Tell us about your "early broke days"

My thread so I guess i will have to start.

WHY?: This weekend i was enjoying a good day and got to thinking about how radically different it was back in those "early broke days".
We have all had them. You know.... rolling pennies for gas money days. I think going through them and coming out better on the other side helps keep us grounded and more understanding of those still struggling.
...and less sympathetic for the lazy.

Well here was my situation.

Just out of the Navy. Wife and kids staying with the wife's parents in another state, and me driving to another town in another state to find a job with $400 to my name. Even so, on my way I saw a homeless guy outside a Burger King I stopped at. Heading back on the interstate, I bought an extra meal and gave it to him. I may have been heading for the unknown, but I had a car and $400. I feel the good karma was worth it.
I had a 1976 Dodge Colt that got great gas mileage, and I was so grateful.
I get to another city and slept in my car for two days at a truck stop and showered for a $2 towel fee.

Found an apartment in a war zone for $99 move in, and $100 electric deposit to turn on the juice.
I was lucky enough to find a job for $10 an hour about five miles down the road, but would not get paid for about 10 days.
Got a Lodge deep cast iron skillet & lid at a second hand store and then bought two heads of cabbage, a pack of picnic salt & pepper, and a pound of bacon.
This was my dinner after work.

For lunch, it was 2 tacos for 99 cents and Jack-In-The-Box and a large drink that I milked out all day.
Fortunately the boss had a doughnut addiction so breakfast was covered.

Once the paychecks became regular I would get articles of furniture at second hand stores.
I called it "Early Salvation Army Decor".
Until then it was a sleeping bag and a cot.

So tell us about your early "character building" days.
Inquiring minds would like to know.

FREE ADVICE: If you are still enduring them, shut off the internet and buy some bacon & cabbage.

Born to a teenage single mother who had to work 3 jobs to support us.

At 3 she married a construction worker ( he had to drop out of middle school in order to help provide for his parents and siblings)

They reached roughly low middle class around the time I hit high school.

I moved out when I graduated high school and worked a min wage job to support myself while in college.

Nissan opened a plant in Mississippi, so I dropped out of school to get in early.

Now life is pretty sweet.

PleasantValley said:

My thread so I guess i will have to start.

WHY?: This weekend i was enjoying a good day and got to thinking about how radically different it was back in those "early broke days".
We have all had them. You know.... rolling pennies for gas money days. I think going through them and coming out better on the other side helps keep us grounded and more understanding of those still struggling.
...and less sympathetic for the lazy.

Well here was my situation.

Just out of the Navy. Wife and kids staying with the wife's parents in another state, and me driving to another town in another state to find a job with $400 to my name. Even so, on my way I saw a homeless guy outside a Burger King I stopped at. Heading back on the interstate, I bought an extra meal and gave it to him. I may have been heading for the unknown, but I had a car and $400. I feel the good karma was worth it.
I had a 1976 Dodge Colt that got great gas mileage, and I was so grateful.
I get to another city and slept in my car for two days at a truck stop and showered for a $2 towel fee.

Found an apartment in a war zone for $99 move in, and $100 electric deposit to turn on the juice.
I was lucky enough to find a job for $10 an hour about five miles down the road, but would not get paid for about 10 days.
Got a Lodge deep cast iron skillet & lid at a second hand store and then bought two heads of cabbage, a pack of picnic salt & pepper, and a pound of bacon.
This was my dinner after work.

For lunch, it was 2 tacos for 99 cents and Jack-In-The-Box and a large drink that I milked out all day.
Fortunately the boss had a doughnut addiction so breakfast was covered.

Once the paychecks became regular I would get articles of furniture at second hand stores.
I called it "Early Salvation Army Decor".
Until then it was a sleeping bag and a cot.

So tell us about your early "character building" days.
Inquiring minds would like to know.

FREE ADVICE: If you are still enduring them, shut off the internet and buy some bacon & cabbage.

Click to expand...

I have a similar story.

