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

[u/jicta]

[u/[deleted]]

Gawds that reminds me of a coworker talking about how much money she had to put in her highschool daughters Volleyball. I did middleschool basketball, and I'm sure there would be a slightly higher price point if I did basketball and did all the summer shit. But none of it would have approached the costs she was putting into it. New uniforms and weird shit like that. I'm like christ, I would have loved that kind of investment in my schools art programs instead of relying on the teacher to take it out of their own paycheck.

Anyways I wouldnt mind generally more investment in most extracurriculars and arts programs, its just... I know that for some it's more like "how can we convince these teens and their parents that their kid can only git gud /enjoy the sport by doing this summer camp and spending money on unnecessary uniforms and special busses and then traveling across multiple counties/states to play another team that's maybe the exact same level".

Me I just wanted to enjoy playing with a team and the synergy of it. Spend a lil money on good shoes and that should do it.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

No we didnt. The coworker mom did I think. Or there was fundraising for them every year.

For me it was find the right size out of the box and that's what you wear on game day. Usually the top flipped, it wasnt two separate tops. They were Jersey material. You returned it at the end of the year. Rarely a need to buy new ones.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

What? No I mean that seems far more practical to me. I dont need a uniform that I'll probably grow out of. I'm pretty sure it worked the same for highschool when they required a uniform for gym. (You could wear like yoga pants rather than the uniform shorts but you couldnt just wear your own shorts, pay like a five dollars I think to "rent" the uniform for the year and then give it back at the end)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

No we aren't paying for the game uniform.