I had a friend who was very poor. I got to know her because she wanted to start coming to my church, but she had no dress to wear. I offered to buy her a dress from Walmart.
I picked her up from her house. She shared a townhouse with maybe 11 other people, all relatives or boyfriends of relatives. Her daughter was not wearing shoes. She and her daughter were both clutching large McDonald's bags.
As we drove to Walmart, for ME to buy her a dress and her daughter some shoes, I asked how often they ate at McDonald's.
She said every single meal.
This woman--well, she told me she was a size 3X when we got there, but she was ACTUALLY a 5X who could squeeze into a 3X with fat rolls sticking out all over if she really tried.
So anyway, the 3 meals a day at McDonald's checked out 👍
I asked her if she knew that her dress, at $26, and her 3yo's SHOES, at $7, would have cost like just 2 meals at McDonald's. They were both enormous. They could have skipped two Mickey D's and bought their own clothes and shoes.
She just looked at me blankly.
Once I came over to her house as she was throwing away a 10 pound bag of potatoes. It had rotted through. Black potato goo was all over the kitchen floor under where they had liquified.
A church member had brought them the potatoes as a gift, and they hadn't cooked them because no one in the house knew how to bake a potato. So the potatoes just sat there until they turned into slime.
At Christmas I bought her and her daughter a present because I thought they wouldn't have any.
Joke was on me! When I knocked on the door on Christmas Eve, a collection of the largest women you have ever seen in your life were all in the living room, with brand new Victoria's Secret bags to unwrap for Christmas Eve. A perfect way for them to spend their money! There were clearly not enough illegitimate children living in the household, apparently.
I was shocked but wished them all a Merry Christmas anyway.
Sorry not sorry, my friend's name was literally and I am not making this up, Shaniqua 🤷🏻♀️