The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor

[2ndAmForComputers]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop-growing-up-poor

The part about food:

People who have never been poor love to point out overweight people in the ghetto and sarcastically exclaim, "Yeah, it really looks like she's starving!" And they have no idea that the reason many of them have weight problems is because everything they're putting into their bodies is dirt-cheap, processed bullshit. Grab a TV dinner and look at the nutritional information.

Feelings of moral superiority are, more often than not, a nasty, harmful illusion. Especially if they're toward the poor. I think it's like sneering at war veterans for having PTSD.

[bhikkhu]

1. Good article!

I think anyone who grew up in the 60's or 70's, (raised by parents who remembered the great depression and the war years) will recognize a lot of things there - I certainly do!

[Neoma]

2. That's not the only reason you can gain weight.

There are loads of factors! Though in this case, I believe it's due to stress. Which can fuck with how your body distributes fat, give you heart attacks, high blood pressure, etc. Stress is generally called a silent killer...

[Historic NY]

3. TV dinner, sardines.........

hey they were good. I got to hate sardines but now I've found they are very high in essential nutrients and omega 3's.....

The article makes some very vaild points especially over money.

[gateley]

4. I think it's because they're afraid they might catch it. nt

[Major Hogwash]

5. And the 6th stupidest habit developed by poor people is . . .

. . arguing with other people who grew up poor about who was the poorest.

"I remember watching the tv when I was a kid . . ."

"Tv? Your family had a tv? Hell, man, we were too poor for a tv. All we had to watch all day long was my aunt or my little baby brother. And sometimes my baby brother would be asleep, so we had no choice but to watch my aunt get into the refrigerator a dozen times an hour."

"Refrigerator? Did you say your family had a refrigerator? Hell, man, we were too poor to own a refrigerator. We had to store all of our food in a hole that we dug in the ground in the back of the house to keep cold!"

"Food? Did you say your family had food? Man, we didn't store nothing in that refrigerator of ours like that, 'cept old beer. We couldn't afford to pay for all the 'lectricity to run that refrigerator to keep food cold."

"'lectricity? Did you say your family had 'lectricity? Man, we didn't have enough money to pay for 'lectricity. We had to run around and rub cats on our sweaters if we wanted to watch tv and create our own 'lectricty."

"Sweaters? Did you say your family had sweaters? Man, all we had were shirts, and we had to wear 2 or 3 of them to keep warm in the winter. We couldn't afford to keep cats in our house because they would always go outside to go to the bathroom, cuz we didn't want them using our bathroom."

"Bathroom? Did you say your family had a bathroom? Man, all we had was a window and you had to sit on the ledge . . . "

"What the hell, man?!?"

"Yeah, that's right, man, we had to sit on the ledge . . ."

And so it goes.

[TheMightyFavog]

10. Sounds like Monty Python.

[lunatica]

26. I assume this is just your opinion right?

And I'll even add that you've never been poor have you?

[Saving Hawaii]

53. I said to a guy once "Man, I've only got $12 left in my bank account"...

And he said back to me "You have a bank account!?"

Apparently he was too poor to even have one of those.

[boppers]

76. BTDT. As have several friends.

Get this: Once banks "flag" you as owing a bank (in Checksystems), you cannot open another account until you clear your debts. So, if you need to cash a check.... yup. You're fucked, and have to go to one of those "we steal from your check" places.

[pnwest]

6. uncanny. this writer describes precisely

how I think about money...the once a year tax check clothes buying spree, the feeling that money is a perishable item and must be spent immediately to avoid the trickle away phenominon, the not knowing how to escape those habits because that's your norm. I identify with every. single. word.

[Warpy]

8. Poor folks know if they deposit that check and leave it there

it really will evaporate into bills paid maybe a week sooner here and there. They will just see it gone by the next year and have nothing to show for it when they both need and want so much.

If they're wise, they can tell the difference between needs and wants and spend it on needs. In either case, they will get something they use every day and can point to with pride as raising their living standard a hair.

