I'm always saying that I'm "poor", but it's almost in a self-effacing kind of way. I used to work in the private sector and had a lot of disposable income (which is when I bought all of my Neo-Geo shit) so maybe for me I feel poor now because I am back working in a public sector job with less cash in my pocket (but better benefits). The only other people that I hear saying that they're poor are middle-class folks like myself who in reality are doing just fine, but aren't doing as well as previous generations with similar jobs and education levels. My wife and I are both college-educated and have no kids, so we should be baller-as-fuck. In reality, we get by just fine, and are able to put money away every month, but we don't have nice cars or expensive toys, don't go on a vacation every year, don't eat out all that much, don't even have cable TV. In fact, I give myself an allowance of $200 every month to spend on lunch, booze, video games, etc. So I guess we "feel" poor in that we feel like we should be more flush with cash than we are.
To more directly answer OP's question, most poor people that I see are trying to make it seem like they aren't poor. There are migrant farmworkers in my area driving brand new Ford F-150's that they clearly can't afford because they're trying to make it look like they're doing better than they actually are.