Thoughts about being "poor"
My current situation, despite being unemployed for 9 months, is definitely NOT poor. I came to this realization after a friend of mine told me she had mashed potatoes for dinner. She's not having mashed potatoes because she is poor, but I suddenly realized I know a great many ways to make a meal out of left over mashed potatoes. What is now my weekly food budget would have covered several months back in "the old days" and that's taking inflation into consideration. That thought led me to wonder why I haven't cut back more on the food bills given that we are struggling to make the car and house payment now? Which, in turn, led me to think about my parents.

My parents were the children of sharecroppers and they didn't always have much to eat. Contrary to popular belief, not all cotton pickers in the state of Texas were African-Americans. Yes, I'm a descendant of cotton pickin' cotton pickers. The term cotton pickin' probably has no meaning these days, but it was still a slur when I was a kid. By the time I was born my folks were in their 40s, had worked their asses off and made it to the "middle class". They had built a house. We had "good" food on the table - meat and potatoes every night, no matter what other bills there might be.

And so I had a nice "middle class" childhood, but I hit the financial skids in my 20s (anyone remember the Austin bust of the early 80s?) At that time, the food budget was a bit skimpy and I learned how to make meals out of what ever was in the 'fridge, including leftover mashed potatoes. Rice and bean tacos? Peanut butter for breakfast? I've been there. I know a thousand ways to cut the food budget, yet I don't. Is it an age thing? Do we reach our 40s and decide that good food is more important than the car payment? Or is it that having been there once before, we never want to go back?