Being poor is not fun and it can leave life long impressions. More often than not being low on the financial totem pole can make you creative. When it's either dying of starvation or swiping stale bread that's about to be trash... you will find a way to unleash your inner Aladdin. Whether you're using your smart words, your cunning wit or inventive passion you have to do what you have to do, sometimes, in the brokest ways possible.
Redditor u/condombot wanted to see who would fess up in discussing the times they had to be creative with finance out of desperation by asking.... What's the 'brokest' thing you've ever done?
Staying at Mom's.
Rice (that was gifted to me) with some herbs (that were gifted to me) 6 days a week, as my only meal. 7th day I would eat both lunch and dinner with (and happily paid for by) a wealthy but lonely guy I volunteered my company to, whom I never told how little I had out of fear to be pitied. Literally ALL my money went to rent, but at least I had my own place, which was still preferable to living at my mom's. 0dd_bitty
It's tight now, but not nearly as bad...
Giphy😭I stole toilet paper from work a few times so we didn't have to spend money on it and could buy food instead. Also ate a ton of ramen for lunch or just made sure no one was around when I took my lunches so they didn't see me not eating lunch.
It's tight now, but not nearly as bad as it was a few years ago. Plus, we're working hard for the future (part time work and full time students)and my parents are helping by proving a rent free place to live. I'm even building up my savings account! ($1 a day plus a few extra when I get bonuses at work). RecentlyThick
Improvise.
Heating cut off one winter in my apartment so I cranked my oven on, left it open and slept on the floor of the kitchen in a sleeping bag. itl-lmfao
Had to do that at my favorite aunt's house. I still loved being there though. MidwestWind
Lose the Anchor.
When I was done school (with almost 100k in student loans debt), I lived intentionally homeless. First summer was camping in a tent. I owned a tent, bike, toothbrush, and enough clothes to not make it obvious I only had like 5 different things for work.
It was either get the hell out of debt as fast as possible, or let that anchor drag me down for the rest of my life. And when I was single and young it was the time I could really go hardcore with that. Suuperdad
Decisions.
GiphyCall in sick on Thursday because I only had enough gas/gas money to make a one way trip to work on Friday, which was payday. Wrong_Answer_Willie
We've all been there.
Hid in the train bathroom till the conductor passed. Reddit
As someone who is on a train home at this moment, most conductors let it slide. Mine usually tells the stowaway "if you have to hide in the bathroom to evade a fare inspection, you deserve a break".
We've all been there. ABaugh85
Times were desperate, though.
Back in 2011 I had to take a job that was about an hour+ commute that only paid like $12/hour. I was spending somewhere around $200-$300 a month on gas alone. The day before payday things would get so dire that I wouldn't even have enough money to pay for gas to get home so I would have to write myself bad checks from my own bank account and deposit them in the ATM. When you deposit checks at the ATM they give you up to $200 before the check is even processed.
So, by the time the check would be processed I would have the money in the account even though you can't actually deposit a check from yourself into the same account. There would be an error but because the money I used was technically there by the time the error ran I never got a surcharge or anything. Times were desperate, though. staaamos
Chips Diet.
GiphyGoing to a Mexican restaurant, getting water to drink, and just eating chips and salsa. Then pretending to not have my wallet and leaving before ordering actual food. Red-Quill
Below Basics.
As a kid: no milk, no powdered milk to make, so it was boiling water on a bowl of supermarket-brand cornflakes for breakfast. Hey, better than nothing. And for school pack-up, a brown sauce (steak sauce) sandwich.
That stuff about being happy though we were poor? Bull! That "not-poor" is stuff people tell you to stop you going postal. Jackpot777
Ramen Ways.
I'm guessing my neighbor dropped a single packet of instant ramen outside of her apartment when she was bringing groceries in. I noticed it when I was walking back from class. I inspected it for any tears or holes in the packaging and found none. I ate that single packet of ramen for dinner, I'll also add that I ate it dry to save on gas and water as well. Turnbob73
Water is Essential...
GiphyI used to hang out in an arcade in a mall and check all the machines for quarters. Once I had a dollar in quarters I would go to the food court and buy a soda.
Free refills all day, and I would give the cup to my friend when I decided to leave so she could get drinks, too. She would give it to her friend and that would keep going.
I would also fill up a 15 gallon water jug at a local church so I could flush the toilet, wash hands, and do dishes. (Stove still worked, so I could heat water). PostItFrustrations
Gym Time...
I fell behind on my gas bill and it got shut off in the middle of winter. I did a gym membership special (it was connected to my paycheck so the money came out before I even got it) and would take a shower at the gym before going to work. This was shortly after I had been unemployed so the gas bill was HUGE - over $1k. Took a few months to earn up enough to pay it off, but bonus: I lost some weight because I was too embarrassed to just go to the gym for a shower. cmc
The Nuts.
