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Growing up poor leaves a mark that can't be erased and habits that are hard to break.
Thousands of poor or formerly poor Reddit users discussed their experiences after someone
posted a topic asking: "What do insanely poor people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about?"
Commenters described shopping for expired food, Dumpster-diving, and using improvised cleaning products to save money and meet their basic needs.
"Often bakeries will toss out stale breads and things but leave the bag on them," wrote commenter robutmike. "We would get them, dump the breads out of the bags at home into something clean, wash our hands, and have some fancy bread that was still perfectly good. You had to carefully check the bag for punctures of course, unless you were particularly hungry, then you could just remove the portion that was exposed and eat the rest."
"My mom would send my sisters and I to volunteer at the food pantry so
we could get the freshest expired food," wrote another commenter, Dharma42. "We would ride along with the organizers of the pantry in a church bus early in the morning and collect day old KFC, pizza hut and any groceries that were past the 'sell by' date."
They also recalled making meals with a bare minimum of cheap, barely palatable ingredients - such as lard or syrup sandwiches.
"One time I also ate noodles covered in hot ketchup," wrote commenter workshits. "It was literally the worst thing."
Some commenters shared tips for finding free food and avoiding hunger pangs.
Comment: The police can shoot and kill unarmed civilians and dogs, so why not let them get away with rape too?
- US Police rape culture: 'Go ahead, call the cops. They can't un-rape you.' - Texas cop
Anna Salter Ph.D wrote, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders - who they are, how they operate, and how we can protect ourselves and our children. It's a must read for anyone with children.You can also find an interview SOTT did with Anna Salter: