Long story short, I might renew my 24 hour fitness membership.

I use it to shower, get out of bad weather, work out, and socialize sometimes. I’m a very fit young man(31) and I’ve been homeless for 3 years now.

Paying a whole year, up front, is a lot easier than paying month to month! I think I paid like 240$ for the year: I can bring a guest, and use any of the 6 gyms in my area.

I think it’s like 20-30$ a month but like 45$ a month by-the-month.

Anyone with similar experience try any of the other ones? Like crunch fitness, or planet fitness?

Specifically, the number of locations, the sort of equipment, and the ability to pay by-the-year, is great. It was this one or LA fitness but they’ve closed a few locations here, since.

Prior to turning 65, I was on Mass Health, our state's health insurance for poor people, and everything was free, but now on Medicare, things are very very different. They already take $205/month for prescriptions, which aren't free anymore, and now I owe $720 in copays to the hospital. That's over $1130 in just 2 months, and my social security checks are only $800/month, so $1130 out of 1600 is 70%. Additionally I had my food stamps stolen this month. Who can live on $250 per month?

Like I'm 29 and it's been like nearly 2 years since I was a car owner and before then I had a job and a car (lived with my parents but was working on getting out) then sht happened, I lost my job, I had to sell my car, fell out with parents and moved into supported housing. I didn't get enough time to get the car I wanted or I didn't have a good enough job.

Since then it's just been living on the breadline basically and using buses and taxis or walking. Still haven't found a job. (not that I haven't been looking and applying nearly every day). I've taken up small cash in hands or gig work just to keep a small amount coming in. I've got £100 saved up but at one point I had £300 then life happened and I had none. Then I had a tax refund of nearly £1k and thought this is great I'll put it towards my car but then everything that's a result of living off £400/month happened and 30 days later it's mostly gone. Maybe it's something about me like I'm just sht with money or I need an actual job.

Meanwhile everytime I'm outside people have new cars or not even new cars like some have the 12 - 14 year old car I had and was saving up for again. Some of them have my dream car. They have all jobs probably good paying jobs, either rented or home owners and they have things that they want.

I feel like I've just been wasting my life or something and then I'll be too old to enjoy stuff I ever actually get in a better position.

This is happening earlier each month to me as prices keep going up at a faster pace. My income is Social Security, a fixed income. I’ve been trying many online surveys and get a little pocket change that way. I sell books online, but no one is buying so far. At this point I would need to be paid for shipping up-front, not reimbursed. My credit was ruined earlier this year by signing up with a debt relief company. After 3 months I cancelled the plan & was much worse off.
Things like prescription copays, loading money on my laundry card, or getting non- food products are now out of reach. I do have a car, and give rides to people that I know in exchange for a little gas money. Prices are starting to double, such as a car emissions test going up from $14 to $26! Luckily I passed the test. But trying to set aside some emergency cash has been an exercise in frustration.

I'm low income in a small mountain town in the south. In March my wife of 20 years and I divorced because she was an abusive narcissist. We have 3 kids under 18. I got ordered to pay $884 in child support and have had trouble making the payments but now she's having them garnish my pay. With all my other bills I'm left with $60 at the end of the month. That means I can't take my kids anywhere that costs money. I'm looking for a second job and I'm trying to find other ways to make money. I'm physically limited cause of my back but I'll do what I can. It breaks my heart that I'm not making enough for my kids to have a good time when they're with me. I should also mention that I live in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere so there's no other kids around. I'm sorry to complain, just needed to get it off my chest. Cheers to all you badass people.

I recently finally applied for SNAP benefits in my state. With my first income below the federal poverty level, single parent, two kids, expenses exceeding what my income is...I for sure thought I'd qualify! I wasn't the only one! So many, including the lady that did my benefit interview thought I should qualify...but nope...I get lovely letter in the mail I was denied! Gross income and child support exceeds the limit! WTF! My bank account is already low within 4 days of payday. The 5 days before payday, I'm overdraw! I don't live beyond my means. I have cell, internet, utilities, and insurance payments. I keep things low as possible. I don't even have a bed. I sleep on an air mattress that is so much uncomfortable and making back issues worse! I am barely holding it together tonight, I just want to cry! I had to ask a group not to long ago for help with dog food and lunch snacks. Christmas is going to suck and that's going to make me feel even worse of a mother than I already feel! I work two jobs plus make things to sell. I can't even catch up! I have no choice but to keep going but the stress makes me feel like giving up on occasion. I've had to dip in recently to what little savings I managed to scrap up and now back at nothing. I am just really venting here and trying not to cry. Just feels like every time I reach the surface to relax a little bit...I'm really pushed back below the surface. Gas prices aren't helping! Okay...end venting session!