I actively stole peanuts from Five Guys.
I would go in only when they had a long line, help myself to a large portion of peanuts while in line, make it look like I was highly frustrated with the line and look exasperated with how long it was taking and just give up and leave with the free peanuts. Reddit
For $2!
I once worked at a convenience store that had a deli. I used to be able to pay 20 cents for two slices of bread and 15 cents for a slice of cheese - for 35 cents, I had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch every day at work.
During this time, I remember splurging at an outlet store for no name brand spaghetti and meatballs - one of those stores where everything is either expired or damaged. Got 6 cans for $2 total. Remember feasting on those and thinking I stumbled upon the best spaghetti and meatballs in the world! micmac1007
For Kitty....
GiphyStole cat food from my neighbor, because I was flat broke and couldn't buy more. Felt like the lowest I have stooped ever. Just typing this out brought back that feeling of guilt and wretchedness. thecamical
The Stranger.
A friend of my mom's had told a local church how all our money had gone to rent and to get our furnace fixed. One after noon our door bell rings, I answer it, no one is there but there is 2 rubber maid tubs in front of our door. One full of food, and the other with Christmas presents.
This was the day before christmas eve and my mom had spent the whole month crying because she couldn't afford to get us gifts. I'm so thankful for that stranger. The true gift was seeing my mom smile for the first time in a long time. I was 13-14 when this happened. hasib3
The Raccoon.
I used to be able to fit my hands in the old tampon/pad dispensers and steal tampons/pads (which only cost 25 cents). I called myself the tampon raccoon. tortiekelpie
Tampoon raccoon opportoonity. wirwarennamenlos
To Kroger....
My entire high school existence I was a poor kid, and I made friends with fellow poor kids. If I was lucky I'd have a pack of orange depression crackers to last me from breakfast to dinner. We'd wander the local Kroger checking under machines for coins so we could buy a .35 generic soda to share amongst three or four of us.
I will go into debt with loans or credit before I ever subject myself to that level of hunger and helplessness again. suzosaki
Pennies & Pennies....
Taken a bag of pennies to a coinstar to exchange for $4 which was my food budget for the next 3 days. I didn't need gas as I was too poor to afford a car. I'm very glad that era of my life is behind me (gave me some very valuable lessons, though). ChooseAnAdventure
To Berlin with Love....
GiphyDrinking in public is legal in Berlin, where I used to live. We had literally no money, so my friend and I would hang out in the subway station and wait for people to set their empty beer bottles down as they get off/on the train. Once we had 5 or so, that was enough in return money to buy a beer, which would last about the amount of time it would take to get 5 more bottles. It was actually a very pleasant way to spend the evening, and completely free! eddieeddiebakerbaker
Redditor Frozen_yoghurt123 asked:
"Who is the 'black sheep' of your family?"
I'm the black sheep or at least I'd like to think so.
Join me...
Scandal
"Probably my dad's cousin, who went to prison for murdering his lover's husband."
DW_555
Oh My Wow GIFGiphy"biggest disappointment"
"My Dad. He is the only one of 6 siblings who wasn't a huge f**k up. And yet, before my Grandma died she stated that he was her 'biggest disappointment.' He is estranged from his surviving siblings... not by his choice. It honestly blows my mind."
Unfair_Biscotti2828
"Toxicity is often a group mindset thing; people don't want you to leave because they are dysfunctionally co-dependent on each other and need each other to justify their own shortcomings in life. A lot of the 'family loyalty' stuff is typically shouted loudest by those who are the least good idea to stay loyal towards."
Creative_Recover
The Dead
"My great uncle who stole my great grandfathers identity, stole a couple million dollars, and ran off. No one even knew he was alive until my great grandfathers funeral in 2009. No one has seen him since. My grandma started to cry because she honestly thought he was dead."
"Everyone else just kind of nodded on his direction and went on with the rest of the funeral. I just remember being very confused because I was 9 and I had never met this guy who my dad pulled me aside and told me he was my great uncle. It was a few years later that I got the full story."
valkyrieonaunicorn
"matriarch"
"According to my mean aunt, the 'matriarch' in her own mind, it's my twin brother because "he doesn't care about family now that he's a doctor." (He's a resident. Chief resident. He works ridiculous hours and spends the rest of the time recovering from work.)"
"According to my ex-MIL (who still counts because she's Son's grandma), it's me, for divorcing her son."
"According to everyone else, it's Mean Aunt. The rest of us are warm and caring and compassionate. We have our moments; all of us have been accidentally thoughtless or done something selfish once in a while, but we're not deliberately mean and snarky all the time."
insertcaffeine
Everybody
"My immediate family are the black sheep of the entire family."
DarthDregan
John Stamos Cheers GIF by GrandfatheredGiphySounds like everyone has a little black sheep in them.
