It reminds me of my own kinda similar story. When I was about 7, my parents decided it was time for me to get a bike. Of course we didn't have enough money for

It reminds me of my own kinda similar story. When I was about 7, my parents decided it was time for me to get a bike. Of course we didn't have enough money for a proper bike, so my father picked up some second-hand bike at a flea market or something for a few dollars. It was terrible, threw chains and all kinds of other issues. We tossed it and bought another and then another. All terrible for different reasons, one of which caused me to have a fairly serious accident. Finally, they went to Sears and bought me a proper youth bike, which lasted until my early teens with nothing more than a couple replacement tubes. The whole thing cost twice as much as just getting me a decent bike to start with. It's almost like being poor is some kind of weird edge case our software doesn't handle well and the result is a constant series of poor decisions.