That story really brings back memories for me as well. Mom and Dad had seven children and not much money. Dad worked, but his paycheck paid the necessities and that was it. They had one credit card, Sears, which was put aside for a major emergency; such as a major appliance. And that didn't mean a clothes dryer, because Mom hung up all the clothing outside. I remember them in the winter being as stiff as boards. You couldn't even fold them.

Every Christmas Dad would wait until Christmas Eve when all the people in the City that sold trees had closed up shop. That's when he would get in the car and drive around the City hoping to find a tree that was too disgusting to have been sold. He always succeeded. He would bring the poor thing home and anchor it up as best he could. He would even remove branches from the meatier part of the tree and drill a hole somewhere else to put the branches in to try and fill it out. You've heard of people who would laugh until they cried - well Mom would cry until she laughed. And then we would all go to bed with big smiles on our faces knowing that all was well.

One Christmas the seven of us woke up to a little 45 record player and a complete set of Glen Miller's Best. We hadn't even heard of Glen Miller and I'm pretty sure, in retrospect, that someone gave Mom those 45s and she put them aside for us as our Christmas gift. That was one of my happiest Christmas memories. We played those records endlessly. While other kids were listening to Elvis on their record player, we knew the entire words to songs like Fascination and Chatanooga Choo Choo.

I don't remember ever being unhappy growing up. We didn't have any money, but we had more than enough love.

I remember back when we bought our house. We had a one year old and my DH worked days and I worked nights so we didn't have to have child care. We closed on the house 3 weeks before Christmas, and we were so broke after that. We decided to only spend $25 on each other for Christmas. I went to Burlington coat factory and they had a beautiful jacket that was on clearance for $25. So, that is what I bought my hubby. Christmas morning when he opened it he thought I didn't stick to the agreement, but I told him how I got the jacket on clearance. He hands me TWO presents. I opened the first one and it was a fake pointsetta plant. I was like "um, ok" and he says "You LOVE pointsetta's" (No, actually I hate pointsetta's, but he was going on about how it would look nice in the window of the new house, etc) I didn't say anything, I take the second package and it's a second fake pointsetta. Suddenly I remembered JC Penney's had a display of fake pointsetta's 2 for $25. I said "You SOB you walked in, saw the pointsettas and said cool. I'm done."

I had those things for years and we would laugh every year as I put them out and made a big "fuss" about my bee-u-t-ful pointsettas. That was the last awful present he ever bought. Suddenly he became Mr. great gift idea! And I think he payed Rusty off to destroy them so that I finally threw them away!

my little rant
 

I'm probably younger than some of you (27) because my experience is a little different. I got loans to go to school and I worked hard in the summers so I had money the first 2 years of college (I graduated in 3). The 3rd year I just focused on graduating early and lived on my credit card. I didn't go on shopping sprees but put groceries and gas on it - after all I'd just pay it when I graduated, right? Our parents didn't instill that "don't borrow money" value in us apparently - we had to learn that on our own. My husband had a car loan on a car that was far too expensive for us (his dad co-signed) and right before we got married it started to have mechanical problems we couldn't afford to fix so we traded it (stupid) for a more expensive car (5 year loan, but it's no interest and a lower payment so that's OK right? duh) Then we bought a house 5% down and could only barely afford it so we ended up with up more medical debt and credit card debt.

A few years ago we decided we couldn't go on like that, so we committed to paying off the debt. It is almost all paid off but the last little bit is hard because we have been doing it for so long we feel so drained. We make a decent income NOW, but we haven't ever been on a real vacation and my husband now drives a 15 year old car while we pay off debt. I feel "poorer" now that I can't rely on a $17,000 credit limit, which is really hard because with our income we should be OK. But we have to pay double - for our current expenses and those we charged years ago. We have totally outgrown our townhouse and we want to buy a house, but the Chicago suburbs are so expensive that buying even a modest house will put us back where we started. We are seriously considering relocating to another state just so that we have some room to breathe. The people with the single family houses in our neighborhood either bought their houses after a windfall from their last house or they have 2 mortgages. We bought at the top of the market. People my parent's age got to experience those years of the insane real estate market where a house like my parent's house doubled in value in 20 years while people's incomes did not double. Want to buy a new car? Cash-out re-fi. Want to send a kid to college? Cash-out re-fi. People are going to have to return to reality now and live within their means. We are struggling to live on what we make, but at least we are realistic about it. Our neighbors are still in denial. It seems no one around here knows the word "no" and turning to credit is always the answer. If everyone had to put 20% down on a house they would not ALL cost $300,000+

