(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Learning to live poor [1] ['Meteor Blades', 'Bring The Lions', 'Greg Dworkin'] Date: 2026-08-17 Sam Vimes’s Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness is real. I’m living proof of it. I’ve never been rich, but I grew up in a very upper middle class family with a fair amount of both financial and cultural privilege. My family lived in a good-sized house in a very good neighborhood; my brother and I had our own bedrooms, plus a separate playroom to share. My parents had season tickets to both the local reperatory theater and the philharmonic. We often spent long weekends traveling to other cities to see art exhibits or go to a new science museum. I went to a competitive public school and then to a college often ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. (and had relatively little debt from that). Current me has the material posessions from when life was more prosperous: a decent computer, a very good sewing machine, a well-established yarn stash, and way too many books. I was able to buy the good boots in Vimes’s theory in my previous life, so I’m still benefitting from that prior prosperity. But my life has changed. A very drastic and difficult change. Between medical bills that drained my savings [even with relatively good insurance from my employer] resulting from major surgeries in 2023 and 2024, and then being laid off from what should have been a secure position I could retire from a decade from now, I’m now having to learn to live as someone who has few financial resources. Federal budget shenanigans trickled down to me, unfortunately. I’ve sent out 600+ job applications and had a decent number of interviews (and even second interviews) but no offers yet. I’ve been using food pantries extensively (see my previous diary on that here). I’ve greatly benefited from videos at YouTube about how to feed myself from what I get ~ for example, Dollar Tree Dinners has many videos that use ingredients that are often in the food pantry. It’s a very different life for me now. Browsing a bookstore when I don’t have the money to buy anything is much less fun ~ but I’m incredibly grateful for my local public libraries. I’ve been able to keep up with favorite authors and even use the library of things [non-book items like puzzles, baking sheets and hand tools] at one of them. Even though I was laid off from my librarian position, I’m still very proud of how well we do libraries here in Maine. It’s also nice that we live in a world of free entertainment. I’ve had to cancel various streaming services to save money but I’ve found lots of fun videos on YouTube to watch. It’s actually pretty amazing how much content there is ~ my playlists are now longer than I have time to watch. The down side? That connection for free entertainments is also a modern requirement, as paying for an Internet connection is a necessity for job hunting. Same thing for health insurance ~ I’m very thankful for the ACA/Obamacare, as it means health insurance isn’t an astronomic expense, but it still requires money for the premium each month. For 2026, my premium doubled from what I paid last year after the lay-off with the changes to the program. Since I’m old enough (60+, with 55+ for Native Americans) and have no income, a local program gave me $50 in vouchers to use at local farmers’ markets ~ I tried to use them wisely. The food pantries try on the fresh vegetables but many are only open two or three times a month [I have a schedule of them on my planning board so I can optimize my trips to save on gas money], so stocking perishables isn’t easy. My washing machine stopped working last fall. In my past life, if I didn’t have the ready cash for such an expensive purchase immediately, a couple months of saving a bit extra would be enough. Now, I’m counting quarters to use the local laundromat. Being poor is a very different experience. If I had my way, all incoming members of Congress would have to live for at least a month with only the resources someone in their district has earning the local minimum wage. I think we’d see some real change finally if that were a requirement. Want to help out? My PayPal is larbstah at gmail dot com ~ use the family/friends option for no fees. I also have a GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/every-bit-helps-aid-for-job-search-and-health [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/17/800084459/community/learning-to-be-poor/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/