So what's your class in life?

[Tobester]

How high on the food chain of life are you people? Do you live in a nice neighborhood, or white trash trailer center? Do you eat steak every night, or are you lucky to eat every night? I'd like to see the spectrum of Doom lifestyles.

I'm pretty damn low on the food chain myself. I don't live in the worst part of town, but close to it. On a good day in my household, we have enough money to buy a cook-it-yourself pizza from the corner kwik-e-mart ($5). Most nights, it's a pack of hotdogs ($1) with white bread ($1) for buns. We have a security system; It's a light sleeper (me) with a crowbar, supplemented by my rottweiler Fluffy. The dog's aren't just pets, they are a necessity to make sure our stuff doesn't get stolen.

My wardrobe consists of jeans and t-shirts purchased at K-mart. My shoes usually last me a year or so. Our house is a shithole. There's a hole in the ceiling 1x2 feet that's been there for a year and a half. There's a faint smell of dog everywhere in my house. The downstairs toilet doesn't flush. The upstairs toilet flushes, but the only one that uses it is my sister (the one who flashed) and she doesn't flush it. Ever.

There used to be a shower, but when I had the seizure last February I ripped the shower curtain and rod right out of the wall. I've never had a door to my room. My little brother has an unused room upstairs that used to be a kitchen. Sucks. But I don't want to leave.

Money is always tight here. I get a $552 check every month for social security disability because of my tumor/epilepsy. $200 goes straight to rent ($400 a month, I think, a bargain), a few hundred to bills. Usually there's nothing left over for me to spend on stuff I need/want. My mother is a waitress who gets by on tips. We get child support checks every week but it doesn't help much. We're always having some damn problem with the bills. The water got shut off two days ago, even though we paid it, but luckily we still have the y2k water supply we made. Back in november the gas was shut off for a month. That wasn't so bad until it got reeal cold. On/around Sept 11th, 2001, the water got shut off and stayed off for a month, because my dad's child support check bounced. That was the nastiest time of my life, I'd say. While the water was off that month, I threw up four pints of blood into the bathtub and it stayed there until the water came back on. Every day at 4am or so (to avoid being seen), I'd walk to the park and fill up some milk jugs with water from the water fountains. That would be drinking water for the day. The day it got turned back on, I fell asleep in the bathtub and woke up so pruny I couldn't type without it hurting my fingers.

My neighborhood used to suck major ass, but it's gotten better. The first night I moved here in 1993, someone tried to make a campfire on our front porch while they were smoking crack. That hasn't happened since then, but other shit has. Back in 1996, I had a labrador named Cody that had to be put down. He used to sleep in/guard the garage. The very night after he was put down, someone broke into the garage and cleaned it out of valuables. There's another much worse incident that also happened in the garage after the dog died, but I don't want to go into that.

Okay. Heh. This turned out to be more of a rant than an actual question, but meh. Tell me about your lives.

[Sharessa]

Wow. Now I'm too embarrased to post anything.

[Job]

Wow. I used to think I had a shitty child hood (some elements from Tobester's life were similar to mine) but you get my sympathy on this one. I don't think it'd be too fair for me to post how my life is now, either. I hope things shape up for you -- you seem like a good guy despite how your life has been; good job on that.

I'll pray for you.

[Tobester]

Post anyways.

I didn't mean for this to become a rant for me :P

I'd just like to see where everyone else is at.

[EllipsusD]

Well, hell... if nobody else is going to give a description then I will. I live in central Texas, which should probably give you some idea of how things are around where I live. Texas is a big state, and it's filled with a lot of nothing. Where I am it's not too crowded, but it's not out in the middle of nowhere either... it's a fair medium. The house I live in was built by my grandfather the same year I was born, making it just about 21 years old, and it's still holding together pretty well. It's not a big house, but it's not so small as to be uncomfortable... it's a fair medium. Right now there are just three of us living here, my dad, my sister, and me (my mother is dead and my brother is off in the army). That probably won't last too much longer, though... as soon as I can get a job I'm moving out, but the economy sucks these days and it's hard to get a job around here. We have enough money to get by with enough extra not to be uncomfortable. Comparatively we aren't that wealthy, most people around where I live are pretty well off, but there are still those who don't live as comfortably... we're a fair medium. I don't pretend to be doing poorly in life, I know that I have it better than a lot of people, and I think it's mainly that I'm surrounded by people who are better off that I am able to realize that. I have nothing to complain about... things go bad sometimes, but they could be worse... everything could be worse, and so you deal with it, ya know. And that's about where I stand.