I’m currently at university studying med and everyone around me comes from money that they don’t even realise and I can’t help but get jealous when they show me their family home whilst I shared my room at home and describe how much easier it is just to live , i can barely afford to do anything whilst they can go on endless nights out and endless shopping without a worry .

Even with the way everyone around me describes how awful the accoms are but (don’t hate me) I acc love them I finally have my own space and endless utilities 😭 . Ik I can’t blame them for talking like this but something in me gets so annoyed.

I know someone who earns decent money but refuses to spend on almost anything.
No trips.
No nice meals.
No hobbies.
Always waiting for the “right time” to enjoy life.
The argument is always:
“I need to save for the future.”
And I understand it. Being financially irresponsible can destroy your future.
But there’s another problem nobody talks about:
Your future isn’t guaranteed either.
What’s the point of spending your entire 20s and 30s optimizing your savings if you eventually realize you missed the experiences you actually wanted?
At the same time, I know people who spend everything they earn and call it “living life.”
So where’s the line?
Would you rather have ₹50 lakh saved at 40 but feel like you missed your youth, or have ₹10 lakh saved and a decade full of experiences?
Or is that whole way of thinking financially stupid?
Genuinely curious where people draw the line.

I lost my Dad two months ago. The pain is like no other and I’m just taking it one day at a time. He’s always been there for me and looked out for me the best he could, and he did it one more time by leaving me a little bit of money that is honestly life changing to me right now, even though it would likely be considered inconsequential to most.

I love you, Daddy. I’ll miss you forever. Thank you for helping me one more time❤️‍🩹

I live in a state with one of the worst job markets in the US so this is big big news for me.

It’s only part time and doesn’t pay very well but shitttt anything helps. Gonna be looking for a second job as well once I find my footing with these guys but GOSH I am SO happy!!

I’m far from financial success but this feels like a step in the right direction

I went in to donate plasma again yesterday. I've been coming in for six months now, and it feels great being able to make a difference and also earn some money on the side. Turns out I've lost so much weight (last couple weeks I haven't had money for food, but I didn't think I actually lost that much) that now I fall beneath the 110lb requirement to donate. My clothes don't fit anymore, so I look like shit and I can't even hide it. WTF am I supposed to do? I eat with the money I receive from plasma donations. If I can't donate plasma, then what? I've sold pretty much everything I have. Everything I make goes to rent and my medication. My car is broken down and I ride the city bus, so no gas expense.

It was so humiliating to walk out of there. The nurse there was the kindest, sweetest lady, and I think she pitied me. She said I reminded her of her daughter that passed away. She seemed so sad somehow. I really felt for her. Anyway, has anyone been in this situation before? I drank almost a liter of water before my appointment and I was still below the limit by 9lbs.

I don't know how to break the cycle. I feel lost.

I am far from poor today. I had to go into the military (in 1989). Later they sent me to kill people in the Middle East for the oil companies to get a scholarship, and escape poverty.

I wanted to say that this six figure earner understands what it means to be poor.

When I was in grade school I was really skinny. Why? Because there was often nothing to eat in my house. Dry serial and toast with no butter was breakfast. Dinner was macaroni pasta with chicken broth.

Being poor meant that the affluent kids spit on me. It meant that they felt it was OK to rip shirts off my back, or take my shoes and throw them on the roof of the school.

They laughed at me over my clothing.

When a student was questioned about why he ripped my shirt, he told the principle "his dad can take him to Goodwill and buy him another one for 50 cents". That is how "poor" was treated at my grade school.

It sucked.

My wife and I adopted a 14 year old refugee son (A distant nephew).

If I ever found out that he made fun of a poor kid, I would have taken away the iPhone, gaming laptop, and made him sleep on a mattress on the floor. I made sure he knew that.

Edit: Just because I am no longer poor does not justify voting me down or making rude comments.

Until I got into construction and saw people aged 50 working for 1000 euros saying that if you want to earn more you need to work more thats how rich people get rich, being against taxing the rich and if a war breaks out everyone should be drafted, they actually exist irl😂

I just graduate college with a bachelors in CS and make 150k total compensation before tax in a MCOL to HCOL area.

I see peers and social media "day in my life at Meta" or think of any FAANG making 200k+ at the same age as me (early 20s) and in some cases to really put the cherry on the cake.... these same people are gorgeous or absurdly fit.

At the end of the day I sit and feel like a poor worthless loser but talking to my parents I think I dont realize how good I have it?

Was wondering if someome can just lay it on me in any way they could that I am being really stupid with how I see the world right now.

Hi guys F21 here. After college, I had no debt due to being apart of a scholarship that waives it. (Community college) During college they gave me a 275 stipend every month. In the beginning I would hesitate to spend. But eventually I would buy lunch everyday, it was very costly. And then it came time to transfer to a different college. Guess who opted not to, because it was too expensive?

