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uamaverick
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tl;dr to follow.
For the first time in my life, my checks are looking amazing when they get direct deposited into my bank account. I'm building up money pretty quickly, a lot quicker than I'd ever imagine. I owe it to a really shitty time in my life. I was thinking about this earlier today, and now that I'm on my lunch break, I thought I would share.
I used to work for Circuit City. Believe it or not, I made a shitload of money being a part time worker and a full time college student. My last year I made a little under $24,000 working anywhere from 20-30 hours a week.
Stupidly, I lived life pretty large, well, for a college student at least. I ate out at steakhouses all the time, rarely cooked my own food, bought tons of shit, nice clothes, TVs, you name it. I didn't really save any of the money I made that final year at CC.
Obviously, we went out of business. The company filed Ch. 7 in early January, 2009. I remember the announcement came on a Friday, and when I came into work on Saturday, all of my managers were gone, they were already fired. The liquidator in a nice suit told me, "You can stay and work for minimum wage if you want, or you can leave." Stupidly, I said I would just leave. I was sure I'd get a job within the month.
Fast forward to April, 2009. My monthly rent was $495, and I obviously had utilities and whatnot. After my April rent was paid, I had $190 to my name. $190 to live on for one month. Again, stupidly, I didn't file my taxes until April 15, so I was gonna have to wait on my refund check.
I had already canceled my cable bill. My only bills were rent, electricity, water, and phone. All that was already paid for. I just had to survive on $190 for the foreseeable future. Basically, I was going to have to live on $6 a day. I was gonna try to shoot for $2 a day.
I bought 30 packs of ramen noodles. That cost me about $8. This was my diet for the month. One pack of ramen noodles a day. I also drank some milk and orange juice every now and then just to get some extra vitamins in so I didn't get scurvy. Let's say my entire food bill for the month was $15.
I lived about a mile from campus, so I hardly used gas. I put in $20 one time during that month. I never went anywhere that month, except to school and back to my apartment.
I unplugged every appliance except for my refrigerator. The only time I plugged in my TV was when I got atrociously bored and wanted to play xbox. Other than that, I read books and studied for school.
I finally got hired the last week of April. I also got my refund check in April 24, which was about $1,400. I counted my money in my wallet and still had about $150 that day. I only spent $40 in living expenses for an entire month. WTF. I ended up living on basically $1.66 a day.
That was an incredibly nerve wracking time in my life. I learned a lot about how to live frugally during that time. I'm still practicing those same things today, except I'm not eating ramen noodles anymore. The thought of eating that ever again makes me sick.
tl;dr: I lost my job and didn't have a job for about 4 months. The last month I only had $190 left. I only spent about $40 that month by eating one pack of ramen noodles a day and buying $20 of gas.
For the first time in my life, my checks are looking amazing when they get direct deposited into my bank account. I'm building up money pretty quickly, a lot quicker than I'd ever imagine. I owe it to a really shitty time in my life. I was thinking about this earlier today, and now that I'm on my lunch break, I thought I would share.
I used to work for Circuit City. Believe it or not, I made a shitload of money being a part time worker and a full time college student. My last year I made a little under $24,000 working anywhere from 20-30 hours a week.
Stupidly, I lived life pretty large, well, for a college student at least. I ate out at steakhouses all the time, rarely cooked my own food, bought tons of shit, nice clothes, TVs, you name it. I didn't really save any of the money I made that final year at CC.
Obviously, we went out of business. The company filed Ch. 7 in early January, 2009. I remember the announcement came on a Friday, and when I came into work on Saturday, all of my managers were gone, they were already fired. The liquidator in a nice suit told me, "You can stay and work for minimum wage if you want, or you can leave." Stupidly, I said I would just leave. I was sure I'd get a job within the month.
Fast forward to April, 2009. My monthly rent was $495, and I obviously had utilities and whatnot. After my April rent was paid, I had $190 to my name. $190 to live on for one month. Again, stupidly, I didn't file my taxes until April 15, so I was gonna have to wait on my refund check.
I had already canceled my cable bill. My only bills were rent, electricity, water, and phone. All that was already paid for. I just had to survive on $190 for the foreseeable future. Basically, I was going to have to live on $6 a day. I was gonna try to shoot for $2 a day.
I bought 30 packs of ramen noodles. That cost me about $8. This was my diet for the month. One pack of ramen noodles a day. I also drank some milk and orange juice every now and then just to get some extra vitamins in so I didn't get scurvy. Let's say my entire food bill for the month was $15.
I lived about a mile from campus, so I hardly used gas. I put in $20 one time during that month. I never went anywhere that month, except to school and back to my apartment.
I unplugged every appliance except for my refrigerator. The only time I plugged in my TV was when I got atrociously bored and wanted to play xbox. Other than that, I read books and studied for school.
I finally got hired the last week of April. I also got my refund check in April 24, which was about $1,400. I counted my money in my wallet and still had about $150 that day. I only spent $40 in living expenses for an entire month. WTF. I ended up living on basically $1.66 a day.
That was an incredibly nerve wracking time in my life. I learned a lot about how to live frugally during that time. I'm still practicing those same things today, except I'm not eating ramen noodles anymore. The thought of eating that ever again makes me sick.
tl;dr: I lost my job and didn't have a job for about 4 months. The last month I only had $190 left. I only spent about $40 that month by eating one pack of ramen noodles a day and buying $20 of gas.
