How broke ($$$) are you?

[Superfly]

Poll question: How broke ($$$) are you?

I just started a new job after being unemployed for the past 4 months (a whole year if you cinsider how little money I made in the other 8 months), and I just came to the realization that I am broker than broke.

When you are out of work, you find creative ways to use credit, and all those bills are crashing down on me right now like nothing else. The next 6 paychecks are spoken for just to pay down debt.

So, how broke are you?

[Interrobang]

1. I make $12/hr...

...and my fixed costs alone eat 60% or so of my take-home pay. I'm making ok money and I'm *still* broke -- thank you Mike Harris for skyrocketing tuitions and eliminating rent controls...

[Chuckup]

5. I feel for ya, I really do

I have a family to suuport, so we started a home cleaning business. I mentioned it here a couple of months ago. We're not making enough to get by on yet, but we are getting close..

[mac56]

2. I'm so broke - I can't pay attention!

Thanks! Tip your waitress!

[GOPisEvil]

3. I actually do OK.

In about 9-12 months when I am completely debt-free, I'll be doing better and be able to save more. My salary is what keeps me from ditching Texas and moving somewhere more progressive.

[ixion]

6. yep, me too, GOPIE...

I moved to Texas take a position with a software company two years ago. I would really like to move somewhere more progressive, but for now (at least the next year), I'm here in Austin.

[GOPisEvil]

7. Austin huh? You should be here on the 16th!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=2153

[Heddi]

4. I'm a full-time student, not working, and only getting

about 40% of my tuition in financial aid.

Hubby is the only income in our household---makes $30k a year before taxes.

But we're not pooor---at least I don't think so.

We have decent savings and don't have debt (we rent, bought a used car & paid cash for it, no CC bills, no kids), so pretty much we're able to save maybe $200 or so a month, as well as pay all our bills and have some moolah left over for things like beer, or renting a movie

[boilerbabe]

28. You are doing alright!

I am glad that you can go to school and still have a little left over for beer (a MUST-HAVE item!!)

I got one of those Social Security thingies not too long ago, that summarizes what you have made like in your entire lifetime, and i have to laugh, like how the hell did I live in San Diego on only 2,000. a year?? (uh, MOm and Dad...)

I would be so screwed if i made 30K a year with these astronomical house payments, but I do manage to get some beer (priority ONE!!) I must admit, that I may be 1/4 redneck...

As long as your'e happy, having FUN, and not starving, then you are way ahead of most of the people in this world!! I would love to go back to school, and the human resources guy at my work has told me they would finance it, and that i was wasting my talents so to speak, but I work shiftwork, and how in the hell can you schedule classes that way?! (like I'll be there every other leap year, and maybe a half hour late...haha. oh well, too soon old, too late smart...)

It's all good, now that I'm not starving, time for me to look out for those that are having a hard time...

Best wishes to you, you are on the right track!!

XXXOOO

[Drifter]

8. Just 3 short years ago ...

I was living paycheck to paycheck with about 30 grand in debt.

Thanks to AWOL tanking the economy and interest rates dropping through the floor, I was able to consolodate my debt, and refinance my house.

I have since bought a brand new (30 grand) mini-van. My entire debt (House, Cars) is less than the value of my house. I am now able to put a few hundred dollars away each month in savings. I hope to build a substantial savings (as well as a cache of vacation days), as my job is only secure for the next 2-3 years.

Cheers
Drifter

Edit: spelling

[Philosophy]

9. Beat this

I've been pretty much unemployed for three years, am about $30,000 in debt, I had to sell my home to my parents, and I have $500 left to live on before I starve to death.

[Porcupine]

12. I just got out of jail. Homeless, unemployed and on probation......

but I have about $12 bucks in quarters!!

To make it even more fun the only relative who will put me up lives 18 miles from the nearest hope of a job AND I have no car or access to one.

The American Gulag is a wonder of evil and misery. Stay away from it.

[Shanty Oilish]

16. 18 miles from...

Does this relative live near a bus or taxi co.? Cab drivers in rural areas make a good living and a lot of new friends.

[boilerbabe]

29. I have some good taxi stories to tell

Will try to make a long story short...when I went to San Diego from Maine in 1980, I got my driver's license one week and then got my chauffeur's the next...had no clue, went from backroads to 6 lanes, but I wanted a car,haha.
wound up in the middle of a big war between independant (me) and Yellow cab drivers. It got violent, and also durng that time, someone was murdering cab drivers and robbing them. I had no radio, and a smoking fucking car. Somehow, I came out of that one alive, though 2 drivers I had met were killed and robbed, and I got threatened, but being a stupid smalltown gal, I somehow just barely evaded it.
I must say, it was one of the toughest ways to make a living ever!