[redqueen]

28. I love this post. (nt)

[Warpy]

31. It's one of the things I did when I was poor

My first computer was a tax refund, a refurbished Packard Hell. I've also bought thrift shop furniture and gotten my teeth fixed on tax refunds. And bought a computer repair textbook because poor folks don't go to repair shops.

It's only a problem if the behavior persists when you're not poor any more. That didn't happen with me. I still live in a dump in a bad 'hood and my furniture is the same thrift shop stuff I got with the tax refunds.

Puter's been upgraded along with some of the fiber equipment, but that's it.

[Union Scribe]

7. I've read quite a bit of Mr. Cheese.

He's pretty insightful. He writes funny articles about the addictions he's suffered, too.

[sofa king]

24. I love the guy, too.

His insight into poverty mirrors my own so well that I sometimes wonder if I've been housemates with him before, wiping our butts with a college sweatshirt left behind from the weekend's bash.

And the rest of my housemates from that incident are out there, too. It was someone else's week to buy the effing toilet paper. I had to draw the line somewhere.

[pansypoo53219]

9. i escaped most of that cause i learned to eat good foor from my grandarents who made us fresh

veggies from the garden bought fresh.

[DonCoquixote]

11. not to all Paula Dean haters

This is why Southern food is the way it is, not Paula Dean.

[Edweird]

12. Too close to home to be humorous.

[riderinthestorm]

27. Yep, me too. I read it with sick fascination like an outsider was dissecting my shitty past.nt

[TBF]

35. Same here.

It explains a lot about my current spending habits that don't make sense. I didn't find it funny at all, rather very enlightening.

[xmas74]

87. My past,

my present, and possibly my future.

I read this a few days ago and it felt like a slap in the face.

[redqueen]

29. I was laughing my ass off.

I find it all rings true to me, every bit of it. It wasn't till I read Whisp's post above that I felt a little twinge of something else.

[X_Digger]

60. Ditto..

And I'm still planning on what to do with my refund check- things that I've been needing but putting off because they were lower priority.

[duhneece]

13. "...I think it's like sneering at war veterans for having PTSD...."

Good call.

[Justice wanted]

14. Another cause of weight gain especially in women w/ kids is the fact that they may starve

themselves to give children more food to eat AND when they do have a chance to eat they tend to binge.


Also let's look at our DNA some people just store fat because our genes are incline too.

[lonestarnot]

15. Or eat the leftovers off the plate before the dish gets washed to avoid wasting anything. I

remember that as being a part of my Grandmother who I could never get my arms around try as I may.

[pipi_k]

16. They don't even have to binge...

to gain weight...

The human body is virtually programmed to keep us from starvation whenever possible, so if a person is starving herself and then eats so-called "normal" amounts, her body will automatically store those calories as fat in case of future famine.

That is why it's better, in the long run for weight loss (or maintenance), to eat smaller, regular meals to keep the metabolism at a constant level.

[madmom]

19. also saw were moms will eat anything left over so it won't be wasted

[notadmblnd]

57. Actually, if a person doesn't eat regularly (like 3 m3als a day) the body will go into starvation

mode. If you skip breakfast you will feel extra hungry come lunch time, making you more prone to overeating for your afternoon meal. In addition, skipping breakfast makes your body think that you are starving. After all, by lunch time, you may not have eaten in almost eighteen hours. For the rest of the day after you skip breakfast, your body will store up most of the energy you get from food, instead of allowing you to burn it, in anticipation of food scarcity. Not only will this cause you to be tired during the day when your body isn't using the food that you ate, but the extra energy stored up will result in weight gain.

[boppers]

78. ...and your body will live longer if you live on that edge.

If you skip two meals, and then eat a lot, well, that all gets stored.

You have to skip meals and eat light, or not skip meals and be super-active.

I hate going to the gym, so I just don't eat much.

[fascisthunter]

17. Thank You!

I am fortunate because of a fast metabolism, but friends and neighbors, not so fortunate. I grew up around the poor and lower middle-class in Boston before it became gentrified... people have no clue as to what ordinary lower class Americans go through, and because they choose not to hear, they further the gap between themselves and the majority of Americans in this country.

