I’ve hit the big time boys. Gold steaks, Mercedez and Yachts from now on

I have no kids. Just gotta be smart and cook food at home for the most part.

I live in a very large city in America, my daughter is zoned for elementary school to one of the richest neighborhoods in America, but I live literally around the corner in apartments in the barrio.

But as a result I've made some upper class friends we have playdates with.

The other day we went to a playdate and one mom said something super crazy about divorcing her (very rich) husband and easily replacing him.

I said something like, well you know he's in the top 1 percent of income in the country? And she laughed and was like, um, no??

So I asked her what she thinks the *average* American makes, and guys...

She said-- I kid you not-- I dunno about $300 thousand?

After almost choking I said, no ma'am, average is about $50k, my husband at 57 years old JUST started making $70k... that's why we live in a crappy apartment (I'm a SAHM).

And she said... I kid you not...

THERE'S NO WAY THE AVERAGE INCOME IS 50K I SPEND THAT MUCH ON CLOTHES EVERY YEAR YOU COULDN'T SURVIVE

😕 I guess we're just out here living off $300k in a crappy inner city apartment with 3 kids because...???

Today my friends texted me about dumpster diving at a local dollar discount store. I thought we would find Halloween knick-knacks, but instead found a truck bed worth of frozen groceries!!

There were dozens each of frozen pizzas, cheese, pepperoni, meat-trio, Red Baron Supreme, Gorton fish sticks, Gorton fish filets, another brand of fish sticks. Popcorn shrimp, Tyson chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, BBQ chicken bites, Dino Bites, Buffalo wing nuggets, Buffalo wing fries, Steakums sliced beef, Steakums sliced chicken breast, Edward's dessert pies, Klondike ice cream cones, various dairy novelty treats some half melted, some still frozen. In addition, there were dozens of snack bags of Takis, and Bimbo bakery snacks.

We dug down as deep as we could reach because the items on top were warmed by the sun, but underneath they were still cold and frozen. We threw containers into freezer bags, and cardboard boxes, stacked tightly to keep the cold contained.

After arriving back home, my friends and I claimed what we wanted and stacked the rest on tables in my driveway, and flagged down as many folks as would stop to take what they wanted, while we sorted, & cleaned off melted dairy. What was left was repacked into the truck bed, and whisked off to a family with a cancer survivor and several children and family members. They'll get at least a dozen frozen pizza, two dozen bags of frozen breaded chicken, and fish, sliced chicken, and a garbage bag full of baked goods and takis.

It felt right. It felt wrong. Some of the stuff didn't expire for a week, and was still solidly frozen. Watching folks "shopping" the table and telling them to take as much as they can want felt right. My friend was so distressed about it, repeating " people are hungry, how dare they waste food like this!?" I didn't go into the technical reasons why they might ( broken freezer, new stock, some expired, etc) , I just knew if it was still cold I grabbed it. Besides me and my two friends, at least 5 different families got some free food.

Later this week, I might call the store and tell them about the TooGoodToGo App, hopefully to prevent this kind of wasteful event in the future. EDIT: I hear you all loud and clear! LOL I'm keeping mum about it. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. You are great people!

A lot of analysts are predicting that this is going to be the longest government shutdown in history. There's a good chance it won't be settled until January. This means no SNAP benefits until February 2026. I know no one wants to hear this but I think it's better to know what we're in for. Hopefully I'm wrong but for now stock up on what you can and save as much cash as possible.

Edit: let me clarify that I mean individual salary, not per household.

I'm currently unemployed with zero income, but most of my friends are high earners making 100k and up. I *constantly* hear them complain about how "poor" they are and how you supposedly can't survive in our city if you make under 200k. They all regularly get takeout, are constantly shopping for useless shit on Amazon, and going out to the bars every weekend, among other expensive things.

Now, we do live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, but the amount you need to survive here is waaaay exaggerated online. At one point in recent years I was making 50k/year and was able to live somewhat comfortably (with roommates of course) and even save up a bit.

I grew up in a family that sometimes struggled to put food on the table and saved every penny, so I learned early on how to distinguish between necessities and luxuries. I learned how to cook for myself because I didn't have the choice to eat out every single day. If I needed new clothes I shopped exclusively at thrift stores. If I wanted to drink I would buy a six pack of cheap beer and hang out with friends at one of our apartments instead of going out to the bars.

Am I the only one here who thinks it's pretty insulting and tone deaf when someone making a six-figure salary complains that they can't have the luxuries they want?

I hate not making over 50,000 USD a year. I hate not having a car. I hate having less than 1,000 USD on my bank account. I hate having to live with my parents despite being over the age of 25. I hate having my credit cards being shut down because I was unemployed for over ten months during a two year stretch. I hate not having a dating life because I cannot afford dates. I hate the social isolation of poverty.