People Issues
"By now, my brother for cutting off everyone because he prefers his rude, selfish, paranoid, narcissist wife over all of us."
"My wife is the black sheep of her family in the sense that she's the only one who isn't a rude, selfish, paranoid narcissist."
Lvcivs2311
Joe Dirt Brother GIFGiphySo Dumb
"Me. My granddaddy told me 'I’ve only had the sheriff knock on my door two times in my 80 years, and both times he was looking for you! 'I did some dumb sh*t, caused a little trouble, burned a few bridges but always managed to stay out of jail. Partly because my sister has kept an attorney on retainer for me since I was 16."
This_Personality3731
Liar Liar
"My younger brother (2nd of 4) is a compulsive liar and it got him in a lot of little trouble as a teen, then he told his wife he graduated a big college when we're not even sure if he got his GED because he failed to graduate HS, went to some GED school and eventually just stopped going."
"IF he graduated college, he never mentioned he was going in the 4+ years it takes nor mention graduation or have a diploma. He's not a bad dude, but now family time is super awkward when he and his wife are talking about 'their' college team."
UniqueUsername82D
The NOT good girl...
"My aunt's daughter. She’s been in jail for drugs, stolen money from my aunt and other family members to use on drugs and physically abused my aunt. My aunt has tried getting her help, but nothing has worked. She’s just not a good person, and everyone in my family, except my aunt, doesn’t want anything to do with her. I haven’t seen her in 8 years now, and I’m happy about that."
Hello_Im_the_world
Maria?
"A former nun - my great aunt - left the religious life and got married. She called herself 'the black sheep of the family' because her habit was black."
Back2Bach
Excited Julie Andrews GIF by The Rodgers & Hammerstein OrganizationGiphyWell the black sheep sound like the most interesting family members.
Redditor OldAboba asked:
"What is the best non-sexual physical feeling you’ve ever felt?"
Adele. Adele live. She sends me.
Floating
Relaxed Exit Strategy GIF by Hannah Bronfman Giphy"I got a professional full body (everything but my man parts) massage a few years back for the first and so far only time at a spa after the recommendation from a coworker. I felt like I was floating on a cloud for the next few days."
gil_beard
Through your nose...
"Sneezing when you're sick. Then you get that about 20 second feeling of breathing through your nose again and you like ahh that's what I aspire to at the moment."
Sanguiniutron
"Or the very last sneeze of your illness. During a fire drill in high school, I was ambling out after fighting a head old for a few days. The alarm was killing my head which was already throbbing from the sinus pressure."
"I was nearing the field, well away from my classmates, when I cough/sneezed out a huge, green loogie - cleared it about three feet, no icky trail - and by the time I was walking back to the building I was feeling pretty much back to normal. No more head cold after that. Never had something like that ever happen again where there was such an abrupt end to the head cold."
NnyIsSpooky
'migraine cocktail'
"Right after a migraine goes away. It's almost a spiritual experience."
LarryLong*alls_
"This was going to be my answer. I was in the ER one time for a really bad migraine. They gave me what they called a 'migraine cocktail.' When they pushed it through the IV I could feel the cold liquid make its way through my body, up to my head. Once it hit my brain, the migraine was gone. It was pure ecstasy. Even better was that cocktail had Benadryl in it so I fell asleep not long after and slept so good."
master_baitor12
Shake It
"That stretch til you shake when you wake up."
Quanisha8472
"I once stretched too hard in the morning and got the worst calf cramp ever... it looked like a prune and I thought I would die from the pain. Couldn't stretch in bed for months afterwards out of fear it would happen again."
tevelis
"When you move over 50, it turns into that stretch til you put your back into a muscle spasm that lasts days."
wrichards12
The Itch
Scratching Feel Good GIF by 60 Second DocsGiphy"I had a cast and splint on both my legs for 2 months. When they cut it off, they scratched my legs for me and the itch was just top notch! Yeah."
Existing-Seat5962
Itching an itch can change a life.
YUM!
Emma Stone High Quality GIFGiphy"When you're starving all day and devour a bomb a** meal."
Lime_Rose
Sleep for Life
"When you’ve been up for 20 hours+ and finally get into bed and you just know it’ll be the best sleep of your life."
Ok_Sprinkles_8777
"But man, after 36+ hours, the body sort of aches and it's hard to fall asleep despite being completely exhausted. Then the restless legs kick in... ugh. I do agree that a 20hr-ish stint is amazing to cuddle into, especially if you don't have to get up at any specific time the next day."
curlyfat
"Makes it better when you’ve been sleep deprived for weeks and know you have NO PLANS tomorrow and can sleep as much as you need."
Batcraft10
That Feeling
"When you're absolutely busting for a pee and you can finally go!"