[pipi_k]

18. Growing up poor

and being poor well into my late 30s to early 40s, I did just about all of those things, but I have managed, with a bit of success, to overcome Stupid Thing #1...

Of course, I have the money now, so that's one problem I don't have to deal with, but yes...if I see a deal on, for example, laundry detergent, but I still have a bunch left, I'll still buy it if it's on sale. I do a lot of laundry. Detergent isn't perishable. It will eventually get used.

[obamanut2012]

20. Cracked is a humor site, but often posts terrific stuff

Very pointed and satirical, and most of their main article writers appear to be pretty Left.

[Initech]

43. I used to love that site until the mods were complete dicks to me.

I sent them a really angry worded letter after that and haven't been back since.

[obamanut2012]

49. Oh, that's too bad!

Did they censor you in the comments section?

[Initech]

50. No worse.

I posted a weird news story in the forums, they totally altered the subject line and told me to fuck myself. That was it for me.

[obamanut2012]

52. Wow

That really is disappointing.

[Initech]

55. Yeah I sent them a really harshly-worded e-mail about it and haven't been back since.

That's one site where the moderators are actually *WORSE* than the people who post there. If you go there stay away from the forums.

[Quantess]

21. Not all poor people develop those habits

but they are common I suppose. He's writing it based on his own experiences.

For example, not everybody blows all their food budget the first day of the month. That makes me nervous, so I only buy a little food that I know for sure I'll eat up in the next few days, without anything going to waste. Besides, if you walk or take the bus, you can only carry so much at a time.

[Lionessa]

33. +1

Plus I find cooking raw food into a meal costs much less than tv dinners and processed food. I get confused when people suggest that preprocessed is cheaper somehow; faster and worse for you, but not cheaper.

I also only buy what I need for a few days with the exception of staples like butter, plain yogurt, noodles; things that keep.

My frig is very small so I have little choice. A day or so of fresh food is all I can keep, and there is a little tiny freezer, but it's pretty much useless so no frozen preprocessed could even be kept.

[underpants]

22. Several mayors and governors have gone on "food stamps" to prove a point

and almost all of them have gained weight.

Try eating on $3 a day - fruits and vegetables are out (too expensive) but a $1.39 giant canister of cheesy poofs sure do make the stomach feel full.

[Quantess]

36. I'm not trying to start an argument but I never understood why people insist

that you can't eat cheaply and healthy. I think it just takes more effort, that's all.

A sack of potatoes, dry beans, fresh carrots, fresh onions, bouillon cubes for seasoning. A banana or an apple now and then. Don't try to tell me those are expensive foods. You won't get fat from it, either.

[Quantess]

44. Oh, boy. Duers can be such nasty jerks.

No, I guess I wouldn't know anything about being poor, would I? You jump right into making assumptions about me, and saying it in a really sanctimonious way, too.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother hanging around here, with such unpleasant know-it-alls. You must be delightful in person.

[Quantess]

46. You're the one who went straight to snark.

And for what? Because I said that you can eat nutritious homemade meals cheaply, with some effort? You really didn't need to be so unpleasant and condescending about having a different point of view, and, I'm not having any of that! Not everyone is going to sit there and take your un-called-for rudeness.

I've dragged home bags of vegetables walking home from the store...okay, not everyone is physically capable of that, true. But don't try to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

[HangOnKids]

65. I Hope You Understand Ignore

Your exchange with this person made me appreciate the feature.

[Quantess]

68. The person started out sneering and I wasn't in the mood for it.

All I'm saying is that it is not written in stone that poor people have to eat poor nutrition. Okay, I understand that in some cases there are obstacles such as disabilities or a lack of cooking facilities.

But, I know very well that you can eat nutritious homemade meals very cheaply, because I do it all the time. I walk home from the grocery store, but taking the bus would also work.

I'm not sure that I need to ignore that person, but I hope they think twice before immediately dishing out snark to fellow DUers.

