[–] XDvandalDJ ago
When my ex and I split, it happened in summer when my electric bill was half my rent. I came out with 2 dollars left over after paying all my bills.
I first refinanced my car. Then I got a roommate. In the first couple months I sold all my old games for food.
I then ended up moving to a different state for a new job and more reliable roommate. The guy I found before didn't pay things reliably and I ended up bouncing checks when he was late.
After a couple years up in the new town I recovered and was able to move back.
I grew up poor. When I say poor I mean didn't know if the utilities would be on when I came home from school. I remember one time my family and I were cutting wood for the coming winter and my mother broke her arm, and we didn't have the money to get it looked at. I saw how my family struggled and saw how pointless their hard work was and I busted my ass in school and ended up going to college.
[–] Tacometropolis ago (edited ago)
I was starving for quite a while (about a 6 month period). Went down to about 135. Today I weight around 200, and people still tell me I'm thin. Didn't realize what kind of shape I was in at that point, just knew I was hungry all the time, and didn't have food. Thing is I didn't have to be.
I was going to grad school at the time, and living with someone. I ran out of money. Lost my job, and had nothing to replace it with. I could have asked for help from my family, and eventually I did, but I was too proud to do so for quite some time. Once I did, things got better fast. I bought some groceries, moved back home, got a job, apartment, and then a few months later 2 better jobs. Haven't stopped working since.
I still basically hoard food (freezer, and canned stuff). I'm careful with my money almost to the point of irrationality, but it definitely taught me pride is dangerous.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
[–] bobroland ago (edited ago)
Glad for that happy ending.
Poverty has a real way of showing you who your friends are, that's for sure. I lost my best friend of six years over being unable to come up with a hundred dollars for a filing fee with our business. We use to carry hundreds of dollars in markers with each other from poker, but six months of me being poor changed that. It killed a friendship and a shared dream.
[–] Bkow 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Right now. I'm in a one bedroom apartment that costs me $1058 for rent alone. My car payment is $600, and with all bills included I'm losing about $2300 a month. I currently make around $1600 after taxes. My wife used to make less than $1000 until recently. Now she works full time and brings home about $1400. It's been that way for the past year and a half. I swear it gave me gray hairs and cut my life expectancy considerably due to financial stress. It has definitely affected our credit.
[–] DonnaLuscious 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I'm currently in mine. I got a credit card, bought a new camera with it thinking "well it's just $500, I can pay that off" but then a few weeks later my computer crashed and I had to buy a new one. So there's another $1300 on it. THEN I made the horrible mistake of getting a retail credit card for some instant savings baloney. After that I just got careless, going out to eat regularly and not really thinking that $8 at a fast food place here, $40 on a date there, or a $3 snack at a gas station here would add up. I hit around $4K credit card debt and have $6K (thankfully not any more than that) in student loans.
My solution was to treat myself like someone who didn't deserve a credit card, because quite frankly I don't. I cut up my cards and buckled down on my extraneous spending. Now as soon as each pay check comes in I IMMEDIATELY pay as much as I can feasibly muster on the cards and still have grocery/gas/etc money. I'm down to about $2300 on those cards. It'll be a rewarding day later this week when I can get that number back down below $2K.
The APR on both is a little high (I mean they were my first 2 cards) so I want to get them paid off quickly. I guess I had this idea that I had to spend money to build credit, but I sort of deluded myself and went overboard. I like getting new things :(
I was warned credit cards are slippery slope. I guess I did what a lot of Americans do and blinded myself to how deep I was actually getting. We have this culture of living beyond our means and even though I logically know better, I still fell into it.
TL;DR I got some credit cards and used them irresponsibly. But I'm working on it!
[–] King-Calf [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Sounds like a bunch of the same shit I did. I was working two jobs that barely paid the bills and going to school (College) at the same time. I also had a girlfriend that required us to do normal relationship shit like go on dates and pretty much do anything that required money. I was also taking care of my friend who had a difficult time holding onto a job and had a problem with alcohol. I remember using checks to buy groceries with the hopes that they wouldn't cash them in until my paycheck hit my bank account. I eventually got evicted from my apartment and had a fuck ton of overdraft fees and credit card debt. Luckily I managed to turn that around. It took a while though.
[–] 934108? ago
Had 1 months mortgage payment left in the bank and bills mounting, managed to refinance my house on a new rate which saved me 500 per month at no extra cost.
Now I have breathing space.