How broke have you been?

We've all been there at one point in our lives. Between jobs, or piled up in debt, swimming in medical bills, whatever. I was there three winters ago, and here I am again, until the end of Feb when my work starts.


Right now my hands are almost too sore to type, because I spent most of last night and a bit this morning stripping electrical wire. The way I figure, after sore muscles, bandages, and some blood blisters from pinches, I've got about $3 in copper to recycle. I'm not done yet.


I've also gone through my house and pulled out extra light bulbs, so in a fixture, only one bulb is on when I flip the switch.


My last "broke" winter, I hardly even used lights. I no shit carried candles everywhere!!!


In two months, this shit will be really funny, and just a fuzzy memory. But right now, I'm downright inventive with my moneysaving techniques!


So, what have you done that's just ridiculous to save a few bucks?


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

Burn the insulation off of the wire. It makes stripping it alot easier.


I gave up tv the summer. There's $70+ that I realized was a big waste.

 

I'm living on $209 a week unemployment & pay $ 500 a month for health care till I get my back fixed & drop it.Then it's job hunting for me.The bank account is going down fast.Got a $300 gas & elec bill for 1 month in front of me.Plus a wife that doesn't realize there isn't any money coming in to speech of.Times are tuff for everyone I sure hope thing get better for all of us this year.-Bud

 

holy shit Bud $300!!!! Mine is $92, and I'm still pissed, looking for ways to cut it down. Are you growing right now, or is that your everyday bill? When I grow it's around $165.


Brother, you gotta find some ways to lower that bill! Bundle up in sweatshirts, stop using your dryer (that one saved me about 25 a month...) don't shower as often, put electrical stuff on switches, whatever.


My worst thing is my mortgage. It just looms like a bad hangover. Do mortgage companies renegotiate at all? Maybe I will try that....


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

wow...


Stripping the wires for copper and carrying around candles is seriously broke. Maybe i'm a bitch ass american, but i never do stuff like that. Luckily i have a 10$/ Hr job that allows me to take in 600$ every two weeks...but of course i spend it on crap...and never save anything.


I always roll up coins and put them in a jar, as does my girlfriend. Also i like to buy/aquire very nice electronic products so in a tight pinch, i can have 500$ bucks in a ten minute drive to the pawn shop. Honestly, if i get to the point of stripping wires then i personally have done a very poor job of planning. I pray that another unexected injury (tore my ACL 8 weeks ago...depleted the emergency fund) does not occur....because then i'd have to turn to my credit cards...


I fucking LOVE credit...gotten me out of a lot of binds.

 

Im in the same boat. Broke as fuck. I had 60k a couple of months ago though....lol I chose to spend it on a house instead of try and keep it in the bank.....


So I now own a house but am broke as fuck....lol $600+ light bill thanks to having two houses for a couple months plus security deposit blah blah...


Fortunately income tax is coming right up and all will be good again....I am however worried about the 1/4 tank of oil Ive got with no money to put more in. Im a survivor like you though gtwt so we will be fine.


Even though Ive never been more broke....im happy as fuck because soon I will be living better than I ever have. No more throwing away $550 a month on rent...

 

What a crock of shit. $70+ "delivery" service? WTF is your gas some rare shit grown under a rock in france, hand delivered in a fur coat? jeez.


Gas can suck you dry, especially in cold ass places like where I, and some of you guys, live. It's why I got a wood stove a few years back. I put it at the bottom of my stairs in the basement, and it heats to whole stinkin house, except the back two rooms that I don't even use. We paid $8 for a cut permit, and I've got my thermo set on 62. It's gotten cold enough lately that it kicks on a couple of times in the night, but my past 2 gas bills were $30. Not too bad, plus, I love an old-school wood stove. Smells so nice.


Chopping wood can suck it though.....


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

It's almost that bad here. I just got the biggest electric bill EVER---264.00 And Ive been keeping my thermostat at 62~ Then my 90 gal. propane tank got down to almost empty....and I had to re-fill it to the tune of 245 bucks. This is the first winter Ive ever had to RE-fill my propane. So Ive spent 500 bucks on propane for the first time, ever. Last winter it was 190 to fill it and I only filled it once. How could it have gone up that much???
So....if propane is gonna end up averaging 100 a MONTH all winter AND the electric is up thatr much....how the hell are people going to survive? WHO has that kind of money? How the hell does a family with kids....afford heat AND groceries???


Im really worried. Every winter it gets colder....and I try very hard to NOT yse my electric heat or AC . But now propane is almost as expensive. I m seriously worried. If gasoline goes up to five/gallon as "they" say it wil, this summer, then next winter propane will be even worse than this winter. And...like I said, every winter is colder than the one before.


I try to balance the electricity my HPS uses by being very careful with lights, try to not use the oven and so on. I didnt use the AC at all last summer.


Things aint looking good out there. Shit is getting out of hand quick.


Dix

 

Holy crap


Green thumb...your bill is sick nasty dude! 100 bucks? WOW..love it. I love in a three bedroom drafty house and i use an ETS unit for my heating...and baseboard...my fucking bill last month was 300 buck!s!!!


It's really hard to afford propane too...which is why i hardly use it except for my hot water heater and my dryer.


I guess i need a place with a wood stove. I need to get my fat butt up and cut come wood!!! Sounds efficient enough to me...fuck baseboard and an ETS unit! My ETS unit used between 2K and 3K KWH last month!!