My grandparents would have never thought of buying something they didn't have cash for. Financing is part of why the market/economy is crashing right now (I'm not touching the political reasons :rolleyes:). IMO the crash is going to hit this area hard because we had such a bubble. People can't afford to buy these huge houses now that they need *gasp* a down payment! 5 years ago a down payment was unheard of here! Everyone did 0% down. Now they are upside down on their mortgages and cars. No one told us we couldn't spend 40% of our monthly income on housing. Someone should have told us to keep renting. But everyone said we were "throwing our money away" on rent. You know what? The difference between rent and our mortgage/taxes/etc. is so much that we could have saved $28000 in 4 years by renting. Instead, our house has gone DOWN in value. What a lesson to learn.

We will be OK but it will take a long time and it's not going to be easy. I know it's not supposed to be, but it's just not what we expected growing up in the tech boom. I probably sound like I'm whining to some of you, but I really do think we will be better off now that we understand how to live within our means. I just wish it wasn't such a hard lesson.

Great stories by you all...I'm going to have to think of something to share with you as I too was born poor, grew up poor and am still not wealthy by any means. We are able to work hard for what we have and for that I am eternally grateful. I suppose it is true that we cherish what we do have more now, because we know what it was like not to have.

I remember getting married so long ago and we went on this terribly expensive honeymoon and when we left we has spent everyting but $1.10. It would get us coffee or get us across the toll bridge to get my hubby's check and release from the navy. We bought the coffee and drove many miles out of our way to get there. :) We cashed the check before we ran out of gas!! Memories;)

I was never so poor that I had to live in a vehicle, but at one time in my life, things were pretty scarce. I was living in this cold, cold house in Maine with a whole bunch of people....they were always changing, moving in and out. We had a hard time heating it in the winter because it was a pretty old place--the windows barely slowed down the breeze. I would go to bed at 7 pm just to stay warm. I was poor, but I got a lot of sleep. Sometimes in the morning we would have ice in the toilet.

I had a car at this time, and I was too poor to pay the registration. One time, while the car was unregistered, a policeman tried to stop me for speeding. He didn't have his siren on, but I could tell he was coming up to me. I turned into a congested area in an attempt to lose him. I was weaving in and out of alleys. He eventually caught me. I had to pay for the speeding ticket AND for an unregistered vehicle. It was terrible.

My sister, who has always earned a lot of money, wondered why I never visited her during those years. I never had the guts to tell her how poor I was. Eventually (recently) I told her. She had no idea.

Things are a lot better now, and I think one reason I am so happy is because I had this period in my life. I have parents who are fairly well off, and if worse came to worse, I could have gone to them for help and they would have given it willingly with no strings. But I was an adult, and I really hated to do that. I'm glad I did it my way.

wow, reading all of these stories about all of you young mom/wives really gives me inspiration! i'm not a mother of a child (just the mother of my yorkie!) but i am a young wife & times have been tough for sure. i think i'm to blame for some of that because for a while i had a SERIOUS spending problem but i think i've got that under control for the most part. being 20 yrs old and living with my hubby for two years now on our own has had its ups and downs but i don't think i'd want it any other way. ask for my being broke stage when my hubby and i moved in together it was a crappy two bedroom apartment with me, him, his brother and his brothers girlfriend... booy was that a lot of people for that place. we had no heat or air conditioning. just electricity (and even that wasn't a definite thing! haha) we at ramon noodles evvvvery night for months!! to this day i can't even look at those things! sometimes we'd have mayo on bread and i can remember eating taco shells... just the shells!! haha. when hubby got a huge raise we finally moved out and are pretty secure now. (thanks to him) but all of these stories are things i can relate with and i find serious inspiration in the stories of young wives who made it!

