.
I (wife) fixed our broken dishwasher today ( took me a couple of hours) I didn't even see a dishwasher in real life until I got married. My husband and I are from verrryy different backgrounds I'm from the depth of Russia and he is from Manhattan. He was very impressed and surprised 😊😊😊.
I'm very proud of you.😁Always keep your washer, dryer, dishwasher and air conditioner clean. It'll save you A LOT of money in the long run.
Coming up with meals with whatever is leftover in the pantry and fridge.
I am a jazz pianist. I wished I had the improvisational skills with food, herbs and spices like I have at the keyboard.
Strong work ethic, when my coworkers gripe and complain over minor stuff, flashbacks of praying for a job like this comes to mind.
In my personal experience, work ethic is instilled, I've known rich and poor with both solid and lacking work ethic.
Not being picky with food. I can eat the same food forever and never get sick of it.
Same. Have eaten the same breakfast for about 20 years, and I still wake up almost as happy as my cat, just thinking about it.
I automatically add groceries up in my head as I shop so I am not embarrassed by having to put things back. I do it automatically now, even if I can afford the food.
I do this at any store. I am in the process of paying off my debt and avoid using credit cards.
My mom would brown ground beef and then she would make a batch of bisquick dough (she used bisquick almost every day). She would roll the dough out and sprinkle it with the ground beef and then roll it up lengthwise and slide it like cinnamon rolls (but with ground beef inside). She’d bake them and then pour cream of mushroom soup gravy on top. She could feed six of us on less than a pound of ground beef that way lol.
To not confuse status with real happiness.
I have a very broke 38M friend. His goal is to own an F-350 Platinum (fanciest giant Ford truck, $150,000~) by the end of the decade. Not his own home, not any personal development goals, a big expensive truck. He doesn’t need a truck at all, he would treat it like a car. He lives in his grandma’s basement because his parents finally kicked him out for refusing to pay rent or help with the house. His only goal is this expensive truck so he can look cool to his friends. It’s more important to him than being a cool or good person or having new life experiences or enjoying friendships. I’m so glad my ego isn’t like that lmfao.
The ability to respect everyone's dignity equally and never consider anyone as my servant, domestic, or slave.
I've seen rich people being street smart, eating the same low quality food all day, having excellent DIY skills... But I've yet to meet someone rich and able to realize homeless people, maids, or cashiers have the exact same amont of human dignity as they do.
I disagree. Some who are rich have been homeless at one point in their lives.
How to use and repair everything and run it into the ground.
At 69 years old I am daily thankful my father taught me to use tools. When I meet snobbish people who have to hire someone for even the simplest of repairs, I feel sorry they never experienced the satisfaction of repairing or building something themselves.
Resilience.
How to be more resourceful on my own since we couldn't pay people to do stuff.
How to be happy without the need for a lot of material possessions. So, even now, I still don't have a lot but it's by choice.
Finally, generosity. When you live in a hood where everyone is poor too, you learn to share what you have when you have it and vice versa,.
Keeping myself entertained without spending much money when I have long periods of time off.
The ability to walk for miles.
I used to walk 2 hours every day to work because work started at 6am and there was no public transport. Most I did was 8 hours walking 24 miles overnight to do a 12 hour day. On several occasions. Looking back I don't kjow how I did it but know if i had to id probably do it again.
I can grow food from seed to harvest. Take that, you rich bastards!
We planted 140 tomato plants amd now they are all bearing fruit. Canning tomorrow and I'm already tired!
Making food last and turning left overs into other meals. My partner tried to just eat the breast off a whole roast chicken and throw the rest away… absolutely not.
Being comfortable in an ugly space. Although, I notice this more with my middle class peers.
Walls the wrong color, flooring is off, layout of a space not ideal? It's fine. I've definitely seen worse. As long as it has four walls, a roof, the toilet works, flooring isn't there, and I can afford heat and AC, I'm really happy.
I moved out of a gorgeous basement suite because my bf at the time thought I could do better. It was $675 a month (when everything else was about $1000 a month) and had a huge bedroom with wall-in closet and screen door to the backyard, lighting was perfect, I was so happy. I was 22 at the time and it’s one of my biggest regrets lol, I shouldn’t have listened to him
Being able to determine the difference between quality and marketing.
