City, that is so sweet. My S.O. is that way with my grandson. We may have to pinch pennies but every weekend they make that trip to the dollar store to buy him some kind of toy.

he'll really treasure those memories, i know i do now.

We came into some money after that. I remember the morning we got the cheque through. My dad fell down the stairs as he was running up to tell me. we went to the market that day, but it just wasn't the same.

Single parent home, lived in an apartment, upstairs. Mom worked 3 jobs to keep food on the table (most weeks) ....No vacations, except for one to Cape Cod that I can remember. Whatever I asked for for Christmas, I had to want it for two years in a row before it would even be considered. Yeah, we were pretty darn poor.

Hugs, meanie, hugs PT! Having to "go without" certainly hasn't deprived either of you of great senses of humor and big hearts.

We weren't poor, but like ThenAgain, we lived as if we were. NOTHING EXTRA in the house at all; we lived like Quakers with the sparest furnishings and very strict parents. Having "seconds" for dinner was rare.

Sundays were the "extravagant" days...popcorn and cider and football (or a movie on TV).

Kids these days have NO idea what doing without is like, no concept of it at all. I will never know how that happened....

I grew up poor as hell! Up until my father died, we lived in subsidized housing, but I had no clue we were poor.

When my mother married my step-father, everything changed. If I'm being honest, I much preferred the 'poor life'.... I was happier then and didn't feel like such a burden.

Huggies skies, I was raised by parents that were total opposites. One quiet and stable, one extroverted and abrasive. I'm a combo I guess but managed to fight into some good qualities.. we used humor in my house to deal with the abrasive one.

My husband's the one with the hilarious stories of growing up poor but he and his family are some of the friendliest happy people I've ever met.

Lived in shelters sometimes on the street and abonded houses parents went to jail once and finaly my sister who was 6 went next door for food after 2 days and the lady called the police lucky for me I don't rember much my older sister does there are some really bad stories

we were not poor. We never wanted for anything. There were 7 kids and two parents. I would not say we were a family. We all are brothers and sisters but only by name. We all worked because we wanted to not because we had to.

We grew up in a big two story farm house. We had no running water, no inside plumbing. We had a wood stove for heat until I was a freshman in High school and we went modern, we got a fuel oil stove with a blower on it. We raised chickens for food. We had milk cows for milk and butter. We didn't have a tv till I was a junior in high school. My dad got it and the antenna, as his commission on a farm he sold for a man. I farmed with an old tractor that I bought and the crops, either beans or corn, would buy my clothes for school each fall as well as pay for my books. I got a new pair of shoes, each year when school started, too. We were poor but, we didn't consider ourselves poor. My dad being a Minister, we were thankful for what we did have and knew that there were others who were much less fortunate than we were. I was taught this all my life, while at home.

Oh, WOW!! I guess we fared okay, kinda. My dad born of the south during the Great Depression, descent of slaves: Mom born during WWII in Nazi Germany...oh, they had a lovely time raising an interracial family during the civil rights movement when the Army sent him back to US....NOT!! We could not even live in certain states.

Let's see......there were times neither parent was there, and I learned we were EATING my friends (livestock)....GREAT grandmother bent over a washtub with a scrubbing board to wash clothes, great aunt took a sledgehammer to hogs in front of me. Granny could wring a chicken's neck like nobody's business. We went to private school intially, Dad sewed our uniforms. Houses and apartments so old, plumbing had been added. Tubs on legs.

We were the last family on the PLANET to have color tv, or a second phone in the house, and it was ROTARY too!!

Listen to Papa.....He had an OUTHOUSE....fetched water from a well....walked for miles to school with hand-me down shoes that let moisture in. ONE school grades K - 12...One room, taught by one uneducated teacher. They were taught things like, "git" instead of "get", and so on.

I feel pretty middle class, looking back on how I grew up. Yes we were poor when it came to money, but we always had what it takes to survive...LOVE!!

Traveled the world, being an Army brat, no outhouses, color tv, or push button phones...

I'm glad for the experiences.

Critters in the house? If they can sneak in, a cat or dog would take care of that. I've seen housecats behave as lions. Dogs as wolves. I saw my Greatgrandmother shoot a fox in the henhouse with a shotgun. Blasted the whole coop up, and the fox scratched her beautiful face for life....Hens and roosters lost...1 dead fox.

Granny was OLD SCHOOL GANGSTER!!

Was all about FOOD!!

The slum my Mum was born in was torn down because of Typhus, nuff said.
I am bottom of the rung, born, bred and proud of it.

It really has coloured the way I live my life. I saw my abusive father literally fall apart trying to earn (while drinking it away), my mother worked 2 jobs and then the late 80's recession happened and things got worse.

Pressed post too soon.

So, it has made me hate money and all the things that come with it. The pride of having earned a wage that is no-where near your value as a worker must be something but to me it scream "MUG!"

I grew up in what was essentially, a crack house. I was pretty much entirely neglected, even though i was an only child i was still very much unwanted. We didn't have much money, as junkies tend not too...the money they do have is needed for more important things than their children!

The stove was one of those heavy-heating cast irons. You could put coal or wood in it. Oven, stove-top....all from natural fuel. Antique now.