How poor is poor?

We certainly don't have that kind of money coming into the house but I don't get consider myself poor by any means. I do know people whose income is very low but they seem to manage to 'cut their cloth' for the most part. I would consider someone is poor when they can't pay bills or have to resort to food banks and there are plenty who do.

Poor is surely not having enough money to house, cloth and feed yourself or, if you have one, your family.

But some people can make money go further than others it is true.

That's all I'm saying.

And I'm saying nothing at all - we've been here before!

Have we Ana? I'm sorry if I have repeated something that has already been talked to death - I am new here and the question interests me, that's all.

Oh don't worry, ONW, it was on a political thread some while ago and the discussion got rather...heated! I'm sure this will be a calm and reasoned thread.

I think what we are thinking is that this is an interesting topic ONW but it won't be long before it is highjacked by those of a more political bent and it will become littered with blue links!

That would be unfortunate, as the subject genuinely interests me and I have no axe to grind (political or otherwise).

I don't regard us as being poor. After all, we own our own home and DH is still working full-time. Come September however it might be a different matter altogether. DH retires from his job at the Co-op. We are going to try and carry on with the early morning cleaning jobs we both have now to supplement our pensions, and see how we manage.

Fingers crossed then ONW

Pity you have to do that Hilda - must be hard.

I don't think any of the Gransnetters on here are really poor.

If you were poor, you would know it. You wouldn't need it defined.

I am thinking cold and hungry.

hildaj. I think you are a star. Huge respect.

hildaj. I think you are a star. Huge respect.

Well, I didn't do it twice. >>shrugs and walks away<<

I live on much, much less than the figure you quote, but manage ok
and have everything I need. It's much harder for young families I think.
I have great sympathy for them.

It was worth saying twice though. Cos it's true.

I remember reading years ago what was considered the seminal tome on this subject by Townsend called Poverty where he described the difference between real poverty and relative poverty. I cant remember it all of course but the gist was that real poverty was being unable to feed, clothe and house yourself and relative poverty was having less than others around in you in your peer group - I think I may have got that wrong.

Today it horrifies me to read than we have hundreds of thousands of children (and of course their parents) who are homeless and often have to go hungry and that is poverty of any definition to me.

No I'm not poor but I have been as a child, not as poor as my parents - my father didn't have any shoes so couldn't go to school and often went hungry. I haven't ever forgotten what it was like or ceased to be grateful for what I have now.

There are no longer poor pensioners - I think the younger low-wage/unemployed are the new poor.

£24,000 isn't a lot of money when you have high housing costs - it doesn't leave much for them to live on.

Such a difficult question- I suppose poverty is so relative to your location and culture. Poor is not having a large % of what others around you have here- rather than no food. And yes part of it is due to poor choices... eg spending money on non essential and then not having money for such (good food, heating, etc). Truth is though, is that those in real poverty now in the UK are so due to debt for above- and extortionate rates of repayment, taking large amounts of what is coming in.

Personally, I don't think of being 'poor' and living in 'poverty' as quite the same thing.

To me, 'poor' can be used to describe those who have just enough to live on, to cover their basic needs, enough even (if they 'cut their cloth' accordingly) to be able to cope when, for example, the washing machine dies and has to be replaced. Not enough, however, to afford any of life's little luxuries, such as a meal out, at the drop of a hat.

'Poverty', however, I see as not having enough income, no matter how you 'cut your cloth'. to guarantee covering most basic needs every month, let alone be able to make any provision for things like a washing machine breaking down (or even replacing a watch battery!). Living like that, knowing that homelessness is a very real possibility, must be absolutely awful.

A few weeks ago I made a point of going to the supermarket near closing time on a Sunday, to see if I could pick up any bargains. I was shocked to see a number of people already hanging around the meat and bread isles with the same idea. The reason for my shock was their appearance, which left me in no doubt that they were in genuine need of the cheap food.
Having made the trip to the supermarket, I didn't want to leave empty handed, and grabbed myself a pack of frying steak for 27p. Ever since then, I've felt awful about this. Their need was so much greater than mine.
To compound my guilt, I only managed to get it by taking it from the employee's trolley before he'd even put it on the shelf. I only got away with it because I was a 'normal' shopper. Those desperate people were being shouted at and treated like animals as they tried to get the things from the shelves and certainly wouldn't have been allowed to do what I had done.

That incident opened my eyes to true need, and although I can't do anything to help those particular individuals now, I will now donate to the food bank whenever I have the opportunity.

Going to Lidl (poor old me...) and coming across a youngish couple debating whether to spend 40p. Their last 40p. That's poverty!

My income is far below the 24k figure atm but I own property outright, have a bit in the bank and a pension of a sort.

I don't know I'm born, really..

On a pension, under £9000 a year!

Cutting one's cloth is so easy. One reads the electric meter every night to work out how much you have spent in electricity in one day and working out what else you can switch off. Pray your child doesn't want to go on a school trip. Doesn't want to join ballet classes with their friends . Wearing sandals in winter untill you can save for a pair of shoes . Explaining to your children why they can't have a treat such as fish and chips from the chip shop. Why they can't join in after school activities . Using tea bags several times. Unable to afford meat for a Sunday roast. Weeping buckets if any white goods need replacing.

Nothing to it,

Oh annie

Jinglebells, just to clarify, I am asking for other people's definition of poor here, not because I don't know what it means.

I, too, remember a childhood of living in a rented flat where the only means of heating was a coal fired range in the kitchen, where our family life took place from September to April, as the rest of the place had ice on the inside of the window panes, making it impossible stay there very long.

Luckily my mother was from a dirt poor family herself and knew how to stretch the almost non-existent budget, so we never went hungry, although as the youngest of six cousins my first piece of "new" clothing, i.e. one that was not a hand-me-down, was a shirt I bought with my first wages.

My father, the most intelligent man I have ever known, had to go out to work at 14 to bring in some money, as my grandfather came back from the war as an invalid, so there was no chance of a higher education for him. They could simply not afford for him not work as soon as possible.

I have a sneaky suspicion that the definition of poor has changed somewhat over the last 60 years or so, which was one reason for my question.