Unfortunately, a lot of poor people can't. That's why you got people buying mattresses on monthly payment plans, why Coach, Louis Vitton and others make record profits off people who make less than $50K, why terrible things like Robux exist, etc.
You can get designer stuff at thrift stores if you go right when they open and beat the regular resellers. The Salvation Army sells brand new mattresses for a couple hundred bucks. Still a bit steep for me right now. Last time I bought one was about 13 years ago. I need to replace it soon, but it's lasted many years. It's one of those things that don't last forever.
Not having an emotional connection to pretty much anything, because I know it could go anyday. I could lose it all, everything, and just start again.
This has been my biggest lesson, too. Once I was left by an abuser when I ran out of psychological/emotional elements for him to break. Realized he has isolated me so much I had no bridges left, no job, no drivers license (he convinced me not to renew cuz he liked driving me around yuck), not a dime to my name, etc....i had to just let the eviction happen and took a sack of clothes and my dog and started all over. Years later I ended up in a roommate situation where they lied about paying the rent and had found a way to cash my rent checks. They hid all eviction notices (I worked nights) so I had no idea until I came home one day and every single thing I owned was gone (I always had my dog with me even at work). Being broke kept landing me in bad situations and although I broke that cycle, I still exist with the possibility at the back of my mind. And it comes in handy from time to time when things break or something. "Ah well, it's just stuff."
I’m not afraid of poverty, I know how to navigate it. In the same token because I came from poverty, I’ve set myself up to not experience it again.
So true! My job is stable, I'm going no where, and thankfully, they agree. My budget is already made out a year in advance so I know where every penny is going and what is potentially expendable if needed (or selfishly wanted come my birthday and mothers day).
Resourcefulness! We're basically the MacGyvers of everyday life.
Entering a grocery store with a handful of coins and leaving with a combination of products that maximizes total calories and filling effect, and costs exactly what I have, without anyone noticing that's what I'm doing.
I would say caution out in public. i grew up poor. My wife grew up rich. I stay with and blend with crowds. She counts her money at ATMs.
Ability to stay hungry for a long time.
I'm pretty sure that comes naturally to everybody if they don't get enough to eat.
You learn to fix everything. Everything can be fixed, buying a new item only happens when I consider fixing it to be more of a hassle than making whatever cash the item costs new is, which isn’t often. New items just eventually wear and turn used within a week or so.
My Toyota Camry is 23 years old. I just keep replacing the add-ons because the engine and transmission just keeps going.
I know what “enough” is.
Resilience/problem solving. I can find my way out of any situation,.
I wonder if Donald Trump ever learned how to fix any of life's problems. I would assume he always paid someone to fix them or make them go away.
Getting out of bad situations by myself and my own wits.
I can create a delicious meal from whatever; my wife is stil bamboozled by how tasty my random meals are, even after 10 years pf being together.
There is nothig too terrible that cannot be fixed by a sincere excuse. Lies will only get you intoo deeper s**t.
I can repair at home any elwctrical appliances or gadgets.
I am grateful for anything that happens. Even if I find 50% discound maturated ribs. Or a parking spot in the shade.
Karma is real.
Yesterday I woke up hot as heck and wondered why my air conditioner hadn't cut on. I looked at the thermostat and it was blank. I finally decided to pull the cover off before waking up my husband. The batteries were dead. A small feat, but I'm proud of myself. 😁
Being able to see trouble brewing while it's still miles away. I believe this is called being hyper-vigilent, as if it were a negative thing.
And being like Felix the Cat when confronted with an obstacle, able to pivot on a dime when thwarted, then come at the problem with different tools and a different strategy.
Anyone who can survive being poor, or worse, turns out to be a very resourceful person who doesn’t waste time feeling sorry for themself or freaking out or giving up or panicking, but gets right to work getting themself through it and out the other end. There’s time to cry or freak out when they’re finished and in better shape and safe—-and believe me, that delayed reaction does come. They also learn to read the signs and can “smell” trouble, as well as prepare for it, before anyone else even knows it’s coming.
Knowing hunger. I don't think you can truly know yourself when there's a part of you that will kill for food or die. It is strangely empowering. Not facing serious adversity is a gift and a curse.
The people who don't know discomfort or hunger are the same as the person who's never been punched in the face getting into their first fight, they about to learn on the fly, and the stakes are high.
