re: What is the poorest you've even been?

I cut one of my country club memberships during the recession. Been through my fair share of hardships.

Needed a good flashlight for my job (MagCharger) and you couldn't just buy a bright flashlight back then. Went down to Service Merchandise on College Drive and opened a charge account so I could buy it and pay it back at $10 a month. Still have that light someplace.

This was when I had to decide which utility bills to pick to pay some months.

Lived in govt apts behind EKL. We used bus, food stamps, welfare....no a/c....remember one night no food in house so mom cut up onion, rolled that thing in flour, salt, and pepper and fried it in some Crisco.

To this day I swear my mom invented the Bloomin Onion

Searching for quarters around the house to go to Coinstar to get cash to go out. I'd spent the rest of my money to pay for my last semester of college and literally had $200 free to last me from mid-April until graduation in mid-May. But I'll be damned if those times weren't some of the most fun times I had in school

Put it this way, Christmas and my birthdays were never quite the same after this - sort of a game changer.

U.S. Sues Oilman for $1.1 Billion

The first company I worked for went under and I was unemployed for two months. Lived off of .50 bean burritos and had a bank balance of 37 cents. Looking back, I kind of miss those times. Being really poor and single is a lot better than being kinda poor with a family.

Junior and Senior year of high school living in Tulia, Tx. Lived in a ranch house with my dad who was a ranch manager. We lived off of one loaf of bread, one pack on bologna and a half gallon of milk every 5 to 7 days. My dad was a raging alcoholic and didn't provide much when it came to my necessities. Pretty fricking rough time in my life.

Grew up in gov't owned townhouses outside NYC.

Dad was former Army and going to night school while working a low pay Asst. Engineer job for Grumman Aerospace.

Dad finally finished his degree in engineering and 4 months later Grumman closed all of their plants on Long Island.

Watched my father take a job hanging vinyl siding after spending 8 years to become an engineer. He did whatever it took to feed our family.

At the lowest point, we were on food stamps and eating hamburger helper every night.

We left Long Island and my parents both helped dig our family out of poverty.

My life story is why I have ZERO tolerance for people born into poverty claiming they can't do anything to "get out"..... It might be unfairly difficult compared to kids born in a middle class household but it is certainly not impossible. You just have to be willing to put in the effort.

I'm very proud of my parents for what they did back then.

I was making 28k in my first job out of undergrad. I lived with two of my friends and ate either Totino's pizza or ramen noodles for dinner. Lunch was usually a sandwich or tuna. I was also paying for graduate school during this time (out of pocket).

Life was pretty awesome, outside of my shite job.