[zark]

I live close to the centre of Edinburgh in an old (200 years ish) 4 bedroom flat. I wouldn't consider my family as rich, I suppose we're fairly well off, but not too well off. Both my mum & dad work in libraries, we probably get ~$30000 a year (this figure is a total guess, I think my dad earns about £12000 and my mum about £9000, so do your own math). They pay for the majority of bills, etc. Both my brothers work in banking and pay a small amount a month towards the bills and stuff. I'm unemployed :D We've got I think 7 computers (me, my brothers and my dad are all heavy computer users) with varying specs. One bad thing about living where we do is the flat feels like it's falling apart. It's always getting dusty and the wall above my bedroom door I think is sinking a bit (it's hard to open the door :P ) and there are cracks and stuff all over the place. But what do you expect, it's an old place.

Another bad point is the close proximity of my flat to about 3 or 4 strip clubs and sex shops. Some of you may say this isn't a bad thing, but how would you feel if you had to walk through perhaps one of the scummiest areas of my city just to get to school? I'd prefer if I didn't live near any strip clubs at all, it's sick. Also, the nightly drunks walking past my window singing and shouting isn't a good thing too :P

We eat pretty well, we've got cable TV and cable internet, security isn't that much of an issue as we're like 3 storeys up. I would like to live somewhere else, like a proper house, one that isn't so old and falling apart. OK, maybe I'm just niggling :P

Anyway, tobe, that sounds sucky :( I hope things get better because you definetly deserve it, you're a great guy. I hope I haven't sounded too bad.

[Ed]

I work nights at the Home Depot doing fork-lift work for usually around 350-400 a week, if things are done early I get home asap so I can get some sleep and have some of my day to do stuff. Some weekends I do tattoos when I need a ton of money in a short ammount of time, but it's been a dry spell due to the lack of needles I have, plus I'm working on a back piece right now which should score me some new rims for my car.. which, is my next item.. a 1985 Trans-Am. My house is priced at 350,000 dollars, it's a 4 bedroom house at the end of the road with a lot of land attached (mostly woods). Iv'e had a girlfriend for the past two years, who, luckily enough for me, is an A student and damn pretty.. how I ended up with her, I don't know..

I'd say family life was average, sometimes above, sometimes below.. but the bills were always paid and food was always on the table. Right now I make more than the average 19 year old should, but unfortunately, lack time in the day for anything.

[Fletcher`]

I'd say foxes are faring well on the food chain these days.

[fodders]

My house was built in 1775, nice area, we do get some drive-by tongue pulling out though lately :( and even the odd "insult and run" offence.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I'd say that we're about middle class. We sometimes have it rough, but we're comfortable. Lately, though, money's been extremly tight with me going to college. It sucks when you go to a private college that costs about $28,000 a year ($31,000 if I were to live on campus). So, until recently, we've lived pretty comfortably. Now we have to scrape things together a bit more. At least I got a new job this year where I'll be getting $800 paychecks rather than the $450 from last year. This should help, since I come from a single-parent family.

[pritch]

I live in a supposedly wealthy area in the UK, in a five bedroom detached house. My immediate family is well-off, but my extended family is loaded. Sadly I'll probably never see any of that.

I guess the family takes home £40,000 ($65,000ish) a year altogther. When I'm on holidays from university I work in a bike shop for extra money for my cars (I have three, one's a kind of project, like a doom project).

Uh, we have satellite TV and cable internet, but our main TV is 16 years old, no shit. It was a good one though. I have stereos and dvds and crap and a new computer now as well, all of which I paid for myself.

We have a second house on the seaside we sub-let, but it's pretty tiny; two bedrooms.

I went to an expensive private school but I had a type of scholarship otherwise we couldn't have afforded it.

By the time we've finished paying all the usual bills, we don't seem to have that much left to go out all the time or whatever, but that's pretty usual for most people. So, we're not seriously wealthy, but comfortable. This area is expensive enough for no first-time buyer, including me, to afford anything, but then much of the UK has that problem now.

[Tobester]

pritch said:

my extended family is loaded. Sadly I'll probably never see any of that.

Yeah, I'm kinda like that. I have a grandmother in California. Her husband was heavily into electronics for a while and through some connections or something (I don't know the exact story) they ended up pretty well off.

In 1991 (I think) my father took the family to K-mart. We couldn't find a parking spot, so he dropped us off at the door and told us that he'd circle until he found one while we shopped. We didn't see him again for two years or so. My mother was jobless with four very young kids, me being the oldest and only 6 at the time to give you a sense of perspective, so she took all the money she could get and bought greyhound tickets to California, to live with her mother until we could get back on our feet.

Save for the whole evil-fat-fuck-of-a-father-abandoning-us-at-a-K-mart bit, it was the best time of my life. We arrived at a super crowded terminal in LA somewhere and called up my Uncle Pauly, who at the time was a cop. He took us to his 15ftx15ft flat for a few hours to get a hold of my grandmother. My grandmother was in a private community called "Tehachapi" (That's how it sounds anyway). We drove up through the mojave desert to it.

