Poverty - Tumblr Posts

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this life-

my life

is ass

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morass

One thing about growing up in the Bible Belt and very poor is that both 1. Childhood mortality and 2. The threat of Hell were very real and traumatic fears to my ancestors, so I was trained to say this classic prayer nightly: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul will keep. For if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul will take.”

I’m still religious, but don’t subscribe to the fear-mongering-for-followers, especially telling *children* that God is like a scary Santa that sets you on fire if you’re naughty. Anyway. I realized today that that prayer was, in part, probably supposed to make me a little frightened, especially of the ideas of death and hell. However, a second thing about growing up super poor in the Bible Belt (aka, the land of “hillbillies neither want nor deserve public assistance”) was that 1. I knew very early that childhood mortality may very well Get Me, but 2. I honestly hoped it would. I always took comfort in that prayer. It was a relief, a plea, that God might take me away any night, and I’d be in a better place forever.

I’ve always had pretty severe mental health issues, and considered the onset of my suicidal tendencies to be ~7y/o, but today, I realized there’s never been a time I was just a happy kid. I’ve been romanticizing the daydream that all of my suffering would end One Day Soon since I was old enough to speak and remember that prayer.

It makes me kind of sad that even though my disabled, single mother fought for our lives and did everything she could for me, even taught me a prayer to 1. protect my life and 2. Protect my soul if my life was too much to ask… and yet all my days I’ve been wishing, *praying* away the life she was so afraid to lose.

My mom used to tell me that when I was only four, I used to cry and say, “I just miss the good old days.” I can only assume those Good Old Days were a time between birth and 4 when her arms still had the ability to carry me, my chronic nightmares hadn’t started, and meals were guaranteed. I have no memory now of such a time. I hope I didn’t hurt her too much by showing my misery.

I don’t know why I’m saying any of this. I guess it was just a stark realization and I need to shout it into the void.

What to do if you suddenly find yourself homeless

FOOD

Find your nearest food bank or mission, for food

grocery stores with free samples, bakeries + stores with day-old bread

different fast food outlets have cheaper food and will generally let you hang out for a while.

some dollar stores carry food like cans of beans or fruit

SHELTER

Sleeping at beaches during the day is a good way to avoid suspicion and harassment

sleep with your bag strapped to you, so someone can’t steal it

Some churches offer short term residence

Find your nearest homeless shelter

Look for places that are open to the public

A large dumpster near a wall can often be moved so that flipping up the lids creates an angled shelter to stay dry

HYGIENE

A membership to the YMCA is usually only 10$, which has a shower, and sometimes laundry machines and lockers.

Public libraries have bathrooms you can use

Dollar stores carry low-end soaps and deodorant etc.

Wet wipes are all purpose and a life saver

Local beaches, go for a quick swim

Some truck stops have showers you can pay for

Staying clean is the best way to prevent disease, and potentially get a job to get back on your feet

Pack 7 pairs of socks/undies, 2 outfits, and one hooded rain jacket

OTHER

first aid kit

 sunscreen

 a travel alarm clock or watch

 mylar emergency blanket

 a backpack is a must

 downgrade your cellphone to a pay as you go with top-up cards

 sleeping bag

 travel kit of toothbrush, hair brush/comb, mirror

 swiss army knife

 can opener

Here’s a conversation starter for you all:

In a world where sex inequality did not exist and feminism was not needed, but other forms of inequality and social need still did, what form inequality would be the primary focus of your activism (if any)?

Rebloging because the last statement is FACT. Like poor moms and dads that can’t afford it HAVE to shoplift because it’s for the health of their baby no them.

Yeah, this one really came from the heart.

“Biding Time Underwater”

Acrylic and mixed media painting on canvas ..

People who gets food stamps said to me that meat is getting more expensive and same goes to healthy vegetables. The allowance they get is never enough.

And financial aid doesn't help much for college

This Bothered Me So I’m Fixing It

In media, I’ve noticed that characters that grew up poor don’t seem to act like people that actually grew up poor. This is because they’re largely written by people that grew up middle class, or even more wealthy than that, and have no concept of how growing up poor fucks your mental health. The poor characters are usually angry, jealous, a bit self-serving, and while he’s this can happen it’s been over represented as how poor people act.

I grew up poor. And I mean some of the stuff I had to sacrifice because of this didn’t bother me because I thought it was very normal. Not getting a birthday party every year, having to use the same uniform three years in a row, just ripping out old pages and continuing to use my old school book, finger foods night, bodgie night, never being able to get super into video games. Being poor affects more than just the types of items you own and how often you can get groceries. And this is something other people can’t understand and struggle to write.

Poor people have a very strange concept of what is privilege and what they can expect when they go to someone else’s house. The house has stairs? That’s so fancy! The house has a kitchen island? A bar? A pool? That’s all fancy shit. And when a poor person comes to your house, even if they know you’ve got a pool, they’re probably not going to bring bathers. Upkeep of the pool is expensive isn’t it? Why would I expect to swim in the pool and cost you money? (Doesn’t know how pools work). They’ll try to eat as minimal food as possible and drink as little water as possible at your house because it costs money that they’re not used to having.