[boilerbabe]

27. Seems like the harder you try the worse it gets

I went thru a downward spiral when I lived in Ca, lost my job, didn't go to jail, but might as well have...wound up with a bunch of lowlifes stealing everything from me and laughing about it while they did it...make a long story short, just before I would have hit the curb, I called my parents (at age 33) and said, either I come home now or in a box.
Now, 9 yrs later I am finally doing ok, I never became what I originally thought I would be (an artist--ha ha I work in a paper mill!) but maybe you need to get as far away from your past as you can, and just start over. I have started over so damn many times that it is ridiculous. But there is a way out of the tunnel, it's just not easy to see it. And I could go on and on...and make a total fool of myself in the meantime..
I know that this is a bad time to attempt to get a job, just like it was back in 1980 when I went to CA from Maine, with no driver's license, no clue, no friends, no pertinent job experience, and also blew off my 4-year degree...

I am not sure where you are located, but there may be a program, where I used to be it was affiliated with unemployement insurance, where you could sign up for a course if it made you "job-ready" in under a year, you could collect unemployemnt and take the course...

my suggestions would be machining (especially CNC, etc) once you get like 5 yrs in, you can pretty much name your price, or even better, Nursing. There is such a demand for registered nurses and if you can take the gross parts of it, you can go anywhere in the country with it.

Anyway, you've got to get on it as soon as you can before you lose your momentum. I hope that your prison record doesn't hold you back, I do know that there are a lot of places that do hire people from half-way houses ( my employer does this) but I think they pay them less than they would someone from the street.

Best of luck, sweetie, you deserve to have all that you want and need!

If there is any way that I can help you get on your feet, just let me know.

XXXOOO

[classics]

34. You have $500 left?

Can I come over and play? ;)

[MissMillie]

10. Very tough summer for me

Only got 1/2 of my child support during the last two months. I had some money set aside for this very purpose, but two months in a row of being short, plus a kitty that got sick, and the savings get eaten up.

[rainydaywoman]

11. Disabled Vet Pension

That's what we (2 adults & one child) live on and it's hard. Plus, a tiny bit of food stamps.
We only get by because our rent is low, if we lived in the city we'd probably end up homeless.
I'm trying to get an education, but will that really help? I sometimes wonder...

[boilerbabe]

30. If you have an opportunity to get an education, take it

Even if it doesn't make your job prospects any better, at least you get some stimulation. It seems to me, that employers have every excuse covered...overqualified, underqualified, etc.

[Boudicea]

13. Overdrawn

and I thought I was covered. #$%)*!

[LuLu550]

14. I was going to whine

about being so far in debt because of my kids college tution that I couldn't breath but in reading some of the other posts I guess I don't have it so bad.
I'll shut up now.

[Deja Q]

15. Try this

Bankruptcy would destroy me financially.

Debt arbitration would work, but I'd have to stop paying my creditors for 3 months to make them nervous so they would negotiate lower balances. Meanwhile they'd harass and threaten me, which would probably drive me to suicide long before anything gets negotiated. Except, unlike what the arbitration salesman is pitching, any debt I'm "forgiven" for will likely be seen as "taxable income" by the IRS. I'm in a LOT of debt ($30k!), so even if they got rid of 60% of my balance, I'd estimate that in the end I'd owe the IRS $4500 - and I don't think they take payment plans. :-( Besides, debt arbitration is one step away from bankruptcy. Some say there's a moral issue when lawyers arbitrate to reduce the amount of money I owe as the creditors lent it to me in 'good faith'. I disagree; banks prey on college kids, the naive, the uninformed/ignorant, the mentally ill, and anyone who'll rack up big-ass balances for them (obvously me). They want people to consume. They don't get concerned when they see balances rising. They allow the card to continue to be used well after the credit "limit" has been reached. If someone steals the card, they either take forever to or don't bother to take the balance off. They charge wholloping interest rates in the name of doing us all a favor. If you don't use the card, they'll find ways to penalize your credit rating too. ALL THAT is just as immoral and I'd love to get back at them, but the only way to do that is die - and despite it all I rather like living right now.

I'm in debt consolidation right now, but that dampens the credit report as well. Heck, just sneeze in the wrong place and it's on the credit report. People can't even get jobs if their credit report is less than perfect, that's how fucking ASININE America has become!!! :eyes: I know it could be worse and there are PLENTY of good people who have had to commit bankruptcy and now face a terrible existence because of the system the repukes have made.

[grasswire]

17. go outside the system

Start your own service or find something to sell. Layer several different things to diversify revenue streams. Get out of the crazy credit-banking world. Just don't play anymore. I highly recommend it!

[LSdemocrat]

18. Unemployed college graduate living at home

Gee, I can't imagine why I can't find a job?