I was homeless at 15 due to extreme abuse at home for being "perverted" because I "acted like a boy" turns out I'm transgender and of course, in a fundamentalist evangelical home, it was decided I was "welcoming demons"blah blah blah. The fridge group (cult, really) my parents had us in meant no friends out of the church, no tv, no hair cutting etc. and we lived where out secular neighborhoods were more than 3 miles away. I had exactly zero social skills when I ran for my life. Eventually I was starving, which was worse than scrambling for shelter in my opinion. Extreme fatigue and pain. One day a gutter punk (look it up? :) saw me looking in the trash outside a restaurant. He scare me, but he taught me that this trash wasn't going to work, and from there I learned to dumpster, turn on electricity and heat in abandoned houses, ride trains, etc. I know now, that so long as capitalism is a thing, corporations and the rich will waste EVERY kind of thing and you can find it. I can survive
The ability to DIY a lot of things, even computer software or hardware problems. Saved me a lot of money in my teens. This only compounded into my 30s.
My peers think I'm a genius just because I know how to make a slow or sluggish computer fast or because of the way I can use duct tape.
Heck, I even saved my folks money when I fixed their water heater, the "fix" was to use a coin to press this black button that tripped.
Not telling everyone what i have in my pockets.
How to sharpen pencils with knives, attached papers together using rice or some special folding techniques, cut papers by folding, and tearing it carefully.
I can sharpen pencils with knives, but frequently lose part of the innards in the process. I can cut papers by folding and tearing (Hint: use your nails to make a super sharp fold.) I also once met a Romanian who could open a tin can with only a knife don't know how to do the others, does anyone know how to attatch papers together with rics or folding?
I have a level of charm to get what I want that no amount of money could ever teach you.
I know that you can fill up the bathtub with water stolen from the next door neighbor’s garden hose and use a bucket to fill the toilet tank so you can flush when the water gets shut off due to nonpayment.
Agreed. For example, being nice to service workers isn't unique to the non-rich. Maybe rich people are also nice to service workers.
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Being content with less. I'm happy with my crocheting and public tv. I can eat the same cheap meal for days on end. I can live in a house that's not the prettiest on the block. I don't mind driving around in my 20 year old truck. That's what I grew up with when we were dirt poor and even though I have a good paying job now, I don't see any reason to pay extra money just because something is "nicer". eta: I just realized how "rich" I had it growing up. We had an actual house and a tv. As someone in my thirties, I have a house. I am rich. I guess I just don't see the need to make it "fancy" because I can. Maybe I should just delete this comment.
There's a reason I love RPGs. For dollar value they give you a lot of hours of entertainment. Same for games that have crafting systems and a focus on player creativity. I could drop $70 a pop on action titles that would keep me occupied for 10 hours tops, or I could invest $20 in a mid-budget indie game with crafting that I'll play for 100+ hours. Easy choice.
Load More Replies... I find most of this silly. I have seen rich and poor treat service employees properly, and I've seen both treat them poorly. There clearly is a category of those raised in wealth who fail in ways described here. The topic is setup poorly. Growing up poor and currently being rich and not mutually exclusive.
Agreed. For example, being nice to service workers isn't unique to the non-rich. Maybe rich people are also nice to service workers.
Load More Replies... Being content with less. I'm happy with my crocheting and public tv. I can eat the same cheap meal for days on end. I can live in a house that's not the prettiest on the block. I don't mind driving around in my 20 year old truck. That's what I grew up with when we were dirt poor and even though I have a good paying job now, I don't see any reason to pay extra money just because something is "nicer". eta: I just realized how "rich" I had it growing up. We had an actual house and a tv. As someone in my thirties, I have a house. I am rich. I guess I just don't see the need to make it "fancy" because I can. Maybe I should just delete this comment.
There's a reason I love RPGs. For dollar value they give you a lot of hours of entertainment. Same for games that have crafting systems and a focus on player creativity. I could drop $70 a pop on action titles that would keep me occupied for 10 hours tops, or I could invest $20 in a mid-budget indie game with crafting that I'll play for 100+ hours. Easy choice.
Load More Replies... I find most of this silly. I have seen rich and poor treat service employees properly, and I've seen both treat them poorly. There clearly is a category of those raised in wealth who fail in ways described here. The topic is setup poorly. Growing up poor and currently being rich and not mutually exclusive.
