You know your broke when......

[Lostmessage]

Your coasting home on fumes and you know if you go any further you will run out of gas so you turn your purse upside down and look under your floor mats for change in order to buy gas. You then fight with the passenger and tell them they have to go in with the $1.36 in change and pay for the gas and they won't budge because of the embarrassment so you end up going in yourself and you use the excuse that you forgot your pin number on your cash station card. That's when you know you are broke.

You know your broke....

When you go to the grocery store and it takes you hours to decide what your $5.00 can buy that will carry you through several days and you get up to the cashier and she rings up your purchases and you don't have enough to pay the taxes on your food so you have to put something back. That's when you know your broke.

You know your broke....

When you make the decision that your cats will eat first and the money that you have leftover will buy your food.


I am not broke right now but I have been in the past.

[blondeatlast]

1. God, I know the feeling well . . .

Hell, Id've just let said passenger walk the hell home! You're a better person than I, LM.

[ProudGerman]

9. That's even better than me

When I'm broke, passengers don't even get in the car unless they answer yes to this question. "Got any gas money?"

Anything other than yes and I say, you're young, got good strong legs.....or just dont' wanna go bad enough.

[silverlib]

2. When I was a single mom...

my children knew we were OK financially when burnt out light bulbs were replaced.

I think I may soon "be there" again.

And I have dug in the car for change for groceries and gasoline, too.

[Lostmessage]

3. It's kind of like a bank account

You spill change on the floor and you save up for a gallon of gas when you run out.

[DS1]

4. What's so embarrasing about that?

Shit, I was paying for gas in quarters and pennies last month, you think a gas station attendant doesn't see that stuff all day?

[Lostmessage]

6. The embarrassing part was

I couldn't even afford a gallon of gas at the time.

[Jack_Dawson]

5. When you can't even afford an apostrophe

:P

[Edge]

7. I'm broke now.

So...yeah, I know how that feels.

[RebelOne]

8. Yep, been there, done that.

[DebJ]

10. running on fumes and angel wings; my cars have run on angel wings

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. When I've been broke

1) I've actually cashed in the jar of pennies of that I've been saving for months, yielding...$3.10!!

2) Combed through my collections of CDs and books to see whether there were any I could a) bear to sell, b) persuade the buyer at the respective stores to buy

3) Gone to stores that offer free food samples and hit every single stand

4) Received in the mail a $100 check from AT&T, which, if I cash it, will be consent to switch my long-distance service. I cash the check.

5) Been so broke that I couldn't buy stamps to mail out invoices, and then rejoicing when I find an unused book of stamps just lying on the sidewalk outside my building.

Being broke is definitely a hazard when you are starting as a free-lancer.

[put out]

12. Yes, the cat thing.

The cat got my canned tuna and chicken. Soft scrambled eggs. Anything she would eat, because I was not always able to get enough money going to buy real cat food. I became the Cream of Wheat Queen (cheap, plentiful, and once your belly is full, it doesn't matter what it was). And the cat got canned tuna.

Filching toilet paper from public restrooms. Two cans of vegetables a day to eat. Deciding whether to eat or smoke cigarettes, and the cost analysis on how long I could exist doing one or the other.

Younger than that, babysitting to pay for our family's newspaper. Even as a kid, I really needed that bigger world to look at.

Running out of propane and not having the money to fill the tank again. Cold home, icy showers.

[alwynsw]

13. Been there. Never again - I hope.

[Nikia]

14. You beg at work for gas money so you can make it home

It happens where I work.