I'm lucky, I started working in restaurants at 14, I was never not working in a kitchen until I switched careers (got a degree later in life after a serious medical incident). I would almost never buy food and when I did I knew how to cook the things very few would touch (you could get a pound of chicken livers for about 30 cents from local market, pork bones around a dollar, etc..) being able to cook anything really kept my food budget to near nothing (it's still pretty low, I know where to get cheap produce and fish/meat and don't buy prepackaged or convenient food).
I think I realized I wasn't poor anymore was when I was able to walk into a legit new clothing store and buy a new dress shirt for work (I had the same 2 dress shirt bought at the salvo $3 a piece that I owner for 16 years, mostly for funerals, job interviews, and catering jobs). It was only like $12 (on sale) but buying a legit shirt that fits right (for the job I started weeks prior) was a big step.
My GF tries to get my to spend money on stuff now, I'm not ultra frugal but there's still a creepy "what the fuck am I doing, this is wrong" panic I get when we go out to dinner.
I'm lucky, I started working in restaurants at 14, I was never not working in a kitchen until I switched careers (got a degree later in life after a serious medical incident). I would almost never buy food and when I did I knew how to cook the things very few would touch (you could get a pound of chicken livers for about 30 cents from local market, pork bones around a dollar, etc..) being able to cook anything really kept my food budget to near nothing (it's still pretty low, I know where to get cheap produce and fish/meat and don't buy prepackaged or convenient food).
I think I realized I wasn't poor anymore was when I was able to walk into a legit new clothing store and buy a new dress shirt for work (I had the same 2 dress shirt bought at the salvo $3 a piece that I owner for 16 years, mostly for funerals, job interviews, and catering jobs). It was only like $12 (on sale) but buying a legit shirt that fits right (for the job I started weeks prior) was a big step.
My GF tries to get my to spend money on stuff now, I'm not ultra frugal but there's still a creepy "what the fuck am I doing, this is wrong" panic I get when we go out to dinner.
I'm lucky, I started working in restaurants at 14, I was never not working in a kitchen until I switched careers (got a degree later in life after a serious medical incident). I would almost never buy food and when I did I knew how to cook the things very few would touch (you could get a pound of chicken livers for about 30 cents from local market, pork bones around a dollar, etc..) being able to cook anything really kept my food budget to near nothing (it's still pretty low, I know where to get cheap produce and fish/meat and don't buy prepackaged or convenient food).
I think I realized I wasn't poor anymore was when I was able to walk into a legit new clothing store and buy a new dress shirt for work (I had the same 2 dress shirt bought at the salvo $3 a piece that I owner for 16 years, mostly for funerals, job interviews, and catering jobs). It was only like $12 (on sale) but buying a legit shirt that fits right (for the job I started weeks prior) was a big step.
My GF tries to get my to spend money on stuff now, I'm not ultra frugal but there's still a creepy "what the fuck am I doing, this is wrong" panic I get when we go out to dinner.