Susan, with regard to how poor you consider yourself, I suspect that that depends on your social group and neighbourhood. There were people in the 1930s who committed suicide because they were down to their last $million, and people who live on what I consider a frighteningly low budget, but who take pride in their spotless home and fine children, and hold their head high.

For myself, my parents almost didn't drink or smoke, so although Dad was never well-paid, we never wanted for anything. Dad always had a motor vehicle, although he went to extraordinary lengths to make the first car work, and we had the first automatic washing machine and television in the street.
But we rarely had anything new.