being broke

But I've spent so many years with absolutely no disposable income that after I posted about buying a new jean jacket I had to laugh at the absurdity. When you're flat broke, the idea of ever again having money to spend on crap like that seem fucking REMOTE. And yet here I am (how, I don't know).

getting given money by homeless people felt like some kinda nadir, too.

But I was like, calling up my mom to offer to mow her lawn or something. Y'know, just to be nice (wink, wink) and if she should invite me to stay for supper, well, that's just a pleasant coincidence.

(joking)

also, never do drug- or sleep studies. they fuck you up more than any cash benefit, as the conventional wisdom holds.

two weeks ago , returning from holiday, i found i had spend the last money of my credit. with my salary at the end o f the month it's getting only slightly above zero, but it will be heavy budgetting the next couple of months before i filled the gap completely and can start with zero at the BEGINNING of the month and built up new savings.

instead spending all of your credit on rent, insurance etc. etc.

i don't have savings.

I wish I was entirely joking.

The thing with her that freaks me out is that she's been slooooowly moving in with this dude that she likes as a friend who is The Creepiest Guy Ever, has told her he's in love with her, she's woken up at 5 am with him laying on her crying. I asked her "why the hell are you moving in over there?" and she said "cuz he'll let me have my cat there, and I can't keep him living here cuz your son's allergic" and I'm like "BUT YOUR CAT IS STILL HERE!!!".

I'm torn between being scared for her and being pissed at her for the way she's treated her cat.

Oh my God, it's like the Volvo is my replacement love-interest. I'm so pathetic. :D

Living in a car, c or d?

Ha! The day after writing this - I'm not joking, the very next day - impossibly, marvellously, I received £2000. Completely unexpected. That's something! It's not everything - I now owe six grand, I have only two. But it's something. So I remove myself from this thread full of shameful glee.

haven't eaten in 24 hours or 48, depending on whether the $0.59 i found on the floor that went towards frosted donuts counts. can't reach any friends or family for help. rent is paid up through january so no problems there. i was going to go down to The Strand and sell some books and i started to gather all of the ones i could sell up into a bag and then realized that i didn't have $2 for the subway.

Project based work in December = BROKE.

Whenever I sense money is running out, I run to the store strictly for:

1.) Malt-o-Meal Raisin Bran ($1.99)
2.) Welch's Strawberry Jelly (unless you can tolerate grape, which is cheaper)
3.) 365 Natural Peanut Butter (cheaper than generic store brand)[defended!]
4.) Store brand bread (Fine Fare sells a GIANT loaf for $1.99)
5.) Gallon whole milk (for coffee & cereal)

_______________________________
7.) $15 2 week+ diet plan

Also, offer collateral to borrow close friends unlimited subway card for trips on their off hours

It's the coffee and wine snobbery/vices that ruin me.

365 Whole Bean coffee can be had at $6.66 a lb.

Fucking HUEG box of shitty cheap ass wine can be added to cola for calimocho for weeks.

yeah i need to invest in some pb&j next time i get some money. the cigarettes are killing me and my budget but they are also excellent appetite suppressants. so i sorta need them more in a way.

bananas are relatively cheap for the size

man - its too bad you dont have people who can help you

Cucumbers are also cheap for the size.

in general i do but i cant reach them right now. all of this shit will be straightened out soon; this is not forever but fuck it sucks when it happens. i had the fucking brilliant idea of moving back to nyc right when my profession goes down the tubes. 4 months of shitty minimum wage labor that was supposed to be supplemented by bonuses that never came while 2 years of savings vanished and then i got downsized. and, i didnt even go out the whole time, both during those two years and since i moved up here. you figure that if you are going to spend 2 years saving $x,000 to move only to see it vanish within 6 months, you might as well drink and buy some fucking records but somehow i managed to go broke eating cheap pizza and staying in.

the cigarettes are killing me and my budget but they are also excellent appetite suppressants. so i sorta need them more in a way.

you need to switch to rollies

seriously

they're half the price, a pack lasts three times as long, and the tobacco is five times better

true! thanks! i found a friend to borrow some money from. i will be working again soon. so no problem paying him back. anyways i will go get some loose tobacco and papers today.

