Discipline. Exactly what you want to hear when talking about minimal wages, but what you learn in the process. While coping with minimal wages, you learn to track and budget your money. Purchases that would be a mindless thought are more of a process now as that ugly four letter word save rears it's ugly head. Who wants to hear save for it when the dream purchase looms above your head and right before your eyes?
But in learning to cope on minimal wages, you learn what's important and what isn't. You also learn something else...character. You learn why those purchases are important to you and the consequenses of going overboard in your spending. When learning to cope on minimal wages, you can either sink or swim. If those nights out with friends are important, you will find other ways to enjoy it otherwise, you may be faced with the prospect of robbing Peter to pay Paul. That, my friend, is no fun.
Meals that you once grabbed on the go are now a luxury and bagged lunch sounds more like a treat; but now, the choices are yours. What to bring for lunch today becomes a way to keep your sanity and a roof over your head. One, two or three fast food lunches can completely blow a tight budget. Sending you into a vicious tailspin. Discipline is what you gain and learn when you are learning to cope on minimal wages.
The discipline to keep making bagged lunches and passing up those great sales. Actually planning for the next buy instead of impusively buying something that you know you don't need, but rather want is the thing that you gain when learning to cope on minimal wages. This kind of discipline keeps your pocketbook (or wallet) healthy and you some what happy. This kind of discpline, if you allow it will continue even after you are no longer coping on minimal wages, but you have to be willing to learn the lessons now.
When learning to cope on minimal wages, we tend to see the negative in the situation. ie less money, no fun, a lot of nights in, without seeing the positives that derive from this situation. Sure we'd all rather be wealthy, hop on our Lear jets and take off to Vegas or some other cool place, but realistically speaking, at this moment, no dice.
Remaining positive about the situation and knowing that this is temporary and if we want to we can climb out of this; and not only can we climb out of it, we can climb out of it a stronger and financially better person for it. Sure it's work and sure it's a pain, but we (if we choose to be) can come out of the situation better than we went in.