I can remember living on oatmeal, working 2 full time jobs trying to support a baby who called all the babysitters Mommy and looked at me like I was a stranger and a good-for-nothing husband(finally got smart and booted him out of the door). I remember driving up to a gas station on empty, and digging 47 cents out of my purse for gas (it was alot cheaper then) and telling the guy to only put in 47 cents since that was all I had. He didn't watch and it went over so I yelled at him. He stopped it and told me I had to pay the extra. I had to climb all over the car to come up with the 20 something cents he went over. I got so sick one time that I was coughing up blood, lost so much weight I was down to 103 lbs( I'm 5' 7") and couldn't even keep down water. I couldn't afford to go to the Dr.'s. The sad part is my parents wanted to help me but I am a very stubborn person and wouldn'
t let them. They finally made me go to the Dr. I had bronchitus, upper respitory infection, was going into pneumonia and the flu. I did learn alot about being self sufficient and am now the Queen of fixing anything with whatever I have at hand:).

Well....my pockets are always laughing at me.

This means I am poor, right? :D

This is a good post, a good lesson to learn.

I used to go out with the dorkiest guys to get a free lunch or dinner. And I belonged to like 3 churches to get in on all the potlucks and free food. I think anyone that has gone to college appreciates free food.

I agree with your comment about Erin's post. These are all strangely uplifting.

As for you: So THAT'S why I got the occasional date in college! LOL!

We live very "feast to famine" type of lives with my husband working for himself. At our lowest he went 6 months with no work, no pay, people who owed him money couldn't afford to pay him either. We used CC's to live off of, pawned every single piece of jewelry I had, anything I could find to sell, we did. I sold things to family members just saying that I didn't need it anymore because I didn't want people to know how bad it was.

On the worst days, it was me making whatever I could to feed two kids and hubby and saying that I wasn't really that hungry so they could eat. Or deciding which Christmas presents could go back the day after Christmas that the kids wouldn't notice so we could buy food.

Heck, if you can make it through the tough days you appreciate the good ones. Luckily(knock on wood) those days are gone. If your marriage can survive something like that then you'll be able to survive anything, trust me.

Yes,it truly makes you a stronger person.

Wow...reading some of these stories made me realize that I didn't really have it that bad.

My parents were poor...only dad worked...but they saved every penny they had. We never went out to eat...but eating rice every night did get old. I remember starting junior high with only one pair of jeans and 2 shirts. Some people made comments of me wearing the same clothes all the time, but it gave me a tough skin.

I can remember in college, my freshman year, living with my fiance...working 3 part time jobs and going to school full time. But we had everything that we needed.

I do remember, however, buying a package of lunch meat, some mayo and a loaf of bread and living off of that for a week.

But I remember stories of my mother. There were 4 children in that family and dad would take off for days...if not weeks. I remember her telling me how they had no food and her mother had to go to the neighbors begging for food.

Also, I remember how my dad told me that sometimes, all they had was a potato to eat.

How fortunate we are now days. We may not have fancy furniture, but we live in a nice house and always have food...now if someone would just go in the kitchen and cook it! ;)

OMG I hate them too! I was 18 just married we live in a old house, to dumb and independent to ask for help, the light bill was always higher than the rent, we both worked but was living from paycheck to paycheck, that winter the light bill was over 300 dollars, which was in the early 80's and that was alot of money, do you remember the wall heaters:rolleyes: well anyway we had to eat pancakes for about 3 weeks so we could pay the bills and not ask for money from our parents.:) Its funny now after 26 years and I talk or see my ex that always comes up about the pancakes.:D

I'm only 20, but after I graduated high school I moved in with my fiancé, his brother and his brothers fiancé into a two bedroom apartment. I had a really crappy job at the time and it didn't really pay much. Most of the money went to rent and bills. My fiancé and I learned to live off of rice and cream of (whatever) soup. It got very nasty after a while, but it was mostly all we had. Now we live with his grandmother since shes really sick. I have my job but I'm striving to get a better one. Once things settle and his grandmother gets more help here we plan to move out into our own little place.

