My character is immensly poor and I have quite a few items I do not want to loose. are there any safe houses or containers in the game I can drop my stuff into and come back later once i save up for a real house.

If you are poor then you are better off selling some of the items. BUT if you must use a free home, scroll to the bottom of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Houses page.

Here are a few http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Containers#Safe_Containers

I usually put them in the tree stump in the city near Edgars discount spells, seems to work.

The most practical safe containers are open-topped grain sacks. There are six of them in the IC market district-- three at each end. They all initially contain 5 of some ingredient (generally corn, wheat, flour or rice) and they don't respawn. I always use the ones in front of Slash 'n Smash until I can afford the IC Shack.

There are similar sacks scattered all over Cyrodiil, and all are safe with two exceptions-- those in the Bruma Mages Guild and those in Crestbridge Camp will vanish at particular points in the game.

All clams are also safe, non-respawning containers, but they're clams, so they're only found in water, making them a bit less convenient.

I normaly live out of the chest Jauffre opens up for you untill I have the 5,000 gold to purchase Benirus Manor.

Another option is stick with Jauffre's chest and do the entire Thieves Guild quest line. Then stick with the Guildmaster's Quarters untill you have enough to purchase one of the expensive homes. Never tried it myself, but should work well enough.

Honestly, if you're low on funds, pick up everything. Armor from Bandits works best, because it's light weight and, for the right buyer, pricey. If your mercantile skill is high enough, find a Novice of Mercantile, bump up the Haggling, and sell away. You'll have a sizable amount of house-worthy gold after a few dungeons.

i think the cheepest house is 2000 gold and you can get that in the Imperial City (something to shoot for)

You will, however, need a little more cash than just 2000, as you will need to purchase some storage. Trust me, dropping all your crap on the ground, makes finding rings very difficult.