What evidence is there in the story that African Americans living in Cold Sassy at the turn of the twentieth century are generally poor?

From the text:

Lots of people in Cold Sassy had a telephone, including us. Grandpa didn't. He had one at the store so he could phone orders to the wholesale house in Athens, but he was too stingy to pay for one at home. Aunt Loma didn't have a phone, either. She and Uncle Camp were too poor. That's why I had to go tell her.

The girl blushed, like it just dawned on her that she had let out how poor and hungry she was, and turned her face away from me.

Cousin Lottie used to say we were so poor that we didn't have a pot to throw out the window, and we didn't. We had to move every time the rent was overdue."