I lost my dad when I was seventeen in a over-turned open cab tractor accident, me my mom & my first cousin was in the field w/him when it happened what was so bad for my mom was she lost her real dad when she was three in the same way. My husband & I (just married) took over the farm b/c my mom moved to shreveport she just needed to get away from the whole place. Mother nature had other plans for us, we had lost a crop to torrential rain & the crop insurance place said we didn't qualify-just over the limit (crooks) then sent us a bill for 9000.00, we had been barely keeping ourselves in & out the red. We had one son that was three & one that was 5 months old- I'll never forget that winter we alternated deer sausage & pork sausage every night. I still cannot stomach deer sausage to this day. Then when my son was four I picked him up from daycare & when I got him home I was cooking supper & he was crying at my feet- I noticed one side of his face was showing the crying emotion & one side was not, he had been bruising easy but you think hey that's little boys, I called our ped. that night & we had a doctor app the next day I had to work so my hubbie took him in & I met them for lunch my dh said the dr said it was bells palsy from a bad ear inf. (made sense we were on 2nd set of tubes) but thought he was anemic so did blood test then I got a phone call at work at three that afternoon he said he thought it was leaukemia I pretty much blacked out he said they were waiting for us in jackson, ms & to go right now. The whole way we convinced ourselves it was a mistake we saw doctors that whole night until 4 in the morning by 9 the next day we knew he had leaukemia & it was type AML lvl 2 the type most common in adults thank god a friend convinced us to go to st. judes which we did, b/c of his type he had to have a bone marrow transplant the first one he went through rounds of treatment & then got his own marrow back (we were there 7 months) the prob w/that is dormant cells are in their marrow (they do not do this type transplant anymore) & they relapse, his b-day is april 18th & we spent it at walt disney for his make wish trip I was five months preg w/baby three (also having prob cause after sonogram they said the baby had choroid plexus on his head which went away but b/c of where it was located on his head at time said poss sign of down syndrome-I know what else) but I had to put that out of my mind b/c two weeks after make wish trip my son relapsed this time we did a transplant from his brother who was only two months away from turning 2 yrs old but they were a six out of six match (can't do any better than that) that was prob the worst of the worst-total body radiation it was very tough when a doc tells you they are going to bring your child to deaths door only to snatch him back & you have to sign this paper for them to do it (ok I'm gonna have to wrap this up I'm crying, didn't realize I needed to do this today ;) I had to find a doc up there which he was wonderful & my third son was born in memphis very healthy & no down's we were there that time for 8 months & got to come home, to which the farm was bust & we had to take bankruptcy. There is a happy ending here-My son now is a happy healthy 16 year old, we have growth issues (he has taken the pro-tropin shots but he still is very tiny for his age) but we can handle that & finally last year st judes only see us once a year. The doctors & st jude are a gift from god & I thank them every day, I know we wouldn't have had the same outcome if we would have stayed in jackson. I still keep the teddybear someone gave us from when we were in memphis in my bedroom & when I think I'm having a bad day & I see that bear I know things have been a whole lot worse.

OK, here's mine.

We had to move to a cheaper house, so we found a nice enough house to rent a few towns over. We moved in and everything was nice and we were settled. I was in my backyard one day, and I noticed that my neighbor was outside. Then I realized that it was my worst (only) enemy that I've had a bad history with for the last 4 years or so. :p

Of ALL the houses for rent, we happened to move in right in front of the ONE person in the entire world that I absolutely cannot stand.

Its quite irritating sometimes, but its pretty funny and ironic too.

That sure is "poor you" Hope it wasn't this last move.

Bless your heart sweetie - what a life you've had.

I can't say enough good things about St Jude's - it's the one charity I routinely give to.

And, girlfriend - your life needs to be made into a Movie of the Week or a book! I cried for you just reading the brief summary.

When my family lived in Romania, my mom and dad would eat orange rinds and chicken fat while my brother and I got the meat and fruit. We moved to Georgia with nothing but a small suitcase with some clothes..for three people! We couldn't even afford for my brother to come with us at the same time. He had to stay behind with my grandmother for almost a year. He was 3 at the time. At the airport the night they came to the states, my mom went to hug him and he pulled away, looked at her, and asked her who she was. It completely broke her heart! We had an amazing church that helped us out so much when we came over. We lived with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins for a couple of years while my parents tried to find jobs. Mayo sandwiches were a staple at the house for a long time!