[undeterred]

56. People take having a car for granted.

I met someone who is living on $700 a month plus food stamps. He doesn't have a car, and the temperature now is pretty cold. So he walks to the nearest grocery store, which is expensive and has a limited selection and carries food home. Or he takes a bus or a cab and carries food home. And what you take home is limited by what you can carry. And that is why it costs more if you are poor- everything is less efficient. You have to make a lot of trips or buy smaller quantities.

Last time he got his food stamp card I picked him up so he could do bulk shopping and not have to carry it all on the bus or walking. He took an hour. I was happy to help.

[EFerrari]

74. If I had taken the bus to Safeway from my place in San Francisco

it would have taken me two plus hours not counting the shopping time, the way the bus ran.

Or, I could walk across the street to buy packaged and processed cr@p from the Mom & Pop -- which I was many times grateful to have so close.

Everything costs more and takes longer when you're poor, no kidding.

[Politicub]

23. Not being a good gift giver

I have the hardest time spending money on presents. It makes me feel selfish and cheap.

This past year was different. I turned it around by putting money in a gift account each month so it wasn't as much of an issue when a bday or Xmas came around.

[Codeine]

25. I don't have the bad food habits,

but every other goddamn thing on that list is some shit of which I am seriously and repeatedly guilty. Jeez. That hurts.

[TwilightGardener]

30. I can totally relate to some of this. Especially #4 (spend the money on something good before

everyday life makes it disappear!) and #1 (I only buy what I need, regardless of sales and deals). I grew up in a working class family and my parents struggled to cover the basics, and I keep some of this mentality even now into middle age.

[LiberalEsto]

32. I never thought about this before

but many parts of that article resonate with me. I grew up barely teetering on the edge of lower middle class. Immigrant parents who came here with nothing. Ugly, wrong-sized hand-me-down clothes, a house skimpily furnished with used furniture from the Salvation Army, almost no toys and zero spending money.

My father was so stingy that I was afraid, at age 16, to beg him for fifty cents to buy a pair of new knee socks. My parents had grown up comfortably middle class, so they didn't really have a poor person's outlook on life, but I developed one, and I still carry it today.

Thanks for posting it.

[TBF]

34. Absolutely true - every single word. nt

[Smilo]

37. Sometimes all we had for

dinner was dripping sandwiches - (the fatty juice of meat, sometimes eaten on white bread) - we had it on toast and at the time it was lovely - other gross things my Mum would cook - pigs' head - she even cooked beef cheeks stew, which we ate the vegetables and refused to eat the "meat" - absolutely revolting, but we ate it and were glad we had food.

Fatty food is cheap and if you have limited funds that is what you are going to steer towards. Also, remember not everyone has a full kitchen to be able to cook real meals - many people only have access to microwaves.

[Populist_Prole]

38. Growing up money was very tight, and my parents still exhibit these behaviors.

The list has points that are brutally frank.

That's the way my mother still is: If she comes into an extra 50 bucks, she'll go out and spend 75. She completely blew through her retirement lump-sum in less than 5 years by basically spoiling her grandkids ( who want and need for absolutely nothing ) and other over generous gifting, and now she's just barely getting by.

[SheilaT]

39. Very interesting.

I grew up fairly poor, and a lot of the article resonates with me.

What struck me the most, however, was the part about giving gifts. My parents never went overboard -- we were poor but lived within our means.

As an adult I lived in an apartment complex for a while where about half of the people had that over-indulging with gifts at Christmas behavior. I couldn't understand it then, but now it makes sense.

[tabasco]

40. Whoever wrote this

has never been really poor.

[handmade34]

48. food stamps??

how 'bout gov't surplus of dried eggs, powdered milk and canned meat!

I won't make a judgement about the author, but I do know much of what he writes is true -and funny or tragic, depending on current situation

[tabasco]

73. When you're really poor, you don't buy tv dinners and frozen shit.

You'll fucking starve.

You buy rice, boullion cubes and margarine. And hot sauce.

You buy beans too but only in bigass bags or bulk at way under 1$ pound.

