Tales From the Broomstick

 I was raised poor. My parents were divorced and my mother blew the child support on I have no idea. I remember my clothes were from a flea market and the blouses were either old lady style button up or the biker shredded tees with pictures of wolves on them. When my shoes got to small my grandfather would cut off the toes and I'd only get a new pair when my foot got too wide for the shoe regardless of how far my toes stuck out the front. Food was probably the worse things about my childhood (except for the abuse, another story). My mom could not cook, or at least cook well. A poor man's tuna casserole is mac & cheese (powdered kind) with a can of tuna added and a can of peas. My mother would make mac & cheese several nights a week, sausage and peas, hamburger and peas, plain, substituting ranch dressing because we had no milk, mayo when we had no butter. She'd make spaghetti, never with meat, but her "sauce" was tomato paste, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes...

  I'm poor. Not what my family would call 'dirty poor' but still pretty poor. Yes I have a roof over my head (where I live rent free, only paying utilties) a car that is thirteen years old, internet and cell phones. We have food, but also $10,000 in debt and I'm unemployed. My car had been repossesed and I sold my house at a loss of what its worth to get out from under the mortgage payment before I couldn't afford it anymore. Here's the thing, I don't need some job managing people or climb the corporate ladder. I'd love to afford to live just by being a cashier at a supermarket or something. So let's talk about my teeth. My parents were poor too, and taught me nothing about saving or investing or living frugal (except meals, I'll mention that later). When I was fourteen my mother decided that it was time for me to have braces. The cost would be $4000 paid over the two years I would be wearing them. My parents put down a down payment and never  ga...