Never starved, always had a roof over my head. So no, I have never been poor.
When I quit my job and moved to another continent to basically wash dishes and scrap prep in any restaurant that would hire someone with no experience, I had to count my pennies hundreds of times to make sure I could eat until the end of the month and pay the bills for my shitty room.
But I was never without a safety net. I had family who was willing to help if I was ever in real trouble.
That's more than a lot of people have.

When I felt I was sliding down and started worrying about my situation, I began volunteering with a buddy for an organization that distributes food and blankets to the homeless in the winter. Let me tell you that gives you a whole new perspective on your little worries.

My grandparents were never what you'd call "comfortable". They had some very rough times where they struggled to put food on the table and alternated going without dinner so that their three kids could eat well. They even had to ask my mother to quit school at 17 and get a job when my grandfather lost his over a disease he got because of his job.
But you know what? They never thought of themselves as poor. When they did have some money left over after paying their bills, they always put a little in the bank, a little in the dream jar and they gave away some to people who were "in need".
They always knew there how a little can help a lot and they never forgot that, even later on when they had enough in the dream jar to buy themselves a nice camper and started taking vacations that didn't involve spending the day at the beach.

They never wanted things they couldn't have and they were content with having a little more than they needed. That's being rich if you ask me.

Every day of the week

Thanks for the GA's.

I have more now then 20 years ago.Never been really poor but started my adult life with nothing

Maybe I not in poverty but definition of poor is different: After 7 years of working still not have enough money for buying a house I want without big mortgage, but NEVER I homeless, starving, without proper hygiene or medical care and still have some spare money for little fun

It greatly depends on definition of poor. In my opinion, I was poor for quite a long time, and even now I can't call myself rich at all. On the other hand - there are always were people that were more poor than me, and from their point of view they can consider all my life wealthy... So it's hard to discuss it without agreeing on some general definition first.

One in five people live in poverty in the UK, be hard not to have been at some point.

Worst I've ever been was probably 30 years ago, got kicked out of home while a first year fitting and machining apprentice. I was earning $180 a week (Australian) and paying $150 a week in rent for a tiny caravan. I lived on dry Weetbix (wholegrain cereal biscuits) and dry bread and water as I also had a fair distance drive to work every day so had to keep the car fueled as a priority. Spent a couple of years living like that.

I've always had food, water and shelter. Compared to lots of people in the world, I'm rich. I tried to explain that once to someone and he said that's not being rich. Well, in more than one place in my house I have this thingamabob, you turn another thingamabob on it and... Edible water! Does the majority of the people in the world (>50%) have that?

Most of my life I've had little to no money. Compared to the majority of people around me, I'm poor. Povertry is a relative term. To some people I'm poor. Yet I can still go to a doctor if I feel ill or I have an accident, and not have to pay him.

I've always had a need/hate relationship with money, but I've never really felt poor. Like, ok, I can't buy that game, that gadget, that book. I don't have a house of my own. I can't go to travel with my friends, or even go to a restaurant without being invited. But poor? Povertry? I have clothes. A bed. Way way far from povertry.

Still in Spain there are many people living below the "povertry line", probably more than in the average european country. And for what I've heard from 1st hand, it's hella hard to go over that line once you're below it.

No, but it's something to look forward to if I live long enough / too long.

As others have noted you need to put a stronger definition of "poor" and "poverty". What should a person lack to be considered as poor? Food, clothes, shelter, mobile phone, car, air jet?

Digging through the sofa and walking along the streets looking for enough change to buy a pack of pasta and eating it raw because we can’t afford to cook it.

Never going back to that again

Looking back I could consider myself poor when I was a student. Filling gap after gap with loan after loan, eating the same dinner (no meat and no fresh veggies of course) three days in a row because it was cheaper to make it in bulk.... stuff like that. but of course, which student isnt poor?! And also: real poverty gets serious if there is no safety net and/or no light at the end of the tunnel. I've always felt very lucky I had friends and family to turn to when things got dire and I knew my financial situation would (most likely) improve after graduation...

we are all poor and we will all die

Hell yeah. Spent a lot of my childhood poor. It fluctuated from "plain potatoes or rice for dinner every day of the week" to "going to bed hungry tonight" at the worse of it. We rarely had everything a family needs to live adequately. Running out of essential goods and not being able to resupply because pay day was still a week away was a common occurrence.

It sucked, and I'm glad I was able to get out of being poor as an adult.

Yes. At one point, circa 1992, I lived in New Orleans and had 14 cents to my name. Which was the cost of one banana or one apple at the local corner store (the AP) in the French Quarter. I lived a few blocks from there. A dude tried to rob me, I was like, "dude. I've got 14 cents to my name". Ended up hanging out for a bit, got someone to buy us a pitcher of Turbo Dog at Kagan's and basically just bullshitted about tourists and such lol. Good times. Sometimes, you're broke, but only as poor as your attitude allows. I did start working as a bouncer at Kagan's like a week later and got out of the $8/night bunkhouse I was staying at. Who were actually super cool and would let me watch the front desk in exchange for rent and food while I stayed there. Different times back then. Minimum wage was like $3.65/hour or somesuch.

I have been poor at a certain point in my life. Neither not working nor getting myself together did not help.
I had some savings, so lived on that for a while. After many months and depletion of savings, I finally asked for social benefits for unemployed people. That is when I realized, how much below the poverty standard I was living. First couple of months I managed to save about half what I was getting from social administration. I used the new savings to buy replacement parts of things that were broken, some new clothes for interviews or simply nice things etc.

Then after getting all the paperwork done, looking into interesting occupations and preparing for interviews, I step by step reached milestones which in the end brought where I am today - not rich, but financially stable with a steady income from a job that is meaningful and fulfilling to me.

However, it was a long and winding road. If I have accepted the social benefits earlier, it might helped me to really plan and prepare my way out of poverty earlier. Nowadays I see the benefits more as loan from society, which I now pay back in form of income tax and other taxes.

As long as you are poor as a church mouse, affording the meals for the next weeks occupies your mind more than any middle or long term plan for a job career or life.

Never been poor to the point of needing help, but my parents weren't wealthy either.

Growing up, my family lived on a farm. And to be honest, it just broke even. We never had the money to go on holidays or anything like that, but we always had food on the table. We didn't have many unnecessary luxuries, but we had everything we needed.

Yes.
Although with the money I had I would be considered well-off in poor countries, I was really poor in my country.

I dont know the real meaning of poor or poverty but i realized one thing. When i was low on money there was lots of needy friends, when there was no car, there was lots of friends. Now we can afford fancy dinner, cars, huts but we live in different cities/countries rarely meet once or twice a year. Life is strange.....

I’m not poor, don’t have extra for games so the way I pay for games is wait for sale, sell cs2 items , buy games.

Every day of the year! :D thanks a lot for GAs!

While I've never experienced hardship, abundance has also eluded me. In my country, Brazil, particularly in my state, Rio de Janeiro, we grapple with significant challenges in security, education, and healthcare due to corruption, rendering these services precarious. Many people endure levels of poverty and need much more intense than mine, making me feel that complaining is unjust.

Rio de Janeiro is known as the "Wonderful City," but this wonder is accessible mainly to the truly wealthy. While it's a beautiful city with warm and lively people, coping with the constant fear of robbery and frequent gunshots can be challenging.