[Esme]

People percieve poverty in diferent ways. My family all consider me badly off because I never have actual money. They refer to me as "Poor Margaret" - I own my own house, a horse and loads of "stuff"! At one point I had 5 horses, chickens a half dozen ewes and a large field - it always amused me that they called me poor cause I wear scruffy stuff instead of chavvy designer gear.

[Selkie]

i agree esme; apart from abject poverty it's a bit of a relative thing.

peter and i are probably the 'poor' ones in my family but we own our house outright (no mortgage) and have approx €20,000 in the bank.

but we don't have high flying jobs or go away to far flung sunny places for holidays and we've had the same car since 2002 (which we bought brand new and paid for in cash, but it's 'only' a ford ka...)

we live comfortably within our means, and are happy!

[mashauk]

peter and i are probably the 'poor' ones in my family but we own our house outright (no mortgage) and have approx €20,000 in the bank.

Lend us a fiver then :twisted:

I was brought up in a "middle classe" Jewish family (I hate the class thing though) dad has his own business until the 1970's when it was forced to close due to Far East imports, but they never had a mortgage, their parents bought their first house for them outright.  I didn't realise we were "well off" until a girl from school came to dinner (see in Leeds you're posh if you call it dinner not tea ) and were having a normal meal for us, home made soup, meat (probably beef I can't remember), jacket potatoes, a green veg and a large bowl of salad (which mum put on the table every day and we picked at it after dinner, she didn't do puddings very often), this girl thought my mum had made a feast and didn't stop going on about it for ages, she said she'd never seen such food - and on a weekday to boot!

I then lived in a council flat for 20 years until I bought my little house, and now consider my self working class, struggling to make ends meet but happy with no aspirations to climb up the social ladder again thank you! Somebody asked me 5 years ago what I wanted - and I said to earn less money, this sounds bizarre but I was in a well paid but horrid job, and I knew as soon as I got the mortgage sorted out etc I could leave and earn less money and work less hours, which I've done!

[SnooziSuzi]

... and have approx €20,000 in the bank.

Erk!  I hope you don't bank with my employers!  every time you rang the call centre for a balance they'd mark us down if we didn't offer to invest it for you or try to sell you a loan or insurance!  :evil:

[Selkie]

when we went into the bank to sort out credit cards, the lady behind the counter said we'd ''too much'' money in our account (it was €30,000 then - it's all going on building work on our house)

[SnooziSuzi]

I can sell you a loan to help you with that!  LOL!    Kidding!

[Selkie]

she did persuade us to do one of those high interest savings thingies (where we put in €500 a month into this special account and can't touch it for a few years)  do they get commission on persuading you to do such things?

[SnooziSuzi]

well we don't get commission but we are targetted and if we don't hit our targets then we are put on a 'plan'.  If we don't bring our targets up then we get a P45. :evil:

Sorry, I have hijacked the post abit so....

We were so poor when we were kids that Christmas actually meant something to us; not like today when kids just expect to get something (edit: LOTS of things)  (edit: edit: LOTS of EXPENSIVE things) just for being around instead of as a reward for being good and kind :evil:  :evil:

[sweet nasturtium]

We have a relatively good disposable income, but I'm really just mean and miserly and hate spending more money than I need to.  

We have far too much stuff at home, but also far too many hobbies.  We all play different instruments, I've got the garden stuff, he's got art, and dds have an obsession with small girly ornaments and anything that says pet / kitten / puppy / pocket / tiny or is lilac or pink.

So as with most people, by the end of the month it's all disappeared.

[Lynne]

When my mother was 12 (in 1925), her mother died suddenly on Christmas day at the age of 32. Her father was a miser, although he did have money, and sent the doll that my mother had been given for Christmas back to the shop. It was the only present she had ever been given for Christmas and her mother had saved secretly for it. Mom didn't have a pair of shoes until she was 15, when she was able to buy some herself.

On a different note, when my step kids were young, we let them decorate the Christmas tree by themselves one year. It ended up covered with plastic toy soldiers and dolls, with a Barbie as the fairy. It looked great too!

We are also the 'poorest' in our family, although we are comfortable (we haven't always been). But that is because others in my family are quite well off. I have no problem with that as they have worked for it and they are not 'in your face' about it. They also happen to be really nice people.

[David.]

Mom didn't have a pair of shoes until she was 15, when she was able to buy some herself.

My mother (my grandfather was a docker in the East End) used to tell me about children would wear shoes to school, then their mother would take them back home for some one else to use.

[sweet nasturtium]

Lynne that story about your mum's really tragic.  But I still know women who have an allowance and save up for nice things for their kids without their husbands knowing.

[Selkie]

i agree with sweetn, the story about your mother is really heart-breaking lynne.

[Trillium]

We didn't have much either when I was young, but we always had food and decent clothes even if they were hand-me-downs from neighbours. What I most hated was back at school after Christmas and some wise-ass teacher had every student stand and tell what they got for Christmas. My mouth dropped at how much other kids got. I was too embarassed to tell of the single gift my dad chose for me that year - a big stuffed clown bear - when I was 14!

Now the irony is that most of those well-off school friends are either dead or are on 2nd or 3rd marriages. Last time I looked I was still alive, and still happy in marriage #1.

[WG.]

:shock:  :shock: You married the big stuffed clown bear :!: