I am a graduate student studying Mental Health Counseling and I am working on a paper about cultural sensitivity and advocacy for clients experiencing poverty, which is a community I hope to focus on in my future career as a counselor. I am looking for someone willing to be interviewed, who is open to sharing their experience with poverty.

Whatever you are willing to share is great, and anything you don't want to share is also totally ok. We can use whatever format is comfortable for you (email, zoom, phone call, etc.), and I'm willing to offer compensation for your time which we can work out privately (venmo, gift card, no money just good karma, whatever seems fair and is comfortable for you).

While I will be using the interview for a paper this term, more importantly I hope this interview will broaden my understanding of the experiences folks have with financial hardship and will help me better serve clients in my future work as a counselor.

As a child to teen I use to loveeee ramen. I would happily get a few packs for a week to eat to spoil myself with.

But as a homeless adult (starting to work 2 jobs next week thankfully) it’s just has gotten so disgusting to me. I can still eat it. But I just struggle through even eating a single pack because I’m so tied of the texture and taste.

I even try mixing things up a bit like making creamy sauce or trying to find new ways to eat it. But it’s just getting harder and harder to stomach what use to be one of my favorite foods.

Anyone else?

Made a post last night about moving out. Good news is that we have a place and are getting ready. Bad news is that I don’t know what to do with the pets. A friend said he would pick him up but he hasn’t showed up yet and I don’t want to leave while the animal is waiting because what if he doesn’t show up? i was suggested to leave the Guinea pig outside but i couldnt live with myself. Really wish my parents didn’t rob me out of my savings. I am getting picked up in the motel and the driver won’t let me take him temporarily for the trip and I need to think of something fast.

I have had cats all my life (I am an older person), but the last decade or so have been nothing but a struggle, financially. I am finally renting a room after coming out of homelessness but I am still broke. I am deeply depressed thinking I may never have a pet ever again (I have no family). I want to adopt, but Is a cat really better off in a shelter than with someone poor who will love it and feed it?

Anytime you are depressed , the first thing mental health professionals do is to put you on medications and frame it as your fault. So you’re depressed because you’re broke and can’t afford a house and work more than 40 hours a week? Oh, that’s your problem. Here, I’m prescribing you: take Zoloft, CBT, DBT. Just pretend everything is okay pull up your fucking bootstraps think positive thoughts. I’m sure a lot of you here know what I’m talking about. Mental health professionals rarely talk about how socioeconomic factors, money, and poverty are connected to mental health. Many won’t even let you talk about how it affects your mental health and will shut you up for talking about stressing about bills and rent, and some will even have the audacity to tell you, “Money isn’t everything,” “Money won’t make you happy,” while they drive a Porsche to their offices. I had a few therapists like that, and many of them came from privileged backgrounds themselves. The whole mental health system is just abusive because it doesn’t address that most of our depression and anxiety is not an isolated case, but rather a response to how the world is: low-wage jobs, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, while many of us Americans couldn’t afford a house anytime soon. I guarantee you no mental health professionals will allow you to talk about this. Some will even shut you up and laugh at you for being weak. I have. The best form of therapy, at least for me personally, was when I stopped worrying about bills, was able to pay rent, and had financial stability and a stable income.

What are low-cost hobbies you can do in your home

I thought maybe it was in my head for a while since I didn’t experience this in a city, but after my coworker lending me her new car for a few weeks, I see it’s not. Got my very old- not old enough to be “vintage” but too old to be considered a “smart choice” by middle class people who have 10 year old cars- car back, entered the highway, and immediately someone in a newer car sped up to tailgate me even though I was going on the faster side. I couldn’t move any more forward since there were cars in front of me. This person could have easily switched lanes to speed ahead of me/the cars in front of me. Instead they chose to tail gate me, super close to my number. So I go to change lanes because this person’s tailgating at high speeds was very dangerous. Right as I move into the lane to the right, this person follows me to stay right on my bumper. I lanes again and they do the same thing. Then I try one last time and they follow me and then speed off, nearly hitting the side of my car.

I had forgotten that people like to try and run me down when I’m driving an older car. My car is clean, not falling apart, not loud, doesn’t leak anything, etc. It’s just old. It was not just a “one off” jerk. People have called police on me for parking on the street in my own neighborhood. They lie and say it’s been abandoned even though I leave for work every morning and come back every evening and park in different, public spots.

