When you’re poor, everything smells like whatever’s on sale.
That's right!! For me, it was like whatever I had that was nice. If someone got me a nice shirt, I would protect that shirt and only wear it to special events that I knew would not place the shirt in any danger (physical activity, stains from cooking or painting, etc.). I kind of still do that and have a few shirts that are ~20 years old, a backpack that is 23 years old, and a multi-tool that's about 21 yrs old. Never though that was associated with growing up poor, but it makes sense now.
Is there an informal term that would describe poor rural neighborhoods similar to ghetto/barrio?