Croatian woman shares grim story of desperation during poverty

“I literally crawled across the floor,” reads the headline of one Croatian woman’s account of life without money. Her story appeared in a Reddit discussion asking users about the most desperate thing they had done when they could not afford basic needs.

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Thank God I have stabilized and no longer have these problems. Now I help others.

The thread drew hundreds of painful responses. One person said they took sick leave because they had no money for fuel to get to work. Another described cleaning their workplace in the hope of finding a few coins beneath the furniture. Others said they took sick leave to work off the books and earn money for food, or took honey from colleagues so they could eat something.

Some users described surviving for days on small pastries made from flour, water and salt. Discounted cabbages counted as a feast. Others collected half-smoked cigarettes from the ground, sold family possessions such as a mother’s wedding ring or a gold coin, or stole toilet paper from public bathrooms and deli meat from supermarkets. One user wrote that they sold all their personal belongings, bought a ticket and left the country with 50 euros to find work abroad, a decision they said ultimately changed their life for the better.

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I literally crawled across the floor.

The article cites Eurofound figures for 2025 saying that 45% of people in Croatia struggle to cover basic living costs, placing the country second-worst in the European Union after Greece. Alongside the distress, the discussion also contained dark humor and signs of solidarity, including one commenter’s joke about charging people 50 lipa to correct their spelling, while deliberately making a spelling mistake.

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I sold all my personal belongings, bought a ticket and went abroad with 50 euros to work.