…and it’s exceedingly unlikely I ever will be.
I lived at home while I went to college. I had trouble finding a job in my field when I graduated. But my stepmother and I were about to kill each other, so I had to move out. When I did so, I was 21 years old. I was the oldest of any of my siblings at move-out age. But I’m also the only one who never went back.
I was making $6 an hour at a bookstore when I moved into my first place. It was a 40-year-old townhouse across University Dr. from UAH, and my rent was $310 a month. The stairs were too steep, like there should have been one more. The industrial-strength gas heat would keep the apartment at 82 ºF and 15% humidity for $2 a day. I had undocumented free Showtime the whole time I lived there. (Saw Basic Instinct and the first big Denis Leary special as a result.) I never saw so many cockroaches in my life. I bet I killed ten a day for the first couple of weeks I lived there.
There were times when I would pay all of the bills and put enough gas in my car to get back and forth to work, and I would have, say, $10 left for food.
For the week.
There are some interesting challenges there. Talked about those more extensively in another post.
Now there are definitely some mitigating factors. I had (basic) cable this whole time. I took the newspaper. I reliably found money for cigarettes, though in my defense it was much cheaper to smoke then. Most importantly, if I had ever been in imminent danger of being cold or hungry, my dad would have helped me. I knew that. I am delighted to have never taken such help, but I also realize that having that in my pocket enabled me to be “braver” than I might have been.
So that’s the paycheck-to-paycheck living I’ve done. It’s qualified paycheck-to-paycheck living, because I knew there was a safety net. But those were the terms, and I dealt with them.
And Hillary’s bellyaching pisses me off.
So I’m sure it’s really resonating with the genuinely poor.
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It became very clear to me how much I had taken my parents for granted several years ago when a 26 year old friend lost his dad to cancer two years after losing his mom. He had been half-hearted about school and had yet to finish, knowing that they had his back. Suddenly he was a real adult, and tthere wasn’t much to inherit between he and his 3 brothers because his parents were both teachers who had not lived long enough to gain much wealth (plus helped 4 kids through college).
I felt terrible for him and could see his fear and uncertainty.
I have always known my folks are there for me, and I’m grateful for them every day.
It’s amazing how much smarter they get too, isn’t it? 🙂
My second co-op quarter, I took a room in a boardinghouse for $150 a month. After paying the first month’s rent and security deposit and buying $25 in groceries from my savings, I asked my mom for a little help until my first paycheck came in. The way the gov’t pays, it can be 3 1/2 weeks from the day you start until your first paycheck shows up. Mom thought I was being stupid, so she decided I should learn a lesson about finances. No assistance would be forthcoming, and I wasn’t about to beg. I had to buy gas for the car first. After the $25 in groceries went, it was store brand ramen noodles, 6 for $1, every meal. God bless the co-worker who shared homegrown tomatoes for lunch. That was as broke as I ever want to be.
Poor, poor Hillary, it’s a wonder Chelsea didn’t end up at community college.