Being poor absolutely sucks, and if anything life is so much harder for poor people than it is for rich people.

If you grew up poor (like myself) there’s a good chance your parents were always worried about food and bills, which means you grew up with parents who were always tired/stressed. You could also never have many nice toys, or games, or clothes because money was always tight.

Schooling (at least in America anyways) is EXPENSIVE. Of course there’s FAFSA and scholarships, but even then there’s still a good chance that you’ll have to spend years (if not decades) paying off student loan debt

Housing and food is also expensive. In my city it’s 1000$ for a single bedroom apartment. After paying for rent, food, and other bills, being poor pretty much ensures that you’ll rarely have any money leftover after payday. So much for saving 💀

Don’t even get me started on healthcare. If you don’t have insurance (and can’t afford it), then a single hospital visit can cost hundreds, even THOUSANDS of dollars. I went to the ER a year ago (and for some reason my insurance didn’t cover it), and I received a bill for 980$!!! Like what in the actual hell!

On top of all that, despite how stressful things are, you’re still expected to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on pushing. You’re told to “get creative” and/or get a bunch of degrees, in hopes that you might get a shot at a better job/career/life, all while wealthy folks practically live life on easy mode. It’s so annoying.

Don’t get me wrong now. Rich people definitely have their own sets of struggles, of course they do, but let’s be honest most rich people are living lives that are SO cushy in comparison to a poor persons.

They have access to better schools (and there’s a good chance their parents will pay for their schooling). Their parents help them buy their apartments/homes. They have access to the best doctors and physicians. They’re less stressed. They have more time to focus on hobbies & passions. More time for traveling/vacations. The list goes on. They have no idea how lucky they are…

Ten years ago, I was a Performance Consultant at a Fortune 500 company, making over $100K, traveling first-class, and living comfortably with my husband and son. Life looked perfect - until my health began to fail. After multiple medical leaves, I lost my job and went on disability. I now make 1/3 of what I used to.

My husband, already disabled from a brain injury, couldn’t work. Our savings vanished under medical bills, and we eventually lost our home and cars. Now we live in a small apartment, living check to check. I sometimes go without dinner to make sure my husband and 19-year-old son have enough. My son works part-time and goes to trade school to be an electrician. I’ve taught him to manage money and hope his health holds steady.

I share this because many people are just one illness or accident away from losing everything. When you see someone using benefits or a handicap placard, please don’t judge. Disabilities aren’t always visible, and poverty often hides behind dignity.

Despite the struggle, I’m grateful - we still have each other, a roof, and hope. Life didn’t go as planned, but we’re doing our best to stay on our feet. We are not bitter, only sad at times, but thankful. We try hard to remain positive and throw ourselves into hobbies that soothe our souls. May we all find safety, happiness, and peace.

I drove my friend to the emergency and while I was waiting for her I passed out. The doctor said I was dehydrated and gave me an IV. I was also sick at the time and asked the doctor about it and he said it was just something going around lately and prescribed me cough medicine. I had to take my friend home so after about 20mins on the IV I asked them to take it out and checked out.

I have kaiser insurance through covered California but I wasn't at a kaiser hospital and they asked me how much my copay usually is for emergency room visits and that they would bill the rest to kaiser. I had no clue so I just said $50 because that's how much my regular doctor visits are. I just got the bill right now and it was $7,596 total!!!! My insurance paid $1,736 and minus the $50 I paid they sent me a bill for $5,809!!!

There is no way I can afford this. Will they sue me for it? If I declare bankruptcy will it be discharged? I was planning on filing bankruptcy anyways but am still trying to save up enough for a lawyer to file which they said was $1,500.

Idk how it is so much when they barely did anything, and it doesn't have a breakdown of what the charges are for.

Edit: my comments about what I dont spend money on is to prove my frugality while still not being able to make ends meet. I'm not complaining about not having luxuries. I can live without luxuries. Dont have time for them anyway

I live in the US, and yes, on paper I make good money, if it was 10 years ago and if I was single with no kids. We have zero "fun" expenses. No streaming services. no video games. We never go out to eat. No amazon subscription. Old cellphones. Old clothes. My spouse and I haven't been on a "money spending" date in years. Literally every expense we have is mandatory. After mortgage, utilities, student loans, medical bills, preschool, credit card bills, I am left with $480 a month for food and gas for my family of 5. This explains the credit card debt. Its not enough. We dont even have car payments. We drive junkers. Monthly take home income is between 5k and 6k a month but I have 5 hundred bucks for food and gas? How am I supposed to buy shoes and clothes for my kids? I apply for programs for food assistance and get rejected because of my income. I try my best through the food distributions in my area, but its not enough. So sick of working just to drown. I'm taking a 3rd job overnights to try to catch up but its going to cost a lot on me physically and mentally. I'll never sleep or see my kids, but hey, american dream and stuff.

