Love your perspective, Sarah, although I'm sorry you had to go through this. I'm also a millennial who gets frustrated at Republican Boomers' assumptions that we're poor because we don't know how to work hard or that we spend frivolously. I've never been in a situation as dire as yours, but I come from a blue-collar background, and I remember moving halfway across the world to try to make money as an English teacher when I didn't know how else to get by, ending up "homeless" (hostel-hopping and couch-surfing because I couldn't afford my own rent), and finding ways to make a "meal" out of a cup of milk or 10 grams or so of chocolate.

A distant Republican relative, upset that I'd posted something about conservative Boomers being out of touch with the financial realities of the era, virtuously told me how she instilled a good financial education in her child and that the chief rule is not to buy anything you don't 100% NEED. She was trying to be helpful. I just thanked her for the advice and didn't even try to explain. Some people will not understand.

... until they read stories like yours. Then, just maybe, that helps to open their minds. ;) Thank you for sharing your journey with us.