I pulled into a gas station to get some gas and a pack of smokes. I see this guy with his head in his hands looking like someone ran over his dog. I asked him if everything was alright and he proceeded to tell me how he and his family (wife and 2 kids were in his vehicle) had run out of cash and didn't have enough money to get gas to fill up their car and they had been there for a couple hours without anything to eat. All I had was $10 cash on me at the time so I handed it to him and told him to hold up a minute. I drove over to the Whataburger to get some extra value meals for his family so they could have something to eat. I'm usually skeptical of sob stories like that but I didn't want to take the chance that he was telling the truth and his kids didn't have anything to eat.

1978. I was 18 years old. Fireman Apprentice in the Coast Guard. Living in a trailer (old, crummy single-wide mobile home in a park) on just basic pay, no allowances back then for single E-2s. (Gross pay for an E-2 under two years in 1978 was $443.10 per month. I lived on about $400 net pay.)

Monthly Budget (seriously):

Rent: $62.50 (until roommate moved out, then rent doubled)
Propane: $60
Gasoline (for a hand-me-down 1963 Dodge 330 with a "slant six," only wrecked once :lol: $35 (Tanked up about every ten days or so. Gas back then was about $0.70 per gallon.)
Auto Insurance: $40
Weed (One ounce of Colombian Sensemilla): $60
Food: $60 (Fifteen dollars a week may not sound like much, but you could buy a bag of groceries then for about ten dollars. Also, I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and "hula chicken"--chicken baked with canned pineapple slices. Drank gallons of powdered Tang mixed from tap water.)

I opened a "Christmas club" account at a local savings and loan. When I left the duty station after ten months, I had $800 in the account. By the time I left the service in 1982 after four years, I had accumulated stocks in a brokerage account valued at more than $20,000, because I gained rank (to E-5) and lived on base at my other duty stations, where I had housing and food paid for. So my poverty days were over after a little less a year. When I left the first assignment, I went into Coast Guard aviation and gave up the grass. Smoking weed and flying as a crewman on Sikorsky H-3s, where other lives depended on me doing my job, didn't seem like the best plan.

You guys, it's helpful if you put down the year or years you were experiencing these broke days.
For me, it was 1978. I had enrolled in college in Minneapolis and was ready to go pick up my student housing money, when they informed me that, due to a clerical error, I would not be starting in September, but January instead.
And no housing money.
I had 50 bucks, and I tried to tough it out doing day labor downtown.
But I still wasn't able to scrape up enough to put a deposit on a pad. I was living in my 67 Chevy pickup truck.

The first week in October, I knew it was going to get seriously cold pretty soon.
I was hearing stories about how bums freeze to death overnight in the wintertime unless they (A) "find Jesus" and join the Skid Row mission, or (B) throw a rock through a shop window and get thrown in jail for the three hots and a cot over the winter. Neither option appealed to me.

Wandering around, I walked past a used office furniture supply store on East Lake Street and heard rock and roll from a basement door.



I crept down, opened the door, walked in and sat down. The kids finished practicing and I asked them if they wanted me to tune their decrepit old piano for fifteen bucks. After I finished, I tried it out with a little mini-jam.
They disappeared in back for a moment, then walked back out and asked me if I wanted to play in the band.
Sounded great but I told them didn't have an address or a phone number because I had no place to stay.
It was a large rehearsal space and they said I was welcome to stay there.
After a couple of weeks practice we got a few paid gigs and suddenly I had the money to put down on a tiny bachelor pad.
$110 a month, all utilities...and I'd found a regular steady part time job as a dishwasher in the diner across the street.



I was even able to get a phone!

My wife and I were having kids on E-4 pay overseas (Munich) where babysitting legally was outrageously expensive and required because of the security clearance and my income potential very limited....then we moved to Monterey for a year and paid exactly $1000 a month in 1993 for a tiny two bedroom next to DLI.....then back to Darmstadt to have our third and last kid....money was always tight.

But I am a chef so I can feed cheap if need be, we went a lot of years without a car so we would for instance load up our baby tram and haul grocery's 45 minutes through the woods in Darmstadt from the commissary because we did not want to pay for a cab.....and we were not stupid.....we planned....we evaluated.....we did not suffer.

PleasantValley said:

FREE ADVICE: If you are still enduring them, shut off the internet and buy some bacon & cabbage.

Click to expand...

Internet is more valuable than bacon or cabbage. Kind of a necessary utility.

