People hear that 3/4 of poor Americans own a car and think this:

[ladyVet]

57. Well, if you look at the media (TV, movies)

it would be easy to think all poor people have nice cars. You don't usually see those like your second pic driven around. They have nice clothes, good teeth, money for medical care, and full pantries, too.

Reality is a little different.

We have three very old cars. All three are broken down. My van just got a new engine (bought from a junk yard and installed by us). It had been sitting in the back yard for over a year. My older boys' car needs a new engine, and the youngest has a truck with something bent in the engine. Damn, there's a theme going here.

Anyway, still have a leak from the transmission on the van, and then we need to come up with the money to get it back on the insurance and get it inspected so we can get tags. Until then, we use my brother's van to get my oldest son to work, because by golly he got promoted to full time -- -- and we need that freaking job.

I'm grateful every day that we aren't as bad off as some people. I pray we avoid anything worse happen that what we're going through right now. We've managed to hang on, even though it's really rough sometimes. We'd like a new TV (okay, I would, nobody else really watches TV) and new computers would be awesome. Our stuff is so old, it's laughable. Nobody would give me more than $50 for all of it.

I'm losing weight and will need new clothes soon. I'll shop second hand, though, or see if any of the stuff my cousin is sorting through will work. But geez, it would be wonderful to be able to splurge and buy new stuff, just once.

Enough of the pity party. I really need to stop reading these threads.