[Ein]

19. Hand to Mouth, in a few months

Worked out my expenses when I move out. Hand to Mouth, oi! Hopefully, I'll be able to afford a cable modem, cable (will cut if neccesary), and books. But all is good. Better lives have been lived in the margins, locked in prisons and lost in the gallows, than have ever been enshrined in palaces.

[jiacinto]

20. I live from paycheck to paycheck

nt

[Dogmudgeon]

21. How Broke, You Ask?

Under Satan's Spawn, Big Bad Clinton:
- excellent low-stress freelance jobs as a computer programmer;
- in upper 5% bracket of earned income;
- self-supporting;
- paying off debts from early 1990s illness;
- starting to save money again;
- half-decent social life; seeing movies; dating, looking for an LTR;
- getting aggressive treatment for my medical conditions;
- car in running condition.

Under Jesus' Bestest Buddy Bush:
- jobs infrequent, pay <$12/hr, half of which are artificially high-pressured;
- employed a total of 40 weeks since Y2K election;
- employed a total of 8 weeks since 9/11/2001;
- long-term, well-paying contract with a pharmaceutical firm transferred to India;
- two other, brief, jobs moved to India, one to Bulgaria;
- unemployment benefits exhausted;
- money just about gone;
- moved back in with Mom and Granny;
- minimal social life; no movies; 2 (unpleasant) dates since election and no prospects for sex, let alone an LTR;
- unable to afford the medical care I need (my family physician provides supportive care at a cut rate);
- car is dead; using a borrowed car most of the time.

The Gipper (or is that "gypper"?) asked me in 1980, "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Notice that the GOP retired that sound bit after the 1984 election.

Dialectical Materialism is starting to look pretty good right about now.

On the upside, I am starting a Brave New Business Venture, writing a piece of language-instruction software. If it's successful I should start seeing money from it in, oh, a year or two.

And that's a big if.

--bkl
Now reading Capitalism Or Freedom

[MoonGod]

22. Other: Living off of savings

I had a decent amount put away. This was like my nest egg, though, y'know? Money for a down payment on a house when I finally get my shit together and can pay the mortgage... or money to start a business, maybe.

So, I'm keeping my belt as tight as I can so it doesn't all burn away, but I'm not starving... and I'm taking advantage of the opporutnity to finish up school. Hopefully off to radio/tv/film school in the spring *crossfingers*.

[InkAddict]

23. Rolling pennies that were lost in the sofa!

eom

[FloridaJudy]

24. I Live Paycheck to Paycheck

Only because I splurge on Caller ID.

I suspect all those "Unavaible" calls are from creditors trying to collect the 10% of my medical bills NOT covered by my insurance. It's a horrendous sum (most folks have no idea how much hospitals charge for two emergency room visits for migraine and a simple outpatient biopsy for a benign breast lump cost). I have "good" insurance - for which I pay a fortune - and I still owe these creeps several thousand dollars. And I'm a fairly healthy 50+ year-old; at least I don't have diabetes or cardio-pulmonary disease!

How the heck does the average working slob cope?

[boilerbabe]

25. I have just enough to make my house payments and get beer n/t

[anti_shrub]

26. Was in bad shape, but getting better

Bad spending habits out of high school and having to shoulder more of the family responsibility after my father died left me in a nice $20,000 hole. My ongoing bankruptcy will take that down to $5,000 in student loans when its all said and done.

I've learned to live well within my means but sometimes the need for food means I gotta write a check at the grocery store and hope my UC direct deposit beats it to the bank. I know, thats a bad thing to do but when you live with a handicapped parent sometimes you gotta roll the dice.

Hopefully I'll get a decent paying job soon, but at this rate I'm not expecting anything.

[maveric]

31. I have to work double shifts to be able to pay my bills.

And it wears me out!

My rent just got raised to $1000.oo a mo. Gas is $2.09/gal. I'm a single parent of 3 boys(you ought t see my grocery bill),and I'm putting my oldest through school(SDSU and they just raised tuition).

HELP MR. WIZARD!!!:crazy:

[Isome]

32. I'm broker than the 10 commandments!

But, I charged and paid for a trip to NY over a year ago. So, come 9/25... I'm outta' the Florida sunshine for five days and four nights of big apple excitement!

By the way, I haven't had a real vacation in years.

[ikojo]

33. I live paycheck to paycheck

In two years I have lost a brother to suicide (July 2001), a brother to a heart attack (May 2002)and a stepfather (August 2002). My reaction to all of that death and sorrow was to live for today and not think of the future.

Yes, I put money in my 401k (9% of my check) and invest $50 per month in a mutual fund but I have credit card debt that I am trying to pay off.

Some handle grief by drinking and drugging, I handled it by supporting the high tech sector.

Any ideas out there on how a non home owner can consolidate debt?