;/

<4 coinstar machines in the front of supermarkets no matter the weird stares u get

don't forget the filter tips!!

the hidden costs

bank account in the red, cc over the limit, owe my best friend triple digit money, and i'm driving around on 3 tires & a donut. i'm pretty sure i've got enough gas to get me to work through my next paycheck, but i'm not positive. i'm paying rent on two places this month. my mom bought me some cereal and a shirt when she came to town the other day and i'm considering eating the shirt.

but it's been worse. i've got a reasonable apartment in a dope new neighborhood and some pretty dope luxuries like high speed wireless. i ate 3 full meals today. i feel like i already sold everything i could sell before i moved, so this kinda sucks. i'm a little worried about my viability for the next 7 days, but i'm not utterly destitute or anything. my biggest concerns are:

-the non-tire on which i am driving
-any money i have to spend at all in the next week
+i'm definitely gonna run out of my "hold me over til" groceries before next friday

dag.

lol bank of america is locking down my debit card until i confirm/deny some bullshit charges.

eat the cereal first, hoos

and stop calling the nabe "dope"

stop calling anything "the nabe"

wow i said dope twice in the same sentence i do need to fall back

i'm turning into the rap version of the dude that says "far out" 37 times per convo

pretty dope, imo

fly for a white guy

My husband and I used to rely on our pub-quiz winnings to buy our weekly incidentals.

weekly unmentionables

Those, too.

hoos i will paypal u 20$ if yr still having troubles

awwwwwwww Hoos those are the scariest & shittiest feelings. I wld call around about used/patched up tires @ the tire stores. I have sometimes had them give me one for free but OTOH I am a girl. All bst buddy.

bummr HOOSy, yr making my having to get through this month on £180 after rent + tuition fees (which includes maxing out my credit card) seem like child's play. After that (final tuition fees payment!!) I can start living with some degree of normalcy, as long as I don't look at how much interest my CC is accruing for about ten years.

Although I may still end up in here often over the next eight months, until I'm 25 and so no longer subject to ridiculous discriminatory housing benefit rules.

I spent a total of $2.50 in the last 4 days and still had a pretty good weekend. ($1.50 on public transportation, $1 on a bag of chips.) Absolutely no idea how I'm paying the rent 2 months from now.

good news guys: the fraud charges have been killed and now i'm only $50 overdrawn instead of $200!!

oh and the old apt is letting me pay $10 short on my rent until next week <4

good luck hoos, money is the worst thing to be worrying about, v consuming. hope it works out.

i can buy ham now!

A million thank yous to you guys for the positive thoughts, it means a lot. This first couple of months at the new place are gonna be rough and I won't really be able to explore my new neighborhood bars etc until like mid Juneish, but thats OK. I need to spend some time rebuilding myself and making my new apartment into something worth bringing new friends over to see.

good luck dude, that non-tire situation would have me hell of stressed out cause i hate tires and have nothing but horrible luck w/them.

yeah fuck tires, i hate them too. . . they're sound round and shit.

so round

fuck round

imo

http://www.indianajones.dk/Webside/Billeder/Indy-side/Hvor%20er%20de%20nu/Short%20Round.jpg

No time for love, Dr. HI DERE

v v thankful i have a job btw

right now my only caveat with being broke and jobless is that I can't afford to go to bonnaroo (I've never been and I really wanted to go this year). also I hate looking for jobs

i started out with 10 bux to may name which i aquired immorally, then
spent about 5 bux of it on gas to get to work, then spent 2.25 of it on a
sandwhich from a "cart" on the side of the street.

i have about 3.75ish left.. till next payday.

good luck, honduras

i want to hear more about the immoral acquiring so i can remember that next week

i forgot to turn in my hours by sunday at midnight so i won't get a paycheck this week :( but fortunately i haven't deposited last week's check yet why bc i'm dumb, so i'll just trick myself into thinking it's this week's pay and then be really excited next friday.

i used to love not turning in my hours so my next paycheck would look huge

i "borrowed" it from my roomate.

that isn't nearly as exciting as i hoped it would be

ya i know you wanted more lol

$2.65 worth of dimes, nickels, & pennies with $337 worth of rent due Monday, not much food left, and no source of income

:/

I have a few things I can sell:

Ipod (I'd feel bad about this bc it was my big xmas gift from my parents)
A couple Casios
Stereo
A small quantity of books, but only the ones I specifically selected as ones I wanted to keep. The rest are at my parents' house, 200 miles away.
Laptop (reaaaally don't want to do this)

Unfortunately all my cds got stolen or else they'd be first to go.

fuck

Yeah, basically.

what's your credit like?

damn Rev, sorry. Never been that low. Could you move back with yr folks til time sare better?

then again if you don't have a source of income, I guess a "loan" (which was my idea) wouldn't be a good idea.

The thing about selling stuff is that it is only a temporary source of income, and takes away many of the things you have to help you cope with a truly difficult situation...speaking as someone who has recently used Ebay, prices are lowballing worse than ever right now because of the economy, Craigslist probably isn't much better. I'd only consider doing it if you could get two months worth of rent.

sorry to hear, for what it's worth i was in your situation several times up until I was 24 before luck finally found me.

My credit is shot to hell because I got these stupid unwanted charges when I was going to school and wasn't working and have never had steady employment since to pay them off.

I can't afford a ticket to Seattle either.

sorry to hear this. can't think of any useful advice :( you got friends where you are who you could crash with for a bit?

