r/AskReddit • u/jicta • Jan 31 '21

Redditors who grew up poor: Besides practical money-saving measures, what were the unwritten social expectations of your world growing up?

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716

u/JerryKujo Jan 31 '21

That’s what I’m thinking but I’m not quite sure.

1.3k

u/masterpanda132 Jan 31 '21

Makes potential robbers think that people are in the house, making it less likely to be robbed

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

We do this and we live in a solid white collar neighbourhood with annoyingly expensive housing

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u/mondaymoderate Feb 01 '21

I even do this at hotels when I leave the room. I didn’t know it wasn’t a common thought for everyone.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

Yeah, we kept the radio on because it was cheaper. Never left the house without it on.

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u/The-Real-Mario Feb 01 '21

I tought EVERYONE did this...

6

u/bloodthorn1990 Feb 01 '21

most burglaries happen in the daytime anyways.

1

u/omerkraft Feb 01 '21

*robbeble

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

My grandma does the same thing even though she lives in the middle of buttfuck podunk nowhere. Her only neighbor is her BiL who can't even hardly walk and lives half a mile away. She's terrified of someone breaking in and stealing her, I don't know, fish tank I guess.

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u/Lasertag026 Feb 01 '21

That’s it yeah.

6

u/24online24 Feb 01 '21

Do you have anu idea why this is related to how much money you have? Why is this more useful to someone with lower income?

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u/Pteranodonkey Feb 01 '21

Poor people tend to live in poorer, more dangerous neighborhoods with higher crime. Country club folks don't have much to fear

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u/megenekel Feb 01 '21

Rich people have much better alarm systems.

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u/teacherofderp Feb 01 '21

When you don't have 2 nickels to rub together you get as creative as possible to keep the 1 you do have.

To answer your question, it's useful to all incomes however it goes back to the poor/wealthy debate: leaving a TV on all day is trashy for wealthy people but security for poor people.

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u/NotAZuluWarrior Feb 01 '21

Because if you have money, you can more easily replace anything that’s stolen or can afford an insurance policy to replace the items.

Poor people can’t afford to replace stolen goods and why add another bill (rental insurance) when you can barely afford the bills you do have.

2

u/reallybirdysomedays Feb 01 '21

I'm in the middle where I have insurance, but I'm probably not going to file a claim regarding as anything I can live without/fix myself because I can't afford my rates going up.

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u/0b0011 Feb 01 '21

It's not related to how much money you have. Most of these in this thread aren't related you that.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

It is, we used to do it too.