What do you consider being "broke" (financially)?

applecruncher

SF VIP
Location
Ohio USA
Being broke sometimes means different things to different people.

I recall back in my 20s being truly broke while waiting for the next paycheck. That meant a couple dollars for gas/bus fare, instant coffee for breakfast, counting slices of bread remaining in the wrapper, putting together a brown bag lunch of a baloney sandwich and maybe an apple if I was lucky, and no money for anything else. Boiled egg and a piece of toast for dinner, half a candy bar for dessert. (No credit card then) I used to keep $2 hidden in my wallet so I wouldn't be 'broke'.

But I've heard people say they're broke and what that means is they have no cash and their bank account is close to zero OR they are living on a credit card until their next source of income hits.

I know someone in her early 70s who often complains about being broke, but she has a good retirement income, owns a home and a nice car, but she shells out chunks of money to her deadbeat grandson and even co-signed for his car which he wrecked. :rolleyes: .....a whole 'nother story....

Anyway, what would you consider being broke? Any good stories about how you got thru tough times while you were broke?
 

Broke for me would be unable to pay for the needs like food & shelter. Never been broke mainly because as needed I would work part time jobs to pay for unexpected expenses.
 

AC, like you I've been through a period or two in my life where I barely had enough money to cover the basics. I squeaked by, but without any extras and a mind that was constantly focused on how to squeeze those dollars until they screamed. Those valuable lessons taught me how little one truly needs to get through.

To me, broke would be a condition that in all likelihood is apt be temporary (like a college student). Poor is when it's pretty likely to be permanent.
 
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When I was a child I was a saver. I had lots of silver dimes, quarters and half dollars [real silver back then] in my piggy bank.

I didn't have a Scarlet O'Hara "I'll never be hungry again" moment until I was a young single mother living in my own apartment but working a low-level going nowhere job with no money to spare. One day the dentist told me my child needed some extra dental work but I didn't have the extra money. So the lady at the dentist office told me I might get a loan from a nearby bank.

But I couldn't get the loan nor could I get a credit card because I had no credit history. THANK GOD that was the defining moment in my life when I realized I couldn't keep living hand to mouth. I realized I needed a good plan. So I changed to a slightly better paying job. And when the opportunity arose, I changed to an even better paying job with much better benefits.

Meanwhile, I lived modestly and saved money and eventually was able to get a new car loan - which established my credit history. Fast-forward decades later... THANK GOD... I had zero debt, a paid off house and car and was able to retire comfortably early at age 55. I am blessed !
 
Boiled egg and a piece of toast for dinner...


Today, one of my favorite quick meals is a boiled egg mashed up with a little mayonnaise, salt and pepper wrapped in a flour tortilla.

If you haven't already, try it that way wrapped in a flour tortilla... it gives it a special yummy taste.

.
 
When I was still living at home, despite working 6 days a week my father took my wage packet from me unopened and gave me just my fares to get to work. I wasn't allowed to eat, he locked the fridge and store cupboards, so I was so broke and so hungry that I used to scrump for apples from my neighbours garden just for food
 
Wow, HD. That sucks, big time. Did you leave home the moment you could figure out how to do so?

Oh yes indeed...!! SS.... I was still very poor, but at least I actually had some money to buy food.. even if I could buy very little else!! I didn't know it at the time, but I was suffering from malnutrition...took me years to be able to eat enough to put a little weight on, because my stomach had shrunk so much!!
 
When I was still living at home, despite working 6 days a week my father took my wage packet from me unopened and gave me just my fares to get to work. I wasn't allowed to eat, he locked the fridge and store cupboards, so I was so broke and so hungry that I used to scrump for apples from my neighbours garden just for food

This clearly was child abuse.
 
Being broke means living hour to hour - Having a few dollars knotted up in your jeans pocket- finding something to kill the belly pain - Waiting for the next paycheck to get the bill collectors off your butt - This if cyclical is what I witnessed as broke - I was never really broke although my last year in college came very close to it - I had several friends that blew every dollar they made as soon as they got it - I learned early to save something no matter how small - The thought of being broke while being able bodied and young was not in my genes.
 
AC, like you I've been through a period or two in my life where I barely had enough money to cover the basics. I squeaked by, but without any extras and a mind that was constantly focused on how to squeeze those dollars until they screamed. Those valuable lessons taught me how little one truly needs to get through.

To me, broke would be a condition that in all likelihood is apt be temporary (like a college student). Poor is when it's pretty likely to be permanent.

Took me a while to learn to live within or below my means when I was young. Many times parents helped me out of a jam but looking back they could/should have been a bit tougher. Also, there is no shame in saying "I can't afford it."

I've known some people who were poor but later did very well.
 
I lived paycheck to paycheck and often worked two jobs or any overtime offered to get by.

The Saturday after payday I would fill the car with gas, the refrigerator with food and buy a carton of cigarettes. If I was lucky I had $20.00 leftover and would go out with friends for a few drinks on Saturday night. Sunday was spent with the same friends at my place reading the newspaper, fixing an inexpensive brunch and drinking inexpensive jug wine. Monday if I was lucky I still had $5.00 to get through the week. I was always afraid to spend that $5.00 and often times it went for some sort of office collection/gift or a small loan to a close friend.

In those days it was also common to be driving to the local utility company lockbox to make a last minute payment to keep the power or the telephone from being turned off.

The good news is that I was never flat broke with no place to live and no food to eat. The brush with poverty that I experienced was more about inconvenience than real soul-crushing poverty.

Eventually, I got the education and experience needed to work my way into better-paying jobs.

