Oh boy, the response to your comment could be a post in itself. We did not have much money at all. At the time we lived in a modest 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a pool. Sounds good, but there were 13 of us living in it. In the summer when the kids were out of school, all the adults except one aunt would go to work. The aunt that was in charge of the kids would have us clean and scour the house every day. You had to clean every day when there are that many people living in one place.
My family has many flaws, but they never gave me the impression that we were poor. I threw my period stained underwear away because that was preferable than having to explain why there were stained. Someone would notice if I hand washed them and ask me about it.
My mother has always had a gift for creating abundance even without money. She loves clothes and could always find clothes for next to nothing (I inherited the love and gift as well). Where food was concerned, I never went hungry. We didn’t eat out, but there was always food in the house. My family works hard and knows how to hustle. The basics were covered. Indulgences like soda were bought in bulk and doled out.
That living situation did not last long because there was some kind of mortgage fraud going on in the 80’s and we were a casualty of it. We lost the house and moved into an apartment. By the time we moved into an apartment it was just my brother, mother, a cousin, and me.
I did not know that we were poor. I just new that I couldn’t ask for things, but I was happy to get what I got. It wasn’t until I took an applied government class in junior high and our teacher told us what the current poverty line was that I sat down and did the math. That evening my mother came home to find me crying and when she asked why I told her it was because we were below the poverty line. She just laughed and told me that it didn’t change anything, that we had been that way for a long time and that we had everything we needed. And we did.

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I remember wanting my period to come so badly when I was that age. 

I rarely drink soda now, but it’s too late I already have my period.

and from now on I wont give up soda for anything…lol