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How poor/frugal has your life been? Do you consider at any point in yourself to be in a "slum" or felt your neighborhood feels "ghetto"? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 days ago by throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Everytime I see depictions of "normal" households in TV/Movies/ the house always look extra clean and their belongings are new.

And everytime I see depictions of poverty, its always a house that's filled with junk, computers are like a decade old, no food in fridge, either no car or car is barely functional.

Well, I know the media always exaggerates things, but if I had to use the media as a reference, I feel like my childhood has been closer to the poverty depiction and also life felt so "ghetto" for me (for lack of a better word). Most of the furnature was just donated by relatives or my parents picked them up from the sidewalk that somebody threw out. I had a very shitty laptop, I had no phone for a majority of highschool and therefore not have friends, house is so filled with junk and messy because frugal parents love hoarding things that they never use. Didn't even have access to a car (in a car-centric neighborhood btw) because my parents didn't have one until like I was in highschool, and even then it was like very shitty and the AC didn't work (that car has since been replaced).

Also my parents never got me any toys or entertainment, I only had a shitty laptop to pirate everything. I have never, and still have not, ever watched a movie in a movie theater (which I heard was supposedly something everyone have experienced?) like every movie I've ever watched (pirated) is either from the 15.6 inch 1336 x 768 resolution display on the laptop that I had, or from the phones that I later got varying from the 1080 x 720 resolution 5 inch display, to the later phone with 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 display.

My life is like 70% accurate to the sterotypical depiction of poverty except the empty fridge part, so I guess I lucked out on that.

I'm assuming this is just the standard working class childhood experience?

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[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago

I grew up in a lower middle class family. I know there were times when money was tight (like the couple of times my dad was laid off) but we lived in a relatively nice house in a quiet neighborhood and I never worried about where my next meal was coming from.

My wife, on the other hand, grew up dirt poor in rural Missouri. They lived in run down trailers or houses with no AC and ate lots of venison -- from deer her dad shot -- with hamburger helper. She never had a lot of toys and spent most of her time playing by herself. Her childhood sounds very lonely to me but I think she learned to be comfortable being alone. In fact, being alone with a book is one of her favorite ways to relax.

If you don't have access to a vehicle out there then you're stranded because there is a whole lot of nothing for miles in any direction. So, when she turned 16, she got her GED and went to work full time so she could buy her own vehicle and get around. She's pretty frugal, which I appreciate about her. But she will NOT eat venison or hamburger helper.