My mom was a single mother with two kids by 19 and had to work two or three jobs while going to nursing school to support us. We were poor enough that, at times, all we had to eat was cereal and mom went hungry so me and my sibling would have enough to eat. We lived this way until I was about 5 or 6, so I don't really remember much of it. My mom was working a regular job by that time, so we were much more stable.

We lived a pretty middle class life after that, although there were some (and occasionally still are) hard times, like this past December when we almost lost our house. Saving money is pretty tough when you started out with hardly nothing. You don't get too much of a chance to catch up. I'm starting out better than my mom did in some ways, so I don't think things will be too hard for me once I'm able to get a non-dead-end job.