making ends meet

During my high school days I lived 2 years of my life w/o my parents. I studied in a foreign school. I worked at KFC as a mop boy. I was supposed to be at the cashier but I was denied because of how I look, I looked pretty dark complexioned and thin. Imagine a fa(s)t food store where their cashier is almost bone thin. It's as if KFC was starving me so I get the idea why I was on mop duty. My other job was a door-to-door salesman and a gardener. I recycle my uniform and shoes. Sometimes I was teased at because our PE uniform is different every year and they can tell that I don't have the money to buy the one for that year. I'd also ask for the books of the seniors when the school year was done so that it'll help me save some money. I wore the same shoes. Imagine a size 9 shoe on a size 9 1/2 foot!? I did that for 2 whole years straight until I graduated high school and earned a scholarship. That's why I promised myself to do everything to become successful so that my children wouldn't have to endure what I had to.

We had a period in our life, hubby could not get work and unemployment was not enough to live on, but he made $12.00 to much to get food stamps. We however had four kids and they ate a lot. We just never had enough money to stretch to months end. So we went behind store dumptsters to find food to eat, this was before there was much in the way of food banks. Most food was still good and useable but pull date was past so they had to throw it out. It got to where one store would call us and tell us they were putting it on top to come down in an hour. They would put it in a clean box. This lasted for about 3 months then hubby got work again.