The house there was fucking amazing. It was recently valued at $3 million (no exageration). It belonged to one of my grandmother's "connections", who offered to give it to her, but she declined, being stubborn or something. I guess it was sort of a ski lodge, because we were up in the mountains (higher than the clouds on most days, which created a wierd vertigo). I dunno how to describe it in words. On a clear day you could see LA, but most of the time spent there was in a massive blizzard. For two weeks or so my mother took a dustpan and tried to dig a path through the snow, because she ran out of cigarettes and was nicking badly. When we finally got out of the storm she smoked a pack of Kools in an hour.

I would have probably spent the rest of my life in California, but again because of my dad, we couldn't do it. We tried to get my school records transferred to Cali, but my dad messed up when he enrolled me back here in Dayton. I'm a junior, but instead of enrolling Toby Neal Collins Jr., He enrolled Toby Collins. The school people back here in dayton couldn't find a Toby Neal Collins Jr. in there records, so they couldn't send records for a Toby Neal Collins Jr. There were a few other problems, I think, cause that seems like a lame reason to me, but we came back here to Ohio.

But I think it ended good.

I don't think I want to be a spoiled rich kid.

Man I just pull these stories out of my ass, it seems.

[pritch]

Well, I'm glad that, despite being comfortable, I was still like the poorest kid at my uber wealthy school.

Made me appreciate what fucktards truly spoilt kids are. I hope I still know the value of money and stuff.

[Rotting Corpse]

My life is o.k. Most of my life my mom moved alomst ever year. Runing form bill colecters. She seems to find another ass hole boyfirend every year. We move in with him. After a while they start fighting . We move out. We have lived in a car befor. I guse were low on the food chain. We have lived in worst part of town befor. I reamber this one place. It was an apartment. There was anoter apartment complax achross the street. There were gun shots every night. Cops all over the place. Now we live in a tralior. Its better then apartments. We have food all the time. But my mom is fighting with her bf all the time. So well be moveing out soon.


Tobester if you live in the u.s. I can give you some info on places that will help you out. My bestfried just got hart sergary and his famaly didnt pay a cent. I'll talk ot his mom and see who helped them out if ya want me too.

[fodders]

Rotting Corpse said:

Tobester if you live in the u.s. I can give you some info on places that will help you out. My bestfried just got hart sergary and his famaly didnt pay a cent. I'll talk ot his mom and see who helped them out if ya want me too.

Let him be, it's a race between mother nature or his own stupid actions that will remove him from this planet :)

[Sharessa]

I'm fairly well off I suppose. I live in a 3-story house in the suburbs on about a quarter acre of land. Most people around us are richer though. My parents split up in 99 and got a divorce a year later almost to the date (in fact, they divorced on their 25th anniversary). Anyway, my Dad had to move to California last summer because his job moved him there. He makes about 100,000 a year, but spends little of it (between our place and Cali, he lived in a trailer park). Oh well, more money for me when he dies then. As for my mom, she can't find a job either here nor in Seattle despite the fact that she has years of expereince as a secratary and has took several job-related classes. She had to take out her 401k last year and now we have about 40,000 in the bank...enough to keep our house for another year or two. Dad sends like $100 a week for child support (I'm no longer part of it since I graduated). Most of my friends are in a worse state. Few of them can find jobs, and those that do can't earn enough to move out of their parent's houses.

Oh yeah, my mom's friend (and prospective boyfriend) moved in with us recently. He has like several thousand dollars worth of funds to pay the state back from when he was a fucked up drunk (he has to pay like 80% of his paycheck as well), so my mom isn't charging rent. He is helping us fix up the house though, so thats good. The only other person living in my house is my sister, who is a freshman. Thats about it.

[IMJack]

My family is pretty well-off. My parents came from humble means, but my dad had a lot of worldly experience before he finally settled down, and made a lot of long-term plans. We have a nice two-story house on about 1/5th acre of land, and due to improvements it's worth a lot more now than it was when my parents bought it. Most of my parents' money goes into education for my sisters and myself; I'm certain there's be a lot mor "luxuries" if my parents had decided on public school over private. Still, private schooling seems to have paid off, as both my older sister and I went into college with healthy scholarships, and my little sister had a better time in high school than either of us.

I'm living on campus right now. My budget is about $200/month for rent and utilities (three roommates) and $150 for food. My dad gives me an allowance of $250 a month, and I have some money saved from when I work during school holidays.

[Epyo]

I'm pretty high up. We live in an awesome neighborhood and always seem to have money. That's about it. =þ

[Fletcher`]

Middle class and we have some trouble paying bills. However, this may change in a few years...

[fraggle]

Unfortunately I currently live in pikey central.