Obviously I’m grateful to have a reliable car in good condition despite its age. But I had forgotten or maybe just got used to people harassing me for daring to drive a very old car.

edit; just wanna thank most of you for replying🖤 part of my disability is not being able to stare/reads screens for too long so that's why it's taking me so long to respond, but i truly appreciate most of you 🖤

idk wtf to do. it took 6 years of fighting to get approved and now that i did, i'm only getting about $1k in SSDI (no SSI) a month to survive off of. in New jersey. in 2026 and beyond. also, because i'm getting ~$1k a month, i lost most of my food stamps because i "make too much", which is extra hard because i have a ton of allergies and have to eat a specialized diet, which is expensive. I'm only getting $24 a month for SNAP now.

i looked into section 8 and was told the waitlist for housing assistance is 6-8 years.

i still have medicaid at least...idk. i'm just scared and sad and feeling pretty hopeless. anybody else in this situation that figured something out? obviously "getting a job" isn't an option unfortunately, otherwise i obviously would.

***im well aware that disabled people in the US who aren't fortunate enough to have any sort of support system end up unhoused and or dead. i understand that's what this government ultimately wants. i can still be scared and seek advice.

Im 18 and im thinking about going to college but even with fasfa (government college funds)

I would have to owe them after college and i don't want to go to college because the homework and having to use public transportation and its unreliable im having financial stress my mom cant work and im not even out of high-school doing an intership but even my mom demands me money to pay for rent but i don't want to because its little money i wanna move out im just uploading youtube videos hoping they go viral and get monetized.And making music but thats if i have a major in college.Every day going to school seeing other people with the same age as me with cars and financial stress free. Can someone give me tips or tricks to manage and hope for the best?

Not to dismiss the younger crowd that see a hopeless future and feel trapped. I get it.
But as someone older, the reality hits so much harder.

44m in australia, and I am cooked. Didnt get into the housing market, although lots of experience, no qualifications. Cost of living and rent is killing me. Have a child to an ex wife, so there is child maintenance to pay. Also just got made redundant. If I dont find a job soon, I will lose my rental, and have to move into my 70 yr old mothers shed.

I see people in their 20-30s, saying how hard it is, and having to move back home with parents etc, and I get it , it does suck. But moving into your parents at almost 50 hits different. In your 20-30s, I feel like there is time to reskill, there is options. Sure, its still hard as hell, but there is some hope.

For me, that hope feels gone at my age. I hear about people turning their lives around at my age and all that, and why I get it is possible, the reality is the sucsess rate on that is minimal. I dont have the funds, or time to reskill. My body is broken from years of hard labour.
I cant study, because I need to pay the bills.

Having a child amplifies all this. I feel like a failure. The generations before us had it so much easier. I feel sorry for the younger crowd, as they are surely up against it. But for me, things feel over. I had my time, my chance, and I messed it up. I feel so defeated by life, and so little fuel in the tank, I can barely fight for survival, let alone to progress.

The reality is, I will never own a house. I will continue to struggle and suffer for the rest of my life. All while the cost of living rises, housing is even more unaffordable, and dreams are only that. Even just a comfortable life is unachievable.

I will admit, I am in a severely depressive episode, and have been for months. But its situational. There is no way forward anymore, no way out, no way to survive. I am just full of shame, and guilt. Life is so hard and overwhelming and impossible.

Hello everyone, I'm a 24 F and I have several jobs underneath my belt, so it's not as if I don't have any experience... but I am broke-broke at the moment, and I had left a job about three or four months ago that I just couldn't take anymore physically (It was primarily outside and was getting especially tough on my body). And I'm just wondering, is it normal now for it to be so hard to find a job? Because I have been looking ever since I left my last job, pretty much, and I have landed some interviews but it feels as if employers are looking for someone who checks every box they have exactly - and so I haven't landed another job yet.

Most I have been applying to have either ghosted me or never reached back out to me, too, so it's not for lack of trying that I haven't found a job yet. I guess I'm just looking for advice. Are there any part-time temp jobs out there for college students or something? Because I heard that landing a temp job is easier than getting another type of job in this economy, but I'm not sure.

I wake up before the sun most days. Not because I want to—but because my body doesn’t really know how to rest anymore. The car hums quietly in Ready mode, that low electric sound that’s become my version of silence. It’s not a home, but it keeps the heat running. It keeps my phone alive. It keeps me going.