Fucking beans have become expensive in the last 10 years.

You might buy bologna and pickles and bread. Maybe.

[boppers]

80. +1.

I responded without first reading this, but when you're poor, you often don't have:
1) Microwave
2) Freezer
3) House to store said items
4) Electricity in house to run said items
5) Money to buy shit as ridiculously expensive as processed food

Poor people cannot afford processed food. A single small bag of lentils/beans/rice, good for 15-20 meals, or a single TV dinner? Yeah, go for the bag. Even better, save up and get the big bag.

This is closer to "struggling college student with no cooking skills" than actually being poor.

[Prism]

41. Yeah, I checked my account balance three times this morning

I do ok for myself, and I have a healthy buffer in the bank for emergencies, but I grew up fairly poor and was unemployed for two years, and damn if I don't scour my checking account and expenses at least once a day, mentally making sure everything will balance at the end of the month. It's almost a compulsion to check out of an irrational fear that hundreds of dollars are going to simply vanish out of my bank account inexplicably and without warning.

Every time I enter a store, there is a calculator running my head that simply will not shut. the hell. up.

Last night I biked home from work six miles through pouring rain, thoroughly getting everything soaked . . . because I didn't want to spend $1.75 on a BART ticket.

That I can easily, easily afford. I wouldn't even miss that $1.75. It's literally pocket change. But my brain was going "No! Nooo. It's just water. Don't spend!"

Urph. Being poor is more noggin traumatizing than mental Catholic leftovers.

[boppers]

81. "a calculator running my head that simply will not shut. the hell. up."

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

[catrose]

51. Until the 70s-80s

obesity was recognized as a form of malnutrition. Then in Senate hearings, a senator (McGovern, I think) said, "If these people are so malnourished, why are they fat?" And the idea stuck and gave people a new reason to look down on others.

For a sources, see Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories.

[Jackpine Radical]

54. McGovern?!!

Are you sure about that?

[catrose]

70. I indicated that I wasn't sure

but it was someone on the McGovern committee in the 70s, the committee that published the Dietary Guidelines report in 1977.

[Ruby the Liberal]

66. Another Gary Taubes fan here.

I would like to see Mr. Taubes' work get more mention, so thank you for that.

[catrose]

72. You're welcome

I had to read it in fits and starts because I kept getting mad: "You mean they've known about that since the 60s?" (and in some cases earlier)

[flamingdem]

58. Excellent and honest however

many poor people are intelligent and read up on nutrition.

Education and being poor are not mutually exclusive and there are ways to balance fresh with canned!

[valerief]

59. OMG, that article is soooo true. nt

[Phlem]

61. You should send that to the Mormons

That'd throw their whole world upside down.

PS. if anyone doesn't know, authoritative superiority complex = Mormons

My wife is non practicing because if she decides to quit the religion, she'll be ostracized and and theoretically her relatives would not be allowed to talk to her anymore.

Ask me if that is not F'ed up.

-p

[Phlem]

62. PS and

yea her asshole Dad just pummels us with what he thinks about people living on sidewalks.

Like they've got some prime real estate and are living it up from begging. Cause you know if they can speak and walk they can get a job.

-p

[boppers]

82. As somebody who grew up poor, and Mormon, I'm not sure what you are trying to say.

I "quit", and Missionaries and elders still visit me once or twice a year, asking me if I'm OK and want to hang out with them again.

None of my relatives stopped talking to me.

[Phlem]

86. This is what my wife told me.

She hasn't been to church in forever and they still do visit us. But there is an I option to formerly quit the church that she won't do for fear of being ex-communicated. And they don't visit anymore.

-p

[ProgressiveEconomist]

63. Just the way alcoholics hide

pints of booze around the house, poor people often leave small amounts of cash in sofas, winter coat pockets, etc. That way, when things get really bad, when there's absolutely no food for the kids, there's still hope that, if everybody looks hard enough, a few quarters might be found for a handful of potatoes, a loaf of bread, or a bag of rice.