"There's a whining at the threshold–
There's a scratching at the floor–
To work! To work! In Heaven's name!
The wolf is at the door!"
- Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
 
When I was still living at home, despite working 6 days a week my father took my wage packet from me unopened and gave me just my fares to get to work. I wasn't allowed to eat, he locked the fridge and store cupboards, so I was so broke and so hungry that I used to scrump for apples from my neighbours garden just for food


Jesus Christ!

That sounds like something out of a Dickens novel!

Oliver-Twist-asking-for-more.jpg
 
I've written one story that involves me being broke

I've posted it here a few times
But in this story somewhere near the end is where I was pretty freaking broke

Ribs and other Bones

There’s nothing like a good meal for a get together,
and the good meal is a barbeque.

Being a northerner that spent some years down south, I can say those boys down there know barbeque.
Ribs, fallin off the bone.
Chikin, smoked, from wood, not wunna those fancy pellet rigs, but by an ol’ guy raised in a ‘grease house’, from a pit the size of a horse trough.
Beans, I didn’t know beans could taste like that. Odd things, strange herbs, spices, homemade sauces, a bit a fat meat, marinated for hours. They were a meal all by themselves.
Tater salad…M-M-M-M, none like it.
Sweet tea, steeped in a gallon jug in the sun.
Beer, Lone Star or Falstaff, didn’t matter, both tasted like mop water from a juke joint, but did their job of cleansing the palate for the next bite.
Sip, rib, sip, chikin, sip, beans, sip, salad, guzzle the rest.
Made ya just fall down and scream.

Houston.
Down the street, Telephone road, was wunna those grease houses.
An old black gent lived there with what seemed like three generations of family.
Everbuddie's grampa, even mine for awhile.
Everyone called him Chili.
Bid overalls, white butcher’s apron, leather baseball cap was his eternal uniform.

Had a high pitched, raspy voice, and always a smirk on his ol’ mug.
More often then not, you’d find me sittin’ at his dilapidated picnic table after work, watchin’ him toil over the pit.
Nuthin’ attractive.
Tin lean-to roof, pile of wood, ol' white fridge that made a humming sound laboring in the heat, vats and jars, brushes, large forks, and the huge pit with a homemade steel lid, that once he was satisfied with how things were goin’ he’d drop down and come out to talk to me…..talk about stories…old day stories…..bone chilling, horiffic stories.

Naw, nuthin’ attractive….. ‘cept for the rich savory aromatic fragrance emanating from that glorious pit.
I’d sit there, sweating like a pig, drool stream gathering on the table in a puddle…

‘Chili!
WTF ol’ man!?’

‘Boy, you know it’s not ready….I’ll tell ya when it’s ready.’

It was worth the wait.


Fourth of July…or as they say down there JOOOlah, everyone barbequed.
Po foke, rich foke, middle class foke, all had their pits goin’.
You couldn’t walk two steps without getting hit upside the head with the aroma of the gods.

One fourth, me and my lady were flat broke.
I’d come off a month long stint in Brownsville, inspecting oil field pipe, big job.
Tuboscope laid some folks off after that, so I volunteered for some time off myself.
Took most of June, just me and my lady…nobody else.
Ran outta money…rent was paid, car was maintained, just broke….food crumbs in the fridge,
empty bottles piled in the corner of the carport below…sittin’ on the couch smokin’ a partial I’d dug outta the butt can.

‘I’m goin’ back to work.’

‘It’s the fourth.’

‘Oh’

Chili and family had gone somewhere.
It was hot.
Most neighbors had headed to Galveston.

Our guts were eatin’ guts.
Hadn’t been so hungry in a long time.
A friend invited us to a company get together.
The park was filled with heavenly flavors.
Kids, old folk, parents, all had plates heaped with goodies, goodies that tempted me to follow ‘em, floating on the fragrant waves.

We strolled over to the tables.

$3.50

$3.50??!!

I had 37 cents.

One the way back to the garage apartment I swore I’d never put myself in that position again…especially on the fourth.


....and haven't


....yet
 
I'm fortunate enough to have never really been broke.
I was reminded of a good one from "The Jeffersons." A young guy was telling the wealthy Jeffersons, "Hey, man. You don't know what it's like to be poor."
Louise said, "That's not true; when George & I first met, we were so poor we lived on mayonnaise sandwiches."
George added, "Yeah....with no bread."

A co-worker was paying some bills at her desk. She said to me, "I'm so broke, I can't afford to pay attention."
 
.

When I was a child I was a saver. I had lots of silver dimes, quarters and half dollars [real silver back then] in my piggy bank.

I didn't have a Scarlet O'Hara "I'll never be hungry again" moment until I was a young single mother living in my own apartment but working a low-level going nowhere job with no money to spare.......

But I couldn't get the loan nor could I get a credit card because I had no credit history. THANK GOD that was the defining moment in my life when I realized I couldn't keep living hand to mouth. I realized I needed a good plan. So I changed to a slightly better paying job. And when the opportunity arose, I changed to an even better paying job with much better benefits.

Meanwhile, I lived modestly and saved money and eventually was able to get a new car loan - which established my credit history. Fast-forward decades later... THANK GOD... I had zero debt, a paid off house and car and was able to retire comfortably early at age 55. I am blessed !

Love to see stories like that. I was fortunate to never have a 'defining moment' as you did with inability to pay bills, but my parents came from fairly poor circumstances and taught all of us siblings the value of money. I started saving since age 10 and ended up getting into investing in my 20's. and ended up like you. Wife and I retired at 56 with full financial freedom.

I do kick myself about saving coins. In the 50's, we were able to get silver dollars (real ones) simply by going to the local bank. I used to take my babysitting earnings and get silver dollars and spend them at grade school, for lunch, because it was 'cool'. I probably could have retired at age 30 if I had not spent those silver dollars. Someone else probably did! :mad:
 


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