Apprehensive_Pen_793
"Apparently there’s a thing called a 'pee-gasm' that people (usually women) have that causes an orgasmic feeling when you pee after holding it for a while! I’ve definitely experienced this and I’ve intentionally waited a while so I could have that good feeling... lol."
cocoawhirl
I Can Hear!!
"The feeling of water leaving your ear after being there all day."
Apprehensive_Bet_438
"I had some impacted earwax for a week in one ear, and when it finally got removed it was the best feeling in the world. Initially it was like having a tv or radio in my ear that only had static, but then I could hear. Good god, I could hear. It was amazing."
doodwhatsrsly
"Oh man, and it’s WARM from being in your head, and the warmth makes the sensation of leaving even better."
AngiesPhalanges
A Good Rest
dog puppy GIFGiphy"Sleeping in a warm blanket in winters."
Puitzza
"Or sleeping in a cold blanket in summer."
pitypuruty
I am enthralled by all of those things.
Redditor Gold-Ad-2827 asked:
"People with mental disorders: What do you hate being told the most?"
I hated being told to just smile. You smile and go away.
Duh
seth meyers GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphy"It's all in your head. Where else would it?! My colon?"
glorified_throwaway
Don't Minimize
"Everybody goes through that."
rukasu83
"This saying makes my blood boil. Or the 'I was that age once too ya know' yeah no sh*t you were that age once. And just because you were that age once doesn’t mean we have the same experience."
MasterOfRNoSleep
"They try to minimize it."
Previous_Ad7725
Stellar Advice
"You're worried? Just stop."
"You're sad? Just don't be."
"You're compulsively binge eating? Eat less."
"Thanks for that stellar advice."
CrayolaSocks
"Or even better, 'Just do it!' As if ADHD paralysis can be stopped with a can-do attitude."
HumanityIsACesspool
"physical health"
"I get so frustrated when people treat the idea of 'holistic medicine' as some kind of woo. How does it escape so many people that the body works holistically? Even a lot of doctors seem to ignore this. It's very frustrating when you have 2 or 3 or 4 illnesses that are all affecting each other, and your 'physical health' is held distinct from your mental health, and nothing anyone is doing to treat you works because no one's looking at the whole system."
"I just got a lecture from a psychiatrist I am seeing about nutrition, and he apologized to me for doing so but I told him, 'No, I appreciate it. Do it for all your patients.' because it told me he's trying to look at the whole picture and actually fix what's wrong. It gave me faith in him."
TheLastKirin
Relax
Calm Down Golden Girls GIF by TV LandGiphy"You need to calm down."
sorceress__stoned
"Never is the history of calm down has calm down ever caused anyone to calm down."
LBIdockrat
Calm down. I hate that one. You calm down.
Tips
Season 23 Reaction GIF by Law & OrderGiphy"When they try to give me tips on what to do, like bruh as if I didn't already try that."
Mediocre_Ad8282
The Standard
"You don't look sad. No crap... that's so I can avoid having this conversation. Also depression isn't 'being sad' like people think."
allgamerprogram
"God, I hate this. It's because saying 'I'm depressed' has been standard for people expressing that they're slightly unhappy about something dumb like not getting enough croutons on their salad or some crap. Now that's just what everyone assumes you mean when you say you have depression."
NilPill
Be Faster
"'Stop being lazy.'"
LadyBirdLadyBirdLady
“'Lazy' is when you don’t want to do anything at all. 'Executive disfunction' is when you can do everything at all, but that one easy quick thing that you do want to do just makes you and your brain freeze completely days ahead. I’m tired of people not understand that even when I explain and look at me like I’m bullshitting instead."
_Varien_
Ways to Cope
"Maybe you should try praying harder. I did, He prescribed medication."
Ms_Schuesher
"Praying is a way to cope for a lot of people, I think. That's totally fine, but insisting on praying in lieu of getting real help or actually addressing the issue is when it is not only unhelpful, but dangerously detrimental."
TheFrustrated
"Religious people will bypass everyone’s cultures, identity, views, and feelings just to be right and make a point. it’s disgusting. I read somewhere that real so called Christianity is all wrong. The real faith is from the Aramaic history and all the meanings were misinterpreted and the stories and all were made up by Catholics wanting to control their people. Yuck."
RisingPhoenix5271
'contamination'
Disgusted Season 6 GIF by Brooklyn Nine-NineGiphy"As someone with OCD with a lot of attention to 'contamination', having someone try to explain contradictions in why I'm doing something that is technically unclean when I wouldn't do something that is technically clean due to OCD. There are a few doorknobs that I will not touch no matter how much you clean them in front of me and I know it makes no sense, if it made sense I wouldn't have OCD i'd just be cleanly."
Zoooples
Stop trying to be an armchair therapist. Be empathetic to people first.