[fodders]

fraggle said:

Unfortunately I currently live in pikey central.

Are you listed here?

[Tobester]

Rotting Corpse said:

Tobester if you live in the u.s. I can give you some info on places that will help you out. My bestfried just got hart sergary and his famaly didnt pay a cent. I'll talk ot his mom and see who helped them out if ya want me too.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Dude! If I was paying for the MRI's and shit I'd be dead from the bills.

Luckily Medicaid picks up the tab for my med care.

Which is VERY good.

We've compiled a few bills we've gotten and the total adds up to around $700,000. There's quite a few other bills that I'm sure would push it near/past $1,000,000.

Now that I'm saying/typing that out loud it seems pretty fucking unreal to me.

And my asshole dad gets $500,000 of the bills on his insurance bill ^_^

One bill I wanted to contest was the $2k bill I got the day I went in to get my tumor cut out and the backed off, but that went to my dad's Anthem, so I called and told them I stole some stuff that day and they should put that on the bill as well.

[BlueSonnet]

fraggle said:

Unfortunately I currently live in pikey central.

Ditto. Watch your back, that's what i say.

[AndrewB]

Jeez Tobe, you have a worse life than I ever thought you had, and I thought you had a REALLY bad life. It sounds like you put up with inhuman ____ every day, have nothing to live for, no conceivable reason to get up in the morning, and you're a huge burden on society to top it off. I can understand why you went insane on IRC a few times.

[Tobester]

AndrewB said:

I can understand why you went insane on IRC a few times.

I did?

[Alientank]

I live in a middle class family I'd say. We live in a nice house, have 3 cars and that

[DOOM Anomaly]

I'd say I'm well off. Have a nice big 2 story house with a large backyard (about 50x52 metres), 2 dogs, all other pets are now in a better place, if you know what I mean. Our house was abandoned when we bought it, but we re-did all the floors, walls and we infumigated the whole house 5 times, cause it was Heavily infested with ants and other pests. The inside of the walls and the vents were litterly crawling with them. We re-did and renevated all the rooms and we tore down and made some new walls. We pretty much re-did our whole house, and our whole front,side(s) and back yard and shed. We have lived in this house for about 2 years and we've spent about $200,000 just fixing it all up. The house itself was only $250,000 when we bought it. We have a security system, one of them ones that beep when doors or windows open and the motion sensor Dee-Lees. We have a french door for a back door with a Doggie door on the right side for our puppies. We have 3 TVs, 2 for watching and gaming, 1 strictly for gaming, one has Digital Cable, the other just has normal 57 channels and the gaming one gets 0.6 channels. A DVD player, 3 VCRs, record player, mini-cd player, PS2, two PSXs, Dreamcast, Super Nes, Nes, Genesis, Sega megadrive, celico, 3 gameboys, 2 gamegears, 4 computers all with cable internet and such. Web cam, 3 scanners, 3 printers, and all that jazz. I have a Ghetto blaster Behind me here in my room and so do my siblings. We have 2 cars and a truck, we used to have 4 cars but we gave 2 away. We eat big meals each day, sometimes when the Hockey game is on at dinner, we just order about 6 large pizzas and call it a meal. :D We all have our own beds, we have large couches downstairs and two small ones for our doggies. We have a Automatic-Electric Fireplace that turns on by itself when it gets too cold and spreads it around the house when its too warm in one place. We have a trampoline and a whole shed full of other things. My parents have a walk-in closet which is fun to go in. :D 3 bathrooms, 2 showers/tubs. 1 laundry room, 1 kitchen and such. For clothing, I usualy wear things like Adidas or Nike or the Exco or whatnot, usally T-shirts and baggy jeans, but today, long shorts. :D I have a $400 bike but I dont ride much cause I dont have anywhere to really go. We pay over $3000 a year for my diabetic jazz. I have two watches, and I always gel my hair everyday. Hmm..I'd say I'm about middle class, defenately not higher though. But I'm very happy with my class status. :)

[The Ultimate DooMer]

fodders said:

Are you listed here?

Surprisingly, I'm not...

[Sharessa]

fodders said:

Are you listed here?

Hey, Couper Anus isn't there. From all Darknation's talk, I'd say it would have been the first mention.

Of course, I've never been to England.

[Alboroto]

Well, I am american but I live in Ecuador.
My father owns a binational center in which english and spanish are taught, I study psicology in a state university.

I got married almost two years ago, I have a 1 year old son (Nicholas) and my wife (Georgiana) studies biology.

We live in Cuenca, the third city of the country, we have a small car (susuki samurai, 1986) and an apartament. The apartament is small (2 rooms, 1 bathroom, a small living room and a kitchen).

I work part time in the binational center, and my wife works also part time in a mall. we make about 800 a month. Sounds small but it's good money in Ecuador.