[boppers]

83. +10000

I'd probably lose a grand or more if my house caught on fire. Maybe 10 grand, because of hidden depression-era silver.

[BlueIris]

64. Sleeping under a pile of leaves, indeed. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

67. Thanks for posting this, I definitely relate

As uncomfortable a read as that was, it was enlightening and I can relate to many of those behaviours.

Thanks for posting this.

[Kablooie]

69. And the sixth stupidest habit...

Voting Republican.

[tjwash]

71. Pretty close article...I still squirrel money away, and check my bank account obsessively

To this day, even with a credit score in the low 800s, I constantly wait for the other shoe to drop whenever I apply for any type of credit. I always obsess and wait for "the call," which, as anyone who as ever been flat broke knows, is someone from a creditor not only telling you that you are denied, but also giving you unsolicited, detailed reasons why you are denied, which always seems to feel like a cold boot in the ass.

Nothing is worse than having no place to live because the 5 cheap apartments you just applied to, deny you because of something that happened 5 or 6 years before, and I kind of carry that helpless-hopeless feeling with me decades later, in some parts of my life.

On the food side... to this day I can't even look at peanut butter or even go by a fast food place now without a little queasiness in my stomach, having lived on cheap barely sustaining you food for years.

[boppers]

75. Lets' see how many ways this article pisses me off!

I haven't read any other responses yet, but this "I'm poor" shit from middle class folks tends to annoy the hell out of me.

5. If you're getting fat from eating poor, you're eating too goddamn many calories, or just eating too goddamn often. Are you eating more than once a day? Then, based on my childhood, you are not yet poor.
4. Stop buying that shit. If you get a windfall check, you are no longer poor. If you get a windfall, and blow it, well, you just decided you'd rather be poor, and maybe you should learn to grow your own food instead of buying shit and complaining about needing help.
3. Same as #4.
2. Learn math, and balance that shit in your head. Done. Stress gone.
1. Actually a good one, and those who have been poor for decades eventually figure this one out anyways. Money can stretch super-far once you learn hard-care long-term budgeting.

[joeglow3]

77. Canned/Frozen Vegatables are NOT bad for you

The author makes that claim, while studies there is next to no difference with "fresh" vegatables. Thus, that excuse falls flat in the face of science.

[boppers]

84. BPA

Not saying it's good science, but it's popular to talk about right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

[tabbycat31]

85. I live on frozen veggies

I find most of the time fresh ones tend to be a waste of $$ (for me because I don't like the texture of raw veggies and I cook them all anyways).

However, I have the cooking skills to prepare them and make them tasty. I consider myself a fairly good cook, and if you gave me a few ingredients, I could make a meal out of them without looking on the internet for a recipe. Many people do not have those skills and were not taught how to cook from scratch. I also have a freezer and oven, which is more than many poor people can say.

AS for squirreling money away, as someone who's job is seasonal in nature, I am very used to that.

[fishwax]

79. great article

I'm sure various people will have very different experiences, but based on my own experience and the experiences of many I've known the article rings very true.

[hifiguy]

88. A lot of truth there

I don't have any family or close friends, so I don't give or receive presents, but the rest strikes home. I was unemployed for three-plus years and have had only subsistence level jobs when employed since 2005.

I've been on GA and food stamps and would have wound up homeless if not for a couple of college friends and recognize my own habits in that article. I do tend to buy and cook a fair amount of fresh food - especially veggies. Clothes are replaced only when they wear out and I haven't seen a dentist in years.

I remember when I actually had disposable income but I don't know if I will ever break the habits I have developed as a poor person.

[Nikia]

89. What about hoarding?

I know that is the opposite of what some of the article is about. In my personal experience, people who grew up poor are more likely to be tight with their money even if they have a lot of it saved in the bank. They also seem less willing to part with old, worn out, or damaged clothes, furniture, appliances, linens, and other home items because they might need them or feel like they shouldn't get new when they have "perfectly good" items. This can even extend to food, especially "non perishable" foods that might be out of date but could be edible. They are so afraid of not having enough that they have to save what they have.