"They Legitimately Can't Comprehend It": People Who Grew Up Poor Are Sharing The Frugal Habits They Learned That Rich People Simply Don't Understand
Growing up poor may mean people acquire certain skill sets to make a dollar stretch. So when Reddit user ThrowRA9877899877 asked: "People who grew up poor, what's a skill you developed that rich people don't have?" a lot of people provided their own experiences. Here's what they said below:
1."Coming up with meals with whatever is leftover in the pantry and fridge."
—None
"Same. I used to make my daughter a square meal using a pack of Top Ramen, 99-cent frozen meatballs, and a can of Veg-all. She loved it. I fed her and myself for under $2. Many, many times. I also made up a dish called porcupine mush. White rice, discount (manager special) ground beef, and a 25-cent pack of brown gravy. Cook the rice and beef separately. Then, throw it together, mix it, add the gravy pack, and make it accordingly. If we were lucky, I would have some government cheese left over, put it on top, and bake it in the oven until it melted. It's still her favorite meal. Except, now I always have cheese."
2."How to use and repair everything and run it into the ground."
—None
"Yeah, something I noticed about my wealthier relatives: they were really comfortable with breaking their stuff. I was always taught to preserve my stuff for as long as possible."
3."Resilience/problem-solving. I can find my way out of any situation."
"This is a big one. Also, the ability to brush off inconveniences and disappointments. When you are poor, your whole life is one workaround after another.
I work at a place that caters almost exclusively to very wealthy people, and one of the things I've noticed is that they cannot handle even minor disappointments. They panic, get angry, or throw tantrums. I feel secondhand embarrassment for them sometimes."
4."Not being picky with food. I can eat the same food forever and never get sick of it."
"This, 100%. My wife grew up in the upper middle class, and I grew up on the lower end of that spectrum. When thinking about dinner and I suggest something, she says, 'We had that for dinner last night,' and I'm like, 'So?'
She legitimately can't comprehend why I'm okay with eating the same thing three days in a row."
—None
5."Gratefulness. Learn how to be grateful for everything because there are people in situations that are worse than your own."
—None
"Yep. I became wealthy in my late twenties and thirties after being poor my entire life, pretty much minus a few years with my dad, who was upper middle class. I still thank the universe when I wake up and sleep, and it's been like eight years since I realized I was not going to be poor.
It also means I pay or tip well if anyone does a service for me, which I have noticed wealthier folks don't always do (because they think they may as well save that $20 for themselves over the gardener who just spent an hour mowing the lawn and only charged $50). I'm grateful I don't have to do it because, as a kid, I had to."
6."I’m not afraid of poverty; I know how to navigate it. By the same token, because I came from poverty, I’ve set myself up to not experience it again."
"I had this when I got divorced. I'd come up from nothing, so when I was again reduced to nothing financially, I adapted. I furnished the entire apartment second-hand; sold my nice car and bought a decent cheaper one which I knew I could repair and keep on the road; bought an Instant Pot and used the timer to have hot homemade meals for the kids and me when I got home from work; bought quality off-lease laptops for the kids for school so they had good machines at pennies on the dollar; etc. Once those things were in place, I could pare monthly running expenses to the bone.
I remember the helplessness I felt at having JUST been able to put all that behind me and now having to pick it all up again, but I remember thinking, 'Well, at least I know how.'
I'm in a much better place financially now, but those skills still stand me in good stead."
7."How to be happy without the need for a lot of material possessions. So, even now, I still don't have a lot but it's by choice. Finally, generosity. When you live in a hood where everyone is poor, too, you learn to share what you have when you have it and vice versa,"
—None
"My grandma ended up a young widow but always fed anyone who needed it. Years later, people would come by to give gifts in remembrance of her kindness."
8."I have a good bullshit filter for the most part."
"All products and services are scams until proven otherwise."
9."Buying used."
"I live very comfortably now and still can't bring myself to buy clothes that aren't thrift or on sale, and I'll NEVER pay full price for furniture."
10."Being nice to people regardless of their position in life."
11."I automatically add groceries up in my head as I shop so I am not embarrassed by having to put things back. I do it automatically now, even if I can afford the food."
"I've never articulated this, but yes. I do the exact same thing. I've had to put items back before or had my card declined, and I can't go through that embarrassment again. I'll even go to the extent of withdrawing cash beforehand, so I don't have to worry about my card not working."
12."I treat my stuff with care, and it stays in good shape long after I purchase it. I also perform maintenance. I take the extra few seconds to prevent damage rather than dealing with the aftermath."
13."Not having an emotional connection to pretty much anything because I know it could go any day. I could lose it all, everything, and just start again."
"This on so many levels. I think it really screwed me up in my early teens and 20s, even after moving away, because I'd preemptively get rid of anything I was super attached to just to be 'safe.'
I now allow my husband to get me gifts, and I have things I am attached to like books and an Xbox and PlayStation, but it took ages of therapy to be okay with being attached to things and keeping them long term."
—None
14."I can grow food from seed to harvest. Take that, you rich bastards!"
"In line with this, I learned how to can and preserve foods from a pretty young age. We’d have about 70 tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash carrots, and radish plants, and we’d eat canned tomatoes, salsa, and pickles all year.
We’d gather apples and bottle or dehydrate them, bottle peaches that we’d pick off the ground of our family friend’s small orchard after harvest, help the beekeepers on the corner build boxes in exchange for fresh honey, and store it in the cellar."
15."How to actually smooth talk without relying on good connections to smooth out my mistakes. If you have strong social contacts, you can be less charismatic and get the same impact as someone more charismatic. People are willing to smooth out mistakes and listen to bullshitting if you have established yourself as a valued connection. You learn a lot more about being charismatic when you're actually at the bottom, when everyone knows they're at the bottom and aren't going to let you bullshit them."
"Probably the #1 most valuable charismatic skill is to have a solid rhythm and melody in the language you speak. You need to bring some sort of musical element to how you talk, and you need to signal clear intentionality that is well thought out. Personally, I have never met someone who grew up in the upper middle class or higher who understood good rhythm and melody when speaking. Look at how MLK talks and compare it to Donald Trump. You just feel invigorated and energized when listening to MLK in a way that I don't think Mr. Rich Man coulda have ever made me feel."
16."Being comfortable in an ugly space. Although, I notice this more with my middle-class peers. The walls are the wrong color, the flooring is off, and the layout of the space is not ideal. It's fine. I've definitely seen worse. As long as it has four walls, a roof, the toilet works, the flooring isn't there, and I can afford heat and AC, I'm really happy."
"This. My partner grew up wealthy. Her dad got us a hotel room when we were visiting for Thanksgiving (the house was already full of family). He kept profusely apologizing that the spot wasn't nice enough when it was one of the top 10 hotels I've been in. Just wild."
If you grew up poor, tell us the skill you developed that wealthy people would not have a clue how to do in the comments below.
