# I'm poor!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-poor/103779>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 15, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-poor/103779 "2002-04-15T17:34:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Barking\_Spider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Barking\_Spider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Spider)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-poor/103779/21 "2002-04-16T04:57:23Z")

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I just sent a check for over 600 dollars to the State. It sucks.

The worse period in my life was 10 years ago, I had a 2 year old kid and was recently unemployed. No money to buy food. My unemployment check was cancelled because “my car was broke down and I couldn’t work anyway”, is what the people at Unemployment told me. I remember begging them over the phone to sent me my check.

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**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-poor/103779/22 "2002-04-16T06:08:53Z")

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You know, I owed the state of Illinois $2.05.

Yeah. $2.05. And even _that_ pissed me off. It’s like, I earned like MAYBE 2300 dollars this year. If that. I haven’t worked since June. They already got 60-odd dollars of my money, and now they want another two bucks…

I just wrote “this is stupid” on the check. Hopefully, they won’t audit me for that ;).

But, I mean, since I got all bitchy about a couple of bucks, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. If it helps, a lot of churches and stuff in college-type areas do provide some warm meals; you might wanna check them out. Hell, the campus Catholic church here offers a free, good meal twice a week. Take 'em up on the offers if you can; usually, they’re TRYING to get rid of food.

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**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-poor/103779/23 "2002-04-16T11:41:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by monstro \*  
> \*\*I live on a graduate fellowship. For some bizarre reason, no taxes are taken out of the checks I receive, so I always end up having to pay a ton of money in April.
> 
> I guess theoretically, me paying a huge lump sum is no different than having the taxes witheld from each check, but in practice, there IS a difference. When they withold your taxes, you don’t ever see that money. So it’s like it doesn’t exist to you \*\*

Of course, you’ve been putting some of each check aside all year knowing that tax-day was coming, right?

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