There is no way rare situations like that really add up to that much savings. Especially since imported products are absurdly cheap now. There are plenty of cheap goods that are roughly the same value as their much more expensive counterparts.<p>For every think like workboots or tools, there are things like clothing or kitchgoods were quality doesn&#x27;t save you money.<p>A bigger issue is just poor longterm thinking. Poor people will buy a six pack of toilet paper for 3 bucks instead of buying 24 for 9. Sometimes it&#x27;s not even lack of longterm, thinking, they may need that extra six bucks or they&#x27;d miss another payment and incur 15 dollar late fees.<p>And of course impulse control. We all know people who live paycheck to paycheck, but if they got some extra money they&#x27;d spend it on absurd shit. Not even stuff like booze, but like schlocky walmart stuff.<p>I don&#x27;t blame them, you can&#x27;t really save your way out of poverty anyway. Might as well YOLO it.