 

Man....I seriously dont think anything is going to get better.


I just got the biggest electric bill EVER---264 bucks. And that's with my thermostat at 62. I use propane for heat....but every winter is colder than the last one and this year Ive had to fill my 100 gal. tank twice--at 240 bucks each time. Last winter I used ONE tank and it was 190. From 190 to 240 in one year??


And if gasoline goes up to 5 bucks a gal by summer as "they" say it will....then next winter god knows what propane will cost.


I dunno...shit is out of hand, man....and I dont see much getting better out there, anywhere.


Dix

 

Wow you guys would hate to have my bills :rofl6:


Elec per month : $300-425


Gas : Winter $100-150...Summer $75-125


Water : $100 every 3 months


House : $750


Food : $300-500


DirectTV : $100-120


Internet & Cell Phones : $200


Vehicles : $1k to 1200 a month, dont include gas


Aaaand that dont mention all the variables of life either......and dont forget about how much I LOVE NEW STUFF!


and my lady isnt workin cuz of the baby AND Im laid off

 

Ha ya mine are pretty bad too.......


Gas-150-200 winter, 70-100 summer


Electric- 120 winter 250 summer


Housing- 1000


Car- 500


Student loans- 500


Cable- 125


Internet- 50


Cells- 170


Groceries- 5-600


Gas- 2-300


Really I could go on and on. It's funny how you go to school to make X amount of dollars and then you finally reach your goal and when its all said and done you still have nowhere near the shit you want/need. That's life for ya!!!

 

I think rates now are super low--find out what your interest rate is on your current mortgage and see if it's worth it to re-fi. At least my house is paid for, thank god. If I was having to pay a mortgage, I could just go ahead and shoot my dogs and myself. Im serious-- Im living on 1100 a month...and it takes ALL that just to buy groceries and pay bills.


For the first time, last year, instead of getting the annual letter from Social Security Disability saying there would be a 40 dollar a month cost of living INcrease, I got a letter saying there would be NO cost of living increase....and again, this year. This does not bode well....I wonder when I'll get a letter saying, "! Your disability amount has been CUT by 50% due to the failing economy." I predict that WILL happen, sooner than later.


I thin a tremendous number of folks are pretty much living on their credit cards. Sooner or later ALL those cards will get maxed out....then what?


We are going to face some VERY hard times, I think. In the next 1,2,3 years....the shit is hitting th fan and there's no place to go but down.


Whoopie, we're all gonna die.


Dix

 

You did the right thing, man. Rent is for looosahs. I mean, we've all had to pay rent...but as soon as anybody CAN buy a house....DO IT. Congrats, you HomeOwner, you!


Dix

 

:roffl:


I love you, girl! You crack my ass up!


CC's are already maxed out - had to do one of those consolidation programs during my last broke winter. Good news is I'm from almost 35K down to just less than 10K now, almost done with that BS. 850 a month.


Yet we all still can't live without internet....


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

I hear ya's. I've been out of work since last March with a knee that needs to be replaced and some how my worker's comp can't figure out how my job can contribute to my injury (I walk about 10 miles a day and go up and down about 4200 stairs a day for 22 years) so they haven't paid me yet or approved any more Drs. while the paper work is being looked at for the 3rd time. I foresee a lawyer real friggin soon.


So with just my wife's paycheck, thank God, even tho see makes about half as much, here's my list:


electric $240 includes hot water


oil $600 3 times a winter


propane $200 a yr


house/tax/ins $1400


car/truck $550


ins for same + bike $200


cable/internet $140


cells $100


plus food, gas for the vehicles and all the happy horse shit you need to live PLUS my wife got a $150 ticket for not coming to a full stop for 5 seconds (I guess the cop counted.My wife didn't) the other day to be paid in 20 days. So needless to say, our bank accounts are history, her 401k, gone. BUT, we surely haven't had to shell out $$$ for weed! Well, ok,we had to buy a little weed, but certainly not what we had to in the past and we're smoking more. What the fuck else can we do? We deffinantly can't go out.


So, yeah, some of us do know what being broke is.

 

"Whoopie, we're all gonna die.


Dix"


COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH!!!!!!asssit:

 

dixie


you know the reason we got that letter for no increase in social security disability is because we got double raises one year ago and got a 100 increase another year...and i got 2 250.00 extra checks year before last...


thats why no increase this year...hopefully next year we will get another raise...lol...not much but something i hope...


ncmaineac

 

I've had to go from being a plumber and part time caregiver to being a plumber, part time caregiver, tye dye artist and also DopeOnARopeSoap sales.


I have many, many abilities I can use to increase my income, but it's definitely getting harder and harder to keep up with the ever increasing cost of living a normal life in the 21st Century.


I pay my bills and I'm almost always on time.


Mortgage - $1200


Cable, TV and Phone - $200


Trash - $25


Water - $30


XcelEnergy - $250+ in the summer and $400+ in the winter.


Prepaid Cell Service - $15


Insurance - $125


Food - $300


Credit Cards - $150


Supply bills - Depending on workload. Can easily be in the thousands of dollars.


Gas - $300


Thats pretty much it . . .


I know things are tough, but thats sometimes the best time to make positive financial changes to our lives.


The things we learn now, during this financial crisis, are going to stay with us our entire lives. I suspect anyway . . .


I'd love to be able to reduce my expenses but right now I have to have the services I have.


Good luck to us all . . . great thread GTWT! :alienwink: