I cannot speak for all poor Vietnamese. I came from a poor family, so let me tell you how do we live.
I’m from Hai Phong, a city in the northern region of Vietnam. My family lived in the countryside, near the sea. My parents raised shrimp and crab for living, it used to be good and provide us a comfortable life, but things gradually became worse because of environmental issues, we had to grow rice, raise pigs, chickens, and work as part-time construction workers beside the shrimp and crab farming industry.
My parents wake up early, around 4–5 AM, and also go to bed early, 8–9 PM. For breakfast, we have rice and left over food from the dinner before. Nothing special for lunch and dinner, every meals must have vegetables or vegetable soup ( I think this is typical for Vietnamese ). We use both gas and wood stove for cooking. We have dogs as guards.
So basically, we can supply food ourselves, except for dairy products - it’s quite luxury to our standards, we just need money for school, to buy a motorbike, or to build/maintain our house.
The situation is the same for our neighborhood, when things went too bad, we sold a piece of our land to pay the debt. The children are sent to school for the hope of a better future and they’d support their parents when they have jobs.
As I am writing this, I don’t know what is the difference between the poor and the rich, I only know the poor life.
Now I have a job, live far away from my parents and I am also poor, just in a different way with my parents. I am an engineer, have an okay life with my salary. I support my parents by covering my bother’s school fee and monthly expense, so I do not have much for myself. I do not have a motorbike, I commute by public bus. Rarely travel, go to watch movies, eat out in KFC, restaurants, etc. For clothes, I have a limit for the price and always try to buy sale off products, etc. As I get used to this poor life, and to have a job a an engineer is a dream came true to me, I am okay with this life.
I hope this answer is helpful.
Thank you for requesting an answer from me. It’s a chance for me to look back our lives and think about where we are.