Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they're what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there's not an $800 car in America that's worth a darn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away so you can keep at least one tooth.

Being poor is knowing your associates go to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom in gas stations and resturants to steal toliet paper.

Being poor is living in homes that do not belong to you.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn't mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is Pay Less shoes.

Being poor is knowing you can't leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before housemates come home and then telling them they do not have make dinner tonight because you're not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear and tacky nicknacks to decorate your room.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you and nothing you can do because it is not your home.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the resturant serving hambrugers.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal, plus great tips.

Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger's trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because it would require effort and ambition on your part.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she'll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner or steal food.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is needing that 25-cent pay raise.

Being poor is having no books in your home.

Being poor is you have not paid an electric bill in years.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone in bars and resturants.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you are actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you are actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn't bought first.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn't know you made when you were 40 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is a pack of smokes and book from a community center.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it's all right to base a relationship on shelter, home or trailor.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn't spend that buck on a Lotto ticket or scratch off.

Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.

Being poor is having only boxes of junk accumulated over a life time.

Being poor is a cough that doesn't go away.

Being poor is making sure you don't spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is twenty-five years of night classes for a Law Degree.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed because you do not have a bed of your own.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter or trailor is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor because it is a way of life for many years.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have because of not being well liked or not a contributor.

Being poor is running in place on a imaginary treadmill.

Being poor is people wondering why you just do not leave and get your own home.

Written Clay McRae