I still barely know anyone in this damn town.

oh, I also have a camera (ugh, another present) that can possibly be sold

paypal fund for The Rev - start thread! seriously there's like 3,3058582094 members on here!

hell yes, I value the Rev on this board and would send a few bucks his way.

that's the spirit!

i was actually thinking the same thing, but you never know how ppl will react (i don't just mean the rev, but other posters, getting all mad about being 'tacky' or whatever).

paypal fund for The Rev - start thread! seriously there's like 3,3058582094 members on here!

― Ballistic

let's do it!

well wouldn't wanna do anything against the Rev's wishes or the boards, but....just throwin out there!

t bomb

sooooo....any other takers?

my guess if it were posted in a new thread w/ a more obvious title -- pending Rev's thumbs up, of course -- it would get more attention

ya kinda waiting for Rev to say 'ok' first!

you guys

I love you all

go ham

my email is r0dn3yjr33n3athotmaildotcom (no googleproofing)

oops

r0dneyjgr33n3athotmaildotcom

cool. opening new thread

is there anyway someone could set up a direct "donation" link a la https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/xcl/rec/donate-intro-outside

i'll look into it

done

whoa sweet where is it

?

ooooooo....k. I think me just gonna put his email address in there for now.

rev you're a bro. it sucks to see you having such a rough go of it

Ballistic started the thread: Help The Reverend pay rent, get crunk, and bribe strippers...2010 rolling HELP A FELLOW ILX0R thread....

btw, at times like these i always find a helpful thought is that this will be good for at least half a chapter in your memoirs (best-selling obv) in 30 years' time

I like that thought.

make sure to embellish a few details a la Vanilla Ice

Hey yeah fwiw this is what it was like for me when I moved away from home the first time. It fucking sucks, but if I have any advice, it's don't denigrate yourself as a person for being broke. That makes shit so much worse than it has to be, tho I know it's easier said than done. Also don't sell your laptop bcz I bet it'd be a long time 'til you could get another one. I can't help out w/$$$ right now but I'm always here to listen if you want to vent.

^^^^^^^^ otm

holy fuck

Holy shit i didnt think id been paid but i had, my credit card bill just wiped it out. :o

Pitta and pasta fortnight ahoy

Get rid of your credit card, seriously, best decision I ever made

sure but it could be worse you could be jeff hannemann formerly of slayer now dead

Valuable insights itt

Or that Jesus feller. He sure had no picknick. With those nails and the cross and all

xp

I might well do that lbi, but its handy for web and eh eating during rent week.

Don't you have a debit card for that? We Dutch dunna have it, but I've always been amazed at the power of a debit card that isn't a credit card, and you can still use it to order whatever you like on the web etc?

itt irish wastrel living on credit learns about fiscal discipline from the deutsch

Payday: the 15th

In my bank acct: 46 usd

:/

Nakh otm

Ah well, theres always the overdraft

Debit card isnt too widely accepted ime

Oh hey jon, want a pitta?

If the debit card has master or visa on it, it's as widely accepted as credit cards iirc

I've no experience with debit cards. They still seems like a magical, exotic thing to me. Wish we had them here.

Pitta and pasta ain't too bad, as long as you don't eat them at the same time tbh

I never check my balance bc its too depressing. I'd rather not know most of the time. This causes me to overdraft a lot.

Tbf the cupboard/fridge/freezer are stocked and commute is covered, locking it down will require only a modicum of discipline.

otoh im goin to spain in a fortnight and the car needs taxin

^^ weak. I never check my balance either, but then I have an account on which I can't overdraft. *That* is living on the edge baby. That awful exciting fear at the till if I still have dough on my account etc #YOLO

xp

You driving to Spain Deems? Awesome!

Heh no! Merely listing expenditures as they loom.

I never check my balance bc its too depressing. I'd rather not know most of the time. This causes me to overdraft a lot.

― Treeship, Friday, May 10, 2013 5:08 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup

Lol ok. Shame though, it's a nice drive down! Car expenditures = meh though tbh

today i hit the level of money at which i can no longer take out any money

ouch. when are you getting paid again? if you are going to starve i can paypal you a very small amount of money. i am also broke though, i have like $500 and my job ended for now because it is at a school.

(xp) been there.

thanks treeship, i'll be ok

np. sorry if that was a weird thing to offer.

not at all, very sweet of you. but i've worked it out so that i won't starve anytime soon

cool

four meals in a row of pasta and four meals in a row of chili-in-tortillas from 38 dollars of groceries i bought yesterday should get me through until tuesday. i have to get a little gas, plus a meal or two and some snacks from the co-op should be covered by the 68 dollars i have left. in my experience most of the battle of making a dollar stretch is the time it takes to plan it out so you don't fuck up and make it worse. and the mind game / stress regulation of feeling boxed in.