In a desk drawer next to where I am sitting is a Transaction Register from my 1971 checking account. Looking at it you could see where I was paid weekly and near the end of month when rent was paid on my two room shabbily furnished apartment and bills have been paid there was usually less than $10 left in my bank. Many times it was a choice to put gas in the car or to buy the fixings for p&b sandwiches for the next week or so. Sounds tough now, but never did I have more fun, friends, and cheap good times. Best memories ever! My situation has changed drastically financially and I retired a few years early, paid cash for my current home, four car garage for my three vehicles, and nice vacations.

I take that old register out once a year or so and look thru the pages with a smile on my face for what I have now and all the good memories from then.

My first real job after ETS was as an apprentice mechanic at a Cadillac dealer. Starting pay was $4.00 per hour. Mid 1975. After a few months, I received a raise.....10 cents an hour. Labor rate was $18 flat rate and the best paid mechanic was paid $6 flat rate. I still remember a six-pack of Bud $ 1.25.

a lot of the youngsters are looking at this thread in disbelief

you didnt do that....you didnt have to live like that....

yeah, we did

i was an E4 raising 3 kids in Minot North Dakota....going to school at nights, and wondering if we were ever going to see the light of day

I got out of the military in the early 80's with my degree in accounting, and never looked back

A lot of meatloaf, spaghetti, and hamhocks and beans

a lot of hand me downs for the kids....

now all 3 are grown, through college, and out on their own

and hopefully some of those life lessons stuck with them also

spend less than you earn....invest in yourself....work like you own the place

Your Star said:

Internet is more valuable than bacon or cabbage. Kind of a necessary utility.

Click to expand...

I guess the priority of the internet varies with the individual.

slowhawk said:

In a desk drawer next to where I am sitting is a Transaction Register from my 1971 checking account. Looking at it you could see where I was paid weekly and near the end of month when rent was paid on my two room shabbily furnished apartment and bills have been paid there was usually less than $10 left in my bank. Many times it was a choice to put gas in the car or to buy the fixings for p&b sandwiches for the next week or so. Sounds tough now, but never did I have more fun, friends, and cheap good times. Best memories ever! My situation has changed drastically financially and I retired a few years early, paid cash for my current home, four car garage for my three vehicles, and nice vacations.

I take that old register out once a year or so and look thru the pages with a smile on my face for what I have now and all the good memories from then.

Click to expand...

This is the exact reason I made this thread.
Reflection.

That $110 a month bachelor pad was about 12 feet by 12 feet tops, the "kitchen" was built into one wall and consisted of a sink/stove/fridge unit and a tiny countertop, next to it was a 5 foot closet with a door that was maybe 1.5 feet wide, and it had a tiny bathroom with one of those little triangular corner sinks, a toilet and a tiny shower.
But it was mine, and it was my very first place of my own.

I think I was making about 350 a month tops as a dishwasher plus maybe another 150 to 200 a month from the band gigs.
I felt RICH, believe it or not.
And I never did get that housing stipend when all was said and done! They screwed that up and it stayed screwed.
Didn't matter, I was handling it without the stipend.

I was a gol-durn "rock star"

Checkerboard Strangler said:

That $110 a month bachelor pad was about 12 feet by 12 feet tops, the "kitchen" was built into one wall and consisted of a sink/stove/fridge unit and a tiny countertop, next to it was a 5 foot closet with a door that was maybe 1.5 feet wide, and it had a tiny bathroom with one of those little triangular corner sinks, a toilet and a tiny shower.
But it was mine, and it was my very first place of my own.

I think I was making about 350 a month tops as a dishwasher plus maybe another 150 to 200 a month from the band gigs.
I felt RICH, believe it or not.
And I never did get that housing stipend when all was said and done! They screwed that up and it stayed screwed.
Didn't matter, I was handling it without the stipend.

I was a gol-durn "rock star"

View attachment 67233909 View attachment 67233910 View attachment 67233911

Click to expand...

Awesome. Ahh the memories.

PleasantValley said:

Awesome. Ahh the memories.

Click to expand...

We opened for John Mayall, J.B. Hutto, Lightnin' Hopkins, Luther Allison, Bonnie Raitt...OMG so many big acts I can't even remember them all now.

PleasantValley said:

I guess the priority of the internet varies with the individual.

Click to expand...

