So many poor feels, I am truly among my people.

My experience was kind of interesting because my parents divorced when I was in first grade. One household was poor as shit (still is, I'm 23 now) and the other was middle class but only because my dad worked a minimum of 60 hours a week for over a decade and had credit cards.

I relate to so many of the posts on here, never lived in a house for more than a few months at a time, lived with friends, lived in the back of someones business once, so many winters without heat, nonexistent christmas, knowing every check you write is going to bounce, choosing which bills to pay, having to use different family members socials for water or electric because credit is so bad, etc. This all as a straight white person benefiting from perceived male privilege (I don't identify with gender). Can't imagine how anyone who isn't in that same power dynamic does it.

Few years ago I was working and going to college (On government school money) only had about 4 hours a day I wasn't at one or the other, sleep wasn't a thing, eventually I lost it and dropped out of school. 6 months later I quit my job and decided I was moving to the city. After this I decided I wasn't going to work wage labor ever again, if I'm going to be poor, it's going to be on my own terms, and its taught me a lot these last 2 years of being unemployed, the city is so much better to be poor in.

You learn to do without, find for free, or steal. I started eating out of dumpsters and got food stamps. I'm vegan so when I got access to food stamps I had way more than enough. Rice, beans, quinoia, couscous, potatoes, egg plant, pasta, all literally dollars per pound. Spices are cheap and can be slipped into your pocket or you lie about em on the price your own bulk things. Walk into fast food restaurants and take condiments. I qualify for selling my plasma so I do that now and it brings in around $60 a week. I lived in a