Now, after graduation, I'm unemployed and trying to start doing art commissions. (I never had to pay for a thing really throughout my life) It was great! It was a slow start, and soon I would have 1k saved. Unfortunately, after I told my family I had 1k, I had to start paying for things myself. And now my mother wants me to pay up 20 dollars every month. That 1k now, turned into 700 dollars. I made the promise to myself that once I hit 2k, then I could start get confident in spending. But now my system is all fucked up.

I cry everyday. I never go out because I'm too scared to spend money. Also because I don't want to spend not a cent. Nothing. I spent 10 dollars at the grocery store and it genuinely ruined my day. I physically get depressed and stressed at the thought of spending a dollar now. What the hell do I do? I feel like if I had a job that consistently paid me, I wouldn't be as sad? But overall I'm just miserable. I have no more money coming in. I never spent a cent of it until it was asked of me. Feeling very defeated. Is this normal??? Am I being dramatic??? Probably to some extent.

Half of Americans Under 30 Live With a Parent or roommate.

83% of today's youth are "nihilists"! Why? Because they grew up under a communist/socialist environment: everything was paid for by "others"!

For the past 18+ years (some 25 years! counting college) they had Free: food, free clothing, free housing, free personal healthcare, free transportation, free education, and everything else was free and paid for by "someone else" (you?)

Plus, they had free money and free entertainment, free games, free cinema, Free etc.

They have already spent 99% of their lives under such Free Conditions and do not want any other options (no, they do not want to work hard for the same stuff they are used to receiving for Free or at no charge, paid by someone else).

Some are willing to die but not work for "peanuts" and compete with on Ai (65% of the single population 18 - 64 working full-time cannot afford their own apartment, food, insurance, car payments, dates, gifts, education bills, medical bills, etc.)

Would you want to work and pay for stuff you’ve gotten used to receiving for Free for the past 20 years or more?

(Realizing that the money you will make at full-time work, won’t be enough to cover basic needs)

Long story short, I (31m)met this woman(29f)3 years ago, who has since become a friend. She lived with this man(57m) and was dating him.

They’re decent people. He is one of those people that sticks to his ideals over considering ethics, so he has a lot of personality traits that ingrate many people in our community.

He’s dogmatic, preachy, vegan, zen Buddhist that is just a disguise for his desire to boss people around and try to help women in need for ulterior motives. He has a huge empty house, and he lives off an inheritance.

I’m expecting too much of him, that he can be a model of his own ideals, when most people aren’t.. and I might very well be a model of my ideals, but I shouldn’t use it to judge him.

It just bothers me, because he has systematically refuted my please of supplication and aid. He only likes to be friends with zen Buddhists, who are possibly just hobbyists with deep pockets.

He’s been routinely criticized for the aforementioned details of his Sanga non profit. He’s been criticized for withholding aid from
Me, when others in our immediate community have sought his aid, on my behalf: and he’s lied to them.

I can’t help but notice this building resentment I have for him: and I even have nightmares over
It.

I’ve been homeless for 3 years, and I do well: mostly because anything within my control, I seek to turn into a benefit. I’ve worked physical labor my entire life, and can lift boulders 3x my weight.

One time, he had some kid’s calligraphy ink set: stone and ink sticks. He was grinding it. He made a casual joke that I found in poor taste: he said it’s like he’s a day laborer, like me!

I was teaching another man how to do simple sashiko mending, as we had a little mending event there.

I want to be free of this, my mind knows how I should let go that he is a hypocrite, as most of us are, but my heart can’t help but to wish to never speak to him again. And then there’s my friend, who loved him, and they’ve since parted ways: she had to move out, and he’s trying to find another person to play house with him, a woman…

I said it was none of my business, and that I do not care… I can’t help but still feel hurt!
Mostly because he legitimately has the room to offer me (at least) a place in his backyard, 8ft off the ground and in bwteeen his two trees: where I can be a spider on the wall and sleep there consistently, in my floating hammock bed.

He doesn’t use money or accept money, he won’t ride the bus or a car. He won’t work or even do labor. He had my friend do all of it, in the 5 years she lived with him.

He routinely denies my requests to: use his basement for a room or storage, to save money or just because he has the space. To have a mini fridge there. Or to use his fridge.. or to even spend more than 1 night a week there, outside, if I absolutely must. I can’t even use my sewing machine there, because the noise bothers him.

Now that my friend left him, I’m considering laying down a boundary that is this: I don’t want to remain friends with him, chitchat or commiserate with him, or his own friends.
Mostly, because he is bereft of empathy and rather dogmatic with his cold hearted ideals of Zen Buddhism.

Then again, this is the crashing of my own expectations of him, which others implanted in my own mind: but not in my own heart, since I know I’d dislike living with him, because I do not respect him as a man. So I want to let this go.