Not really, it's a necessary utility to that you have to have. Kind of like electricity or heat/ac. You need it to navigate in the modern world.

My first jobs were a mobile home parts plant and a local cannery in 1972-73. I got a small student loan and went to secretarial school. My first job was at an insurance company. I bought a used orange Datsun car, I also paid off every penny of that student loan. I left the insurance company, when I got hired at our county courthouse. I worked in the recorders office, taking microfiche photos of deeds & mortgages, developing the film, etc. The county went through a financial crisis and had big layoffs. I was layed off for about 2 weeks, but was rehired at the county health department.

A bunch of us city and county workers would sign up to work for the county elections department during national elections. It was fun and a way to earn a little extra. Back then we would check for hanging chads, etc. on the ballots. Tables would be arranged with equal numbers dems and republicans opposite each other at tables, and an occasional independent. I met my hubby working during an election. He worked at the city data center. We honeymooned camping in the redwoods (with his Toyota pickup and a tent).

I married at 29. We had our daughter 6 years later. I worked for the county for 30 years and then retired. I still go back and help out occasionally at my old job.

Your Star said:

Internet is more valuable than bacon or cabbage. Kind of a necessary utility.

Click to expand...

I hope you're kidding. I lived the first forty years of my life without the Internet. I could live the next forty just fine with nothing other than postage stamps, envelopes, a pen, an address, a phone, and McDonald's.

Ahlevah said:

I hope you're kidding. I lived the first forty years of my life without the Internet. I could live the next forty just fine with nothing other than postage stamps, envelopes, a pen, an address, a phone, and McDonald's.

Click to expand...

Yeah, in a society in which the internet wasn't part of everyone's daily lives. Comparing the importance of the internet in a person's life today to the importance of the internet in a person's life 40 years ago is just silly.

I'll let you know when the end.

Ahlevah said:

I hope you're kidding. I lived the first forty years of my life without the Internet. I could live the next forty just fine with nothing other than postage stamps, envelopes, a pen, an address, a phone, and McDonald's.

Click to expand...

Sure, as long as you don't need a job.

PleasantValley said:

I guess the priority of the internet varies with the individual.

Click to expand...

A lot of jobs they want to you apply to via the online applications these days.

RAMOSS said:

A lot of jobs they want to you apply to via the online applications these days.

Click to expand...

Free internet at libraries around the world. I don't see it as a necessity either. It's a luxury.

Josie said:

Free internet at libraries around the world. I don't see it as a necessity either. It's a luxury.

Click to expand...

Some do, but there is location , location, location. The ability to get to the library during normal hours.

I grew up poor. We never ate in restaurants, never went on vacation, ate a LOT of mashed potatoes and pasta and had a junky ole car that I was mortified for my friends to see when my dad would take us to school. We wore clothing made by my mom or hand-me-downs from the Salvation Army. My favorite Christmas gift one year was a box full of used books (R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike books, if you're curious). I wanted to be in band, but my parents didn't have the money. I wanted to be in dance class, but my parents didn't have the money.

I started working when I was 12 detassling corn, babysitting and finally at Dairy Queen when I was 15 (this was 1996). The first thing I bought with my first DQ paycheck was a CD player and Mariah Carey's album Daydream. From then on, I was in charge of buying any clothing, makeup, etc. that I wanted.

My parents couldn't help me pay for college, so I had a small scholarship, grants and loans - lots of loans. I worked at Dairy Queen through college as well. I was dead broke all of the time. My roommates didn't have to work and just relied on their parents to send them money. They always wanted to go out to eat, go shopping so I went along with them - spending my DQ paycheck. But I still had to pay for my car payment, car insurance and food. Many times when those came around, I had no money at all. I distinctly remember one day being so ashamed that I had to ask my roommate if she'd let me borrow some money to pay my car insurance. I didn't like that feeling whatsoever and vowed to never ask anyone for money ever again.

I graduated college with honors, went right into grad school, graduated Magna Cum Laude. I left college with a Bachelor's in Early Childhood Education and a Master's degree in K-12 Reading Education with a Reading Specialist endorsement. Still broke, though.

I moved back home and found a job. I worked my ass off paying back my $63,000 in student loans 20 years early. Now I'm living very comfortably and not poor at all.