Have you ever had to use change to pay for gas or eaten ramen noodles three days in a row? Any funny stories out there? I was never broke in college (parents), but after college, there were times where I've done things like that.
One time I spent an hour searching my truck for loose change so we could buy a sixer of beer a couple of days before payday.
I had to eat cereal for about a week. I had no money for anything else, i didnt have to buy the cereal since i still had it in the pantry. I was waiting for my paycheck to arrive, and my "food and rent" money from my parents.
I have been 4 grand in credit card debt, with no income, and no apartment, living out of my car and showering in the gym and crapping in walmart. Good times. My life as a musician. Then a friend took me in and I got a job and eventually worked my way out of debt and into a place. Not too long ago actually.
antisonic, lol. Yep, you think it's easy when you're young. You think, ok, I start off making 2k a month. 800 total for rent and car, 250 for food. But, the **** adds up. Oh well. Too much pride to ask the folks for help and I'll see better days. rockhead, I've owed the bank money before. I have a big vat of change that I used to stare at and think "what a waste of space." When I get paid tomorrow, I am gonna get drunk and eat a big fat burger.
Brokest I've been was when I was living on my own in high school and, even though I was working all the time, had to steal food so I didn't starve to death. Then there's these days...
LOL That part stuck out at me. I'm not laughing at your unfortunate situation, but I didn't expect to hear that.
Sweet, did you take the apple off the fruit cart and stuff like that? Or did you swipe hostess cakes from gas stations? Or did you do what I did and do the 400 yard dash out of Outback after two filets and a bloomin onion
I've written checks for groceries (and beer) knowing damn well that my checking account had a negative balance at the time. I've even written them for $25 over so I could fill up my gas tank.
I've been broke and spent all my change. I had a job but working for the borad of ed caused checks to sometimes be up to a month behind work schedule. In addition to that I had fairly newly diagnosed diabetes without health insurance. Every penny and a lot of credit card debt as well had to go for health related costs. I was working for the board of ed as well as freelance stuff, so I didn't qualify for any assitence with the medical expenses. I had a doctor and nurse that were giving me free samples of the medicine I needed, and a huge break on my bills with them. I remember looking at guys who were obvioulsly in a hurry and upset they had to go into Burger King to grab a quick bite to eat as opposed to a home cooked meal. I remember thinking that they didn't know how lucky they were. I was eating only once or maybe twice a day, and it was all hotdogs. Then on weekends I would see my girlfriend (now wife) and try and act like I wasn't hungry, but if she offered me some of what she was eating I would gulp it down. And tell her that it was good and ask If I could fix myself some of whatever it was. Those were my best meals at that period. Another time in college when I lost my meal card I would go with friends to restaurants and actually eat the scraps off of other people's plates. Of course there are numerous short term road trip stories including once eating a breakfast of powdered donuts and budweiser all charged to a guys Texaco gas card because the group of us had spent all our money on the trip.
The sad thing is, I'm still financially supported by my parents, and earlier today I was b****ing about how "tight" money is with me right now.... but then I realized that there are (and have been) so many people worse off than I am.... So now I feel bad about ranting in front of Dallas when he's a bit worse off than me right now.
After spending several months in Europe, I got down to a few bucks and my return ticket. Being in Amsterdam, which had a ton of cheap places to eat, stay, party and other groovy stuff, left me with a lot of options. I figured out that I could buy cheap camping gear at the flea market and sit on the sidewalk in front of American Express and sell it at a markup to people just arriving from the States. I made enough everyday to have an extremely good time. I think I became as close to Nepal and Afghanistan as I'm ever going to get without going there. I did that for over 2 months. Probably the most fun I ever had, broke and on my own. Hitchhiked to Switzerland and I remember laying under ripe cherry trees and reaching up while on my back, plucking the cherries off. They were so good! If you were young and didn't mind roughing it a little, that was the place to be broke. The States isn't nearly as much fun if you are scrapping by. Of course, that was a long time ago. I don't know if it's still like that or not. Now I would have a whole family to maneuver... it would be a far different trip.