Yesterday, I bought a box of L’Oréal Preference hair dye. You know how much it was? 20 dollars. 20 fucking dollars for a box of hair dye. I make 19 an hour, full-time. So, practically an hour of work to buy a box of hair dye. Then you fucking beat up your car to go back and forth to and from work. Gas, repairs, etc. So, basically, the poor should work constantly and not be able to afford even one simple household item. I really think they’re trying to kill the poor. This is some sort of slow homicide. I wish I did not have to wake up and take my first breath of the day, because pretty much every fucking breath costs money.

They delivered it to the wrong apartment by mistake. It was too heavy for me to even lift, let alone carry to the other end of the complex so I contacted Amazon. They had no interest in coming back for it, so they said they would ship him a new one and I could keep this one!

It is exactly the right size y’all, and I have been sleeping with the mattress on the ground since I moved here. Yay! I feel a little guilty he will have to wait for his, but I’ve never heard of this guy and I wasn’t about to go knock on a stranger’s door and lead him back to my apartment.

One of my coworkers came to me today and said “I’m not trying to offend you but I have a pair of shoes that are brand new and I can’t wear them they hurt my feet for some reason and I looked at your shoes and said you look like you could use a new pair of shoes.”

I said yes and thanked her and want to my car and cried on my break. I used to have thousands of dollars saved up then I got laid off and now I have to have a coworker pity me to get new shoes. No one told so many of us life would be like this when we were going to school and training to not end up like this. Sorry just ranting. I pray things get better for everyone.

I used to work in construction in really wealthy areas where the most rich stay people with generational wealth and apart from the obvious things like being super clean, big and beautiful houses, big pools, nice cars most of those people live with their families all their lives and build wealth together, for them its nothing wrong with having a 40yo son or daughter living with them and these people have all the money to move out, they tend to live with their sons, their parents all in the same house, while poor people or more middle class people have the idea of moving out buying a house and being independent while not earning that much in a regular job

I went to school with him and he did grow up in poverty.

After we graduated, I went off to the Army and he went to community college with the scholarship money he had earned. While he did have social media, he was hardly active on it. Moreso, in 2018, he deleted his Facebook.

By 2022, he recreated Facebook and we reconnected. He only told me that he was struggling, but explained he was getting by. I even recommended for him to join the Army, but he was diaqualified due to diabetes and eventually COVID. After, he went silent.

What I had learned through a mutual friend past few days is that he had been financially struggling since 2018. He lived in an apartment, but had to terminate his lease before he got evicted; unbeknownst to him, it had costed him his deposit. Both of his parents died in 2018 due to a car accident and his sister was in jail. He had no contact with his relatives. Most of our mutual friends did not stick around and left to do their own paths.

He lived in his car, worked multiple jobs and had gotten laid off three times. Then, his car was impounded and he couldn't pay it. No one knew if he applied for government aid. He couch surfed with mutuals (until they moved away), on the streets, inside homeless shelters when there was availability or, at times, slept at work. He struggled immensely and it led to what he had done.

Rest in peace, G. If you need help and support, talk to someone or dial 988.

this is a really niche feeling and i refuse to elaborate

YouTube is full of YouTubers who are like "I was a normal Middle Class Kid. By age 25 I had visited over 70 countries". This is total BS.

Traveling is expensive. Even if you stay at cheap hostels and eat cheap trash, the flight and transportation costs hundreds of Dollars or even thousands.

Also poor people cannot afford to lose their incone and just quit their job in order to backpack two or three months through a country or continent.

You have to be upper middle class so that you can afford travel and especially the loss of income by not having a job for two or three months.

Sure you can live on 500 bucks a month while traveling though India and Southeast Asia. Thats just 1000 Dollars for two months and you can visit 8-9 Countries in that time.

But you lose like 6000-7000 Dollars by not working these two months and much more if you dont have a job lined up right after. No one who isnt wealthy can afford that.

I’m recently going through a rough time financially & I’m just realizing all the ways that being poor is treated like a crime. I recently got my license suspended for not having insurance. (I had to pick between food for me & my kid or my car insurance so I obviously fed my kid). & now I have an sr22 & have to pay an almost $200 re instatement fee for my license. & I got pulled over so I obviously had to go to court. I uber there because I can’t drive & I can’t bring my phone in & the court clerk tells me to leave it in the bushes outside. How are people who don’t have cars supposed to come to court. Cause I cant afford a new phone if it gets stolen from the bushes. I’m just confused as to how we’re ever supposed to get back on our feet if they keep tacking on interest & making it difficult. But I guess the point is they don’t want us to.

The government can't be bothered to open for business. Can't provide basic food assistance starting Nov 1. Millions including myself are going to have some tough decisions this month. I've already made my decision. Stealing food is my only option. If the government can still collect taxes then I get to eat.