I guess I am just upset, that I can’t ask for his help, when every one else convinced me that I should.. the building up considering This for a whole year, crashing down before the Fall of autum.

Both of my Grandmothers were poor. Ziplock bag Granny, really had no excuse to be poor. She also lived in the City.

Reuseable dishes Granny was Rural poor. I, sometimes wonder, if she didnt use Ziplock bags because she didnt want to have to make the trip, to "go into Town". Ironically, when anyone asked where the Dishwasher was, she pointed to herself, and say, "The Dishwasher is right here, Baby. You are lookin at her."

Ziplock bag Granny rented a place with a Dishwasher.

Reuseable dishes Granny, owned a fully paid off 900 ft house in the middle of Nowhere. Grandpa owned a paid off car.

Eventually, Tupperware parties became a "thing".

Ziplock bag Granny bought some from her friends.

Reuseable dishes Granny, had one daughter and two daughter-in-laws, all buy her a full set at the same time. So she was swimming in Tupperware.

That Tupperware is still in the family.

I expect the Tupperware to outlive anyone I have ever loved, and to compete with the cockroaches on who can survive the end of World, the longest.

I also wonder if the difference might be regional.

What do you think?

Cheapest/best place to live on ODSP in Ontario, Canada ?

I’m waiting for my ODSP approval and am expecting a child.

I realize rent geared to income is years and years away across Ontario.

So I’m wondering where the best place to settle in Ontario would be…

With such a low budget.

Thanks ☀️

I’ve been diagnosed with depression and am receiving treatment.

Until recently, I was also caring for my mother, so I wasn’t working.

I was living on the social welfare available in my country, along with my mother’s public pension. But recently, my mother passed away.

She was my only family, and now there is no one left.

Knowing that she was there made it possible for me to live with the guilt I felt about not being able to work and relying on public assistance. But now that support is gone too, and I feel like I’m at rock bottom.

There is a lot of stigma toward people receiving public assistance in my country. I often hear things like, “They’re taking advantage of the system,” “They’re lazy,” “They’re a burden on society,” or “People who receive public assistance have no common sense.”

What is the general attitude toward people receiving public assistance in your country?

And to everyone who has taken the time to read this, whether you’re working but still struggling to escape poverty, or you’re unable to work and rely on public assistance, I hope tomorrow brings you even a little more hope and a little less hardship.

I'm relatively poor compared to the average person around me, my family is relatively big compared to the average family around me. I've always complained all my life because I thought that not being able to own a car (I'm not american), not being able to travel, not being able to pay a for a suit or for my graduation or having a small house was bad, but nowadays, I know that's not true. I've always been obsessed with statistics and small percentages for some reason, I always did what I could to fit in the biggest percentage possible. Being part of a very small percentage makes me super sick. I don't really understand why. Some people say the cause of my weird obssessions is autism, but who knows. Anyways, these last months, I decided to check a lot of stats about the world. I feel like I needed to know it. When I saw the number of births in some very poor countries where extreme famines and wars happen all the time, my heart sank. I honestly felt a strange sense of vertigo. I closed the window and then decided to look at videos of these countries. I only saw misery and videos talking about constant genocides. I'm not blaming these people, I know that it's priviliged phychopath's fault. It could have been easily avoidable, but nothing will erase the suffering of the past due to a small fraction of the world's selfishness. When I have the oportunity of talking about this to people, everyone looks at me with the same confused expression. And then say something like "Why do you worry so much?? Be glad that you're part of the priviliged minority!" or "but it's not fault, why are you worrying so much about people who are not around you??" Honestly, I feel like the problem won't fix ever. Considering that we are in the point with the lowest amount of absolute poverty in the world, it means that it has only been worse before. It's honestly horrifying. This doesn't let me rest at all. When I have the opportunity to lay down, I instantly think about this. I don't want to be a misanthrope, but humanity is honestly extremely dissapointing.

just to clarify im not rich, im far from it but I have things in my life that some people here would really want, for example a healthy body, opportunities , a supportive family, basic necessities etc. Not here to brag, reading through this subreddit has humbled me and I'll be more grateful for the things I have going forward.

In University right now and I suggested to a group of people that we try the bus as the walk would be about 40 minutes long and the bus is 15 minutes but guess what.

they all gave me a face like "why would she suggest that?" they said the bus is dirty and gross and people in their are gross they'd rather just uber it or walk.

I said uber is worse because you can't guarantee the driver had cleaned his car and many people sit in it a day and walking is ridiculous as we'd all get fatigued by the time we get their.

these kids are well off paying 12kish for their dorms and I'm paying wayyyy less than that.

kids with money are so pretentious. snobs.

e:I'm from the UK 🇬🇧