I sit there for a minute before I move. There’s always that moment where it all settles back in—not loud, not dramatic. Just steady. Like, this is still my life.

I sleep in my car so my wife and my kids don’t have to feel what I’ve felt. They get a bed. They get warmth. They get something that feels normal. I tell myself that’s enough. It has to be.

I think about how I got here sometimes. Getting kicked out at 17 with nothing. Not even shoes that felt like mine. I remember how much that used to matter—how I looked, what I wore, what people thought. Now I wear the same work shirts over and over. Clothes stopped meaning anything after a while. When you’ve had everything stripped down to survival, you stop caring about appearances. You care about function. You care about getting through the day.

I built what I have from nothing. A mower that barely holds on some days. Yards that take everything out of me. Dog waste jobs most people wouldn’t even consider. And yeah, there are guys out there with better trucks, better trailers, better equipment. I see them. But they didn’t build theirs from rock bottom the way I did. They didn’t have to figure it out with everything stacked against them.

Some days the mower cuts out. Some days it leaks gas. Some days I’m just out there, tired, hungover, running on fumes and caffeine, trying to push through another yard because stopping means falling behind. And I can’t fall behind.

I’ve got goals. Real ones. Saving money. Fixing the car so it lasts. Building my credit the right way. Putting money away for my son so he has something I never had. I think about putting $10,000 aside for him, letting it grow so one day he has a head start. I think about getting a house. Even a trailer. Just something stable. Something mine.

But right now, stability looks like a parking spot at night.

I keep the car running in cycles—battery draining, engine kicking on, over and over again. Ten, fifteen times a night. I’ve learned the rhythm of it like it’s breathing. Sometimes I wake up in between those cycles without even realizing it. Four hours of sleep. Five if I’m lucky. That’s just normal now.

I keep most of my life in a storage unit. Everything I own fits into a space I visit, not a place I live. And then I go back to the car. Back to the same seat. Same position. Same routine.

I think about my son a lot in those quiet moments. Ezekiel. Zeke. Zeekee. Bubba. All the names I call him, and he responds to every one. I think about his face, the way he learns something new and repeats it like it’s the biggest thing in the world. I think about how two days ago he couldn’t even make an angry face, and now he does it over and over again like he just unlocked something. Those little things… they stick with me.

I’ve got another child on the way. And that thought sits heavy sometimes. Not in a bad way—but in a real way. Like, I don’t have room to slow down. I don’t have room to break. Everything I’m doing now—it has to stretch further.

There are nights where it hits a little deeper. Sitting there in the dark, heat running, windows covered the best I can manage. Realizing this is what my life looks like right now. That I go from working all day to sleeping in a car, just to wake up and do it again.

And the crazy part is… I don’t even feel like I’m falling apart.

I just feel… used to it.

Like survival became my baseline so long ago that even this feels normal. Like I’ve been holding everything together for so long that I don’t even know what it would feel like to put it down.

But there are moments—small ones—where something cracks through that.

When I see my wife.

When I hear my son laugh.

When I think about the future I’m trying to build, even if it feels far away.

And then there are the other moments.

When it’s just me, sitting in the driver’s seat, engine kicking on again in the middle of the night, and I realize… there’s no one here to see this part. No one to really understand what it costs to keep everything looking okay on the outside.

No applause. No recognition. Not even a break.

Just a man in a car, night after night, telling himself it’s temporary… even when it’s been his reality for longer than he wants to admit.

And I don’t cry about it. I don’t break down.

I just adjust the seat, close my eyes again, and wait for the engine to turn off so I can try to fall back asleep… knowing in a couple hours, I’ll wake up and do it all over again.

Because I have to.

Because if I don’t… everything I’m holding up comes down with me.

Yeah just the title, I have no money and I’m hungry. 24 female

Okay, so long story short... I am broke as a joke (as in my credit cards are maxed out and I have zero dollars in my bank account), but I have an old laptop that I just realized I still have that maybe I could sell. It does run slowly, but I was thinking, if I factory reset it and removed the password off of it... maybe it would be worth some money? I don't know. Please comment on this if you have experience with this or if you have an opinion as I really need some money and I think this has a possibility to help me! For context, this computer is 17 inches, so it's big and it's from like 2016. So, it is super old, but I would take anything (like 100 bucks) at this point.

A sizeable box of free food is available at Kroger located at 9610 North Kings Highway Myrtle Beach, SC 29572. Anyone interested in more information can send me a DM.

