Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell. — Walter Bagehot
I lived poor for a few years in my life. As a young adult, I fled the parental nest to spread my wings, get a college education, and—as a consequence of my independence—lived life on the margins financially.
I shopped for clothes at Goodwill, bought secondhand furniture at the Salvation Army thrift shop, and put in a few hours per week at a food co-op to get cheap bulk grains and other foodstuffs. I worried every month if there would be enough money to pay tuition (ultra cheap way back then at the state university), pay the rent, put gas in my old clunker, and perhaps be able to go out with friends for an occasional cup of coffee (50¢ bottomless cup o' joe, no Starbucks back then).
I didn't have a TV, much less cable. My only phone was a landline because that's all there was then but I couldn't have afforded to buy a cell phone even if they had existed. Instead of going to rock concerts, I listened to the FM radio or attended occasional free performances at the university's music department or in the city park. For entertainment, I read library books instead of spending my meager funds going out to the cinema.
If the alternator went out, I resigned myself to biking to school and work (minimum wage, of course) for a month or so, hoping it wouldn't rain too often, and eating more beans and rice so I could save for the car repair job. If I felt sick, I hoped it was something minor that could be treated at the student health center for free (luckily, I never had anything serious during that period). Every day was filled with new possibilities in my youthful mind but I knew that some of those possibilities could be disastrous to my precarious financial balancing act.
I have never been poor one single day in my life.
I have absolutely no experience with being poor.
Those statements don't contradict what I wrote above in the slightest. But before I tell you how it all makes sense, let's back up a bit so I can explain how today's diary came into being.