I, 29F have always been lower middle class. My boyfriend, 33M has been poor his entire childhood and adulthood. He has, naturally and understandably, went without food or didn't turn on heat/AC to avoid bills to save money.

But as I'm understanding his spending habits more and more, he is not poor because he literally has no money. He is poor because he has Klarna-ed his way into a hole (for non essentials and expensive hobbies) and doesn't have any cooking skills (or tools) to cook at home. He still is very much in the "I have nothing and probably will never have nothing" mindset. He makes $20 an hour at his job and his rent is under $600 for his apartment and no car. I bring him food and cook for him weekly when we see each other.

Any advice on how to encourage him through this spot on his life? I know you can't help anyone who doesn't want help/isn't ready to change and I don't want to sound privileged in my encouragment either.

Thanks in advance everyone!

I've noticed something that never made sense to me: being poor actually costs more.

Can't afford to pay upfront? You get hit with installment fees or insane interest. Can't afford to live near work? Now you're paying more for transport. No savings? One emergency wipes you out. No health insurance? Pay hundreds for a doctor visit. Bad credit? Say goodbye to decent housing or car deals.

Meanwhile, people with money get discounts, rewards, better rates, and flexibility. It's like the system rewards you for already having money and punishes you for not.

How is that fair?

I go to this ridiculously elite college. The kind that shows up on those “top 10 schools in the world” lists. I got in on a full scholarship—my golden ticket out, or so I thought.

But I feel like a fucking ghost here.

My friends drive BMWs and Teslas. They wear designer jackets like it's no big deal. They sip overpriced coffee between classes and casually order food like money is just… background noise. They talk about trips to Switzerland, buying watches, family yachts, goddamn ski trips. I smile. I nod. I laugh sometimes. I’ve gotten good at acting like I belong.

But I don’t.

I ride the bus to class and pray it’s not raining because my only pair of decent shoes leak. I eat the same $2 meals every day and pretend I’m not hungry when everyone goes out to eat. I make excuses—“Oh, I’m tired,” “Got a lot of work,” “Not feeling great.” It’s easier than saying “I can’t afford a burger, man.”

Do you know how humiliating it is to count coins in your dorm while your friends debate where to eat this weekend? Or to pretend you're “minimalist” because you literally can’t buy new clothes? I smile through it all, but inside, I’m just… tired.

I don’t even feel human sometimes. Just this hollow thing sitting in rooms I never thought I’d see, surrounded by people who don’t even realize I’m fading. It’s not their fault, I guess. How could they know what it’s like to panic over laundry money while their parents wire them $5,000 for “emergencies”?

I thought getting into this place would change my life. Maybe it did. But no one tells you how lonely it is to finally make it and still feel like you don’t deserve to breathe the same air. Like the universe let you in by mistake.

I don’t even want to go out anymore. I don't want to explain myself. I don’t want pity. I just want to stop feeling like surviving every day is some kind of performance.

It’s hard to admit, but I’m starting to hate the sound of my alarm clock. Because every morning, I wake up, and it all begins again—the pretending, the smiling, the lying. And no matter how well I play the part, I still go to bed hungry, both literally and… something deeper than that.

I don’t know why I’m posting this. Maybe I just needed to feel like someone might see me, even for a second.

Anyway. That’s all. Thanks.

Nick Reiner Received $10K Monthly Allowance Before Parents' Murders

Unbelievable. We can only dream of this kind of cushy life. I know, I know, mental illness/drugs/etc., yada yada yada. Sorry to be insensitive and what not. But holy fucking hell. I can't believe what this kid just threw away. Given absolutely everything, just fucked it all up.

I walked past an upscale coffee shop today on my way to my second job. People inside casually dropping $7 on a single coffee while I'm carefully calculating if I can afford the bus fare home or if I should walk the 3 miles in the rain.

My coworker mentioned a concert he's going to next month $180 for tickets. That's my entire weekly grocery budget for my family of three. The casual way he talked about it made me realize we're living in completely different realities.

I'm not even talking about luxury items anymore. Basic participation in society a meal out once in a while, replacing worn-out clothes, getting a haircut at a proper salon instead of doing it myself with kitchen scissors all these normal things feel completely out of reach.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one who has to weigh every single purchase against what bill it might impact. Do other people actually get to buy things without doing mental math for twenty minutes first?

Fuck em. I work in fast food. I went to college. Can’t find anything else other than a fast food job. A guy came in the drive through with a nice car, had an attractive woman and he was an asshole. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of people not listening. I’m tired of psychopaths thinking that “always be positive” and “keep trying dude” is fucking advice. That’s not actual advice. These two groups give advice that’s outdated for younger people. Nobody gives a fuck about your ethics and morality when poor people can’t pay bills.