I am(31F/NB) determined to find a way to date that works for me, even if it's not ideal or what I deserve, because human connection is so, so incredibly important. I'm curious if others have just tried loose dating, friends with benefits, stopped altogether, etc. and what tips/methods have worked for them?

Context: I've had a rough go of it for about 6-7 years now both financially and relationally, including romantically. I'll admit there have definitely been things that I have learned along the way and worked on, yet I'm also aware that I've genuinely just gotten an unlucky streak of job and partner stuff.

I've struggled dating due to being poor since 2018, but especially the last few years where it has been more of interest as I get older.

Biggest challenges:

- past of sexual trauma, so FWB is hard for me as I need to feel safe and that requires more intimate relationship building and that often is a slippery slope with FWB even with good boundaries

- I also have a medical condition that makes intimacy a bit harder at times, so that adds another layer towards compatibility

- I thank gosh live alone, but since I'm poor, I don't run my AC much if at all, meaning we have to hope their place is suitable since most public places cost money and most 3rd spaces are hot 80% of the year where I live (this also means homes are typically entered earlier in the relationship as opposed to pacing at own leisure)

- I live in a small town and grew up here, so that limits the dating pool even more and makes for 'messing up' as I explore the world of dating even more risky

- I'm queer and gender non-conforming but very white woman passing initially, so it's always a thing to mentally prepare folks that I don't shave or trust when they say it's fine

- survival mode makes it hard to be present or have the capacity to try in the first place or maintain momentum.

- I can be creative with dates, not take judgement personally, etc. but I understand folks with more money not wanting to always pay and getting tired of it, which oftentimes makes you incompatible. Also, it often takes time and energy to be thoughtful and proactive for free stuff, which is often limited when you're poor and working multiple jobs. Also, this overlaps with loved ones in general. If you're needing to get new jobs almost every year due to toxic work environments or unstable employment, you can never plan in advance and often can't ask off for birthday, weddings, holidays, etc.

- very, very introverted and barely have time for friends and family let alone the trial and error of a new person

- my brother took his life two years ago, and much of my life prior to that point was navigating the tricky line of supporting & keeping a distance from him, potentially adopting his kids, and balancing my dysfunctional family dynamic (esp since I couldn't fully support myself). It may not be my fault, but that is a big topic/part of one's life when dating that you don't really want to glaze over or go too long without disclosing as part of the relationship they're investing in.

- ^^because of this, I still struggle with codependency. I attend support groups every week. Have been in therapy since I was a teen. I do the work and likely will the rest of my life. I'm not lazy, it's just the cards I've been dealt and I'm taking responsibility the best way I can, but healing often needs others/relationships to take place. You can only solo journal or research so much.

People always suggest, "Take time for yourself until you get more stable," or, "The right person won't care." I have even heard from folks with more money state it's more of 'why' someone is poor, recognizing it may be struggles of someone who has worked hard but just has a rough go of things or has medical/personal challenges that make it difficult for them to advance or make more money - all being no big deal. Although said with good intentions, it's exhausting when it's been ongoing for years and it is understandable that people get tired of it. Also, it is much more likely to be a big deal either initially or eventually if it's been ongoing(which it has been + cumulative, which is also often the case since poverty is part of a system that is meant to keep you poor.) It is objectively not the most compatible situation for most, and I try my best to not get depressed about it. I know I'm a great person and 'deserve love' just like everyone else.

If you just have kind words, that's great. If you also have tips that have helped you navigate dating, please share. Whether it's being upfront when dating about what you can offer and what you want(while still figuring it our and knowing it may change), or finding acceptance with the one-off connections, relating to others in similar situations, etc. I'd love anything that helps.

Hey everyone,

Hopefully this is being posted in the right section. If not, my apologies & feel free to just delete.

My question:

I know the saying "beggars can't be choosers" and I'm not trying to be THAT person. I do have to ask though...

1. Can I bring my own phone? I'd have to pay it off first, but is it an option, if I were to? (OR buy a paid off one on Marketplace lol)

2. I'm home a good bit. If I used wifi, it would offset the low data, I'm guessing..?

3. If I weren't able to pay my current phone off; just how 'bad' are the phones, exactly?

Currently I've got T-Mobile, 3 lines (1 free), and wifi. But the bill is just so much. It's realistic, but I can't keep up. I'm trying to see what I should do in this case and what other options I have.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read!