That being said..I had an absolutely amazing childhood. I never knew we were without anything. I never knew about a lot of stuff until I was 22 or 23. My parents have enough determination to last them multiple lifetimes. I owe them a lot and I am very appreciative of everything they gave up to make their children's life better.

I think you are amazing! You go girl! ;)

At 18, I thought I new everything and moved from New Jersey to Texas (yes of course chasing a man). I was so broke, no car, no family, I wrote home on a paper towel.

Awww thanks

Oh my gosh...I agree! You poor thing....but, it's amazing what horrific life events you can get thru. I love St. Jude's too....I remember being really little hearing Danny Thomas talking about them and I LOVED him, so I knew that it had to be a good place. I've donated to them ever since I was 8 yrs old (not that it was very much then, but more than I can now...just JOKING).

It's stories like this that when you feel like you're having a bad day or life just isn't treating you fairly, just make you want to slap yourself!

Oh Megan, LOL! Murphy's Law, eh??? That sucks. But it is a little funny (ironic, like you say). So, now you're just closer to her so you can REALLY annoy her, LOL. You never know..maybe they'll move! :)

Oh that's so funny! I forget all the goofy things I did sometimes. I did almost the same thing; moved to Vegas with a boyfriend....had never had a job before in MY LIFE (other than doing some filing for my dad which wasn't really a job).

When I got there, I had NO money, no job, no car, no nothing....and my bf that I went there with, hadn't gotten a job yet either; but he and his buddies were in contstruction so they were out all day "looking for jobs"...(God only knows what they were really doing:rolleyes:). We were all living at this seedy motel at the end of the downtown area, Fremont St....and they'd all go off all day and I'd be left at the motel in our room alone with nothing to do besides watch the 2 tv channels and talk to the maid when she came in to clean.
There was a group of 3 girls who "lived" in a room that was directly across the small parking lot from our room and I would see them every afternoon, coming out of their room, all dressed up in beautiful dresses, their hair (or wigs:confused:) perfect, perfect makeup and a limo picking them up. I was SO BORED...and I thought...hmmm....they look like they're always going out and doing something fun, maybe I should get to know them and maybe I could hang out with them". And I knew that a few guys were either living with them or came over, so I thought maybe they'd have some job leads for me :cool:. What a freakin' dingdong I was, LOL!

I mentioned it to the cleaning lady one day when she was complaining about how dirty "their" room was and how it took her forever to clean it; and I said "REALLY??? they look so gorgeous every afternoon when they go out, I can't believe they'd be so messy. In fact, I was thinking of introducing myself to them and maybe we could be friends and I'd have some friends to do stuff with"....she looked at me and said "HONEY....those girls are HOOKERS!":eek::embarasse. I had NO CLUE. What a dummy, LOL! But I was broke and bored....apparently, NOT a good combination, LOL. I have to say though, it was my first indication that ladies of the night are not all skanky looking...in fact, I met a LOT of them the longer I lived in Vegas and they were probably some of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life. I never did meet those girls though, LOL. :p

When I moved to the US. I had no money. I went to school to learn English. Mom would send me money, but for the basics, rent and bills and it was at the beginning of the month . I had to stretch the money to make it last so that I could eat, then "mija" my first own cat adopted me. There were times where I had to eat half of my meal, so that she could eat too. No tv, vcr,only radio/alarm. Those things make you appreciate things better.
I'm grateful that my situation is very different now. I don't take things for granted. Only one thing, I just wish that I could enjoy all these things with "Mija" she went to Rainbow Bridge before the good times came, but I gave her all the love that she deserved.

Awww.....that's so sweet! I'm sure she knew how much you loved her! And I'm glad your life has changed for the better:).

Oh goodness. I don't know if I can answer this without getting too personal. Let's just say there was a point in time about 12 years ago when the only home I had was a beat up jalopy that I would drive out into the woods & sleep in at night. I tell you what -- if you ever need motivation to do better with your life, try living in a car for a few months! ;)