I have decided that this reality of growing up poor, or worse, growing up in poverty, needs to be shown more realistically. I’m writing a bildungsroman-fantasy book series, and you can find out more about its genre by clicking on the tags. I’ve made multiple posts about it already. But our protagonist, Draco Vitterbyrn, is a character that has grown up in poverty. He lives in a house that is falling apart, his family can’t afford groceries, he has to wear an old school uniform that doesn’t fit right, he doesn’t get proper birthday or Yule gifts from his family, he can’t afford to go out with his friends, he’s never made a big deal about his birthday, he feels like he only ever takes from people that show him kindness.

The Damned Trilogy, as it is called, tackles a lot of systemic issues such as classism, ableism, racism, xenophobia etc., and all through the systemic oppression of vampires within this magical society. Vampires cannot access food to survive, they cannot access housing, they cannot access jobs, they cannot access most of the things we need to survive within capitalist society.

If this kind of story sounds like it might interest you, please comment or reblog. If enough people want to see this story published I may start a venmo or gofundme to actually get it published. Also, look through the #the damned trilogy if you want to learn more about what I’ve included in this story.

Middle-class economics: rich on the 1st, poor by the 31st – a never-ending cycle of feast and famine!

yall have got to be more normal about Southern people and I'm not kidding. enough of the Sweet Home Alabama incest jokes, enough of the idea that all Southerners are bigots and rednecks, and enough of the idea that the South has bad food. shut up about "trailer trash" and our accents and our hobbies!

do yall know how fucking nauseating it is to hear people only bring up my state to make jokes about people in poverty and incestuous relationships? how much shame I feel that I wasn't born up north like the Good Queers and Good Leftists with all the Civilised Folk with actual houses instead of small cramped trailers that have paper thin walls that I know won't protect me in a bad enough storm?

do yall know how frustrating it is to be trans in a place that wants to kill you and whenever you bring it up to people they say "well just move out" instead of sympathizing with you or offering help?

do yall understand how alienating it is to see huge masterposts of queer and mental health resources but none of them are in your state because theyre all up north? and nobody seems to want to fix this glaring issue because "they're all hicks anyways"

Southern people deserve better. we deserve to be taken seriously and given a voice in the queer community and the mental health space and leftist talks in general.

[link]

self proclaimed schizoposter nervously typing '911' into their phone and hovering their thumb above the 'call' key as they hawkishly watch a disheveled guy at a bus stop make repetitive movements and ramble to himself

Me: Okay I only have $40 in food stamps left, I gotta prioritize what I need. (leaves store with bag of marshmallows and 3 bottles of diet coke)

What's better than having to go to the food bank? Going to the food bank that's set up only for people in cars, standing between cars in a line to register so you can only take maybe half the food other people are getting for a whole month because that's all you can carry, looking sadly at the fresh fruits and veggies you have to leave behind while strangers watch you, injuring yourself by carrying something too heavy on your messed up back, and then being angrily told by a state employee that you can't bring your guide dog inside to ask a question even though it's illegal to deny access to the reason we have service dogs in the first place. Oh but they're aware of the problem where the disabled literally can't get food that is being delivered to the elderly, they even have a grant from Door Dash wow! So I've been in a lot of pain and off and on in tears all night and that's been just fantastic. It's hard to think well of myself when the world itself goes this hard against me for just existing.

Local friends who didn’t need the extra food used their car and brought me a full load of food bank stuff. ;_; <3

Requesting recipes, ingredients I have under the cut.

Anybody got suggestions for making something with eggs, chicken breast, mozzarella, yellow squash and peppers? I have a crockpot and I think my spices are still good. I’d like something I can freeze. Also got pork ribs and I have no idea what to do with them but they were heavy. XD Got two heads of lettuce, a huge thing of celery, and sweet potatoes. Might give those to my neighbor, I don’t think I can eat them all and I lowkey kinda hate sweet potatoes (but will take suggestions on what to do with them).

Welp. The vet was very kind enough to give my guide dog an arthritis shot for free today and if this helps her I will be going into debt every month until she dies. I hope it helps her feel better. Old lady has done a lot for me in these nine years and I hope she can do one last big trip in a few months. The vet actually started crying and for a second I thought she was going to suggest we do something else for Petey. o_o But she was just really moved by how much this dog means to me and paid the bill for the shot out of her own pocket and waived the vet visit fee. It was really sweet. I still had to put about $90 on my credit card for antibiotics (she's got a skin infection again) but not having to pay an additional $160 on top of that helped.

Today was long and I'm tired and sad that my good buddy is getting so old. I dunno how long she really has left but I'll do my best to make it as good as my broke ass can manage. She's a damn expensive medical device (was already costing me about $200 a month as is and I live on a fixed poverty income) but I love her and she's worth more than money to me.