I've been flat broke a few years ago when I arrived back in the country after living overseas most of my life. With no close relations or friends here it was tough to get by after my life savings of several thousand was lost in the hotel. I had less than $10 left, I could have called friends and family but I don't rely on others and just put up with what I had and made do with my few possessions which was my guitar and a bag of clothes & belongings. I pawned my guitar off for $70 (even though it was worth about $700) and lived on that until I managed to find a job few days later. Now 6 years later I have a mortgage, a profitable business and a gorgeous girlfriend. I was actually more motivated from my loss and I was determined to make the negative into a positive. You also learn to value what you have when you are at the bottom and many successful people have been there.
How broke have you been?
- Thread starter BayView
- Start date
Hahahaha.........I think my daughters would. Especially since he is around the age that my eldest would like. I could just imagine the reaction. Mutterings of "Ewww, you dirty old pervert" (and worse) come to mine.
Another one
I just thought of another instance of being broke (as distinct from poor) that I experienced and had forgotten about (maybe I was suppressing it?
). This is a long story.
I decided to go up to QLD to play the pro-am circuit after I finished my training (1982). Had amassed the grand total of about $1,000 cash and a c/c with $1k on it. I owned my crappy car thankfully and a few clothes.
Pro-ams are single day, small prizemoney events that you need to finish in the top 5 to make a decent day's wage after expenses (I had no sponsors). Basically; shoot "par" or starve. There were 4 events on average per week for about 4 months from May onwards. Good time to get out of Melbourne, and hopefully become a super-star.
My best friend decided to chuck his job (he hated it anyway) and come with me as a caddy and for the experiences. He had about the same amount of money as me roughly. Our plan was to stay in caravan parks and try for "billets" at the various locations, and split the prizemoney and expenses. Cool.
Off we go, driving to QLD. Great adventure coming up! First tournament was at a place called Calliope, about 1 hour inland from Gladstone.... we went to the general store to get some supplies for the caravan, and saw a kangaroo wandering around the isles....omen?
Fast forward 3 months, and we are in Cairns and almost broke - about $200 left over both c/c's and not much cash. We decide to drive home to Melb before the money really did run out, and we are gunna do it without stopping to save on accommodation money. Bad idea.
We left at dawn on Friday, travelled for a whole day, and just after dark around 7.00pm we hit a kangaroo head-on at 110km's per hour. Big red male, bounded right out of the dark from the side, and hit the bonnet squarely in the middle. Sounded like a cannon had gone off in my ears, and we skidded for about 50 metres. We were in the middle of nowhere. Pitch black except for the car lights.
Car was undriveable, I blew out both front tyres in the skid after hitting the brakes (the tyres were nearly bald anyway due to bad front-end alignment - we didn't know this was the problem). The radiator was sitting on the engine, and the bonnet was folded up against the window. Kangaroo was dead.
We were 90 miles from nearest town, it was dark, so we slept in the car with a dead kangaroo outside the door. Next morning around 7.00am, a farmer wanders by on a tractor, and goes home to call a tow-truck for us (no mobile phones then). We get towed the 90 miles into town to get the car fixed. This is saturday morning
After 2 new tyres (second hand ones), a radiator and towing, we are down to less than $100 on the c/c's between us and about $50 cash. The bonnet was hammered down with the mechanics sledgehammer and tied down with coathangers, and off we go again about midday on Saturday.
At about 5.00pm, we blew out one of the 2 new tyres which had scrubbed out on the awesome QLD roads and the bad alignment, and the spare is flat of course! So we put it on anyway - it had a tiny bit of air in it - and continued on, but a half hour later it too blew out, and we managed to limp 5 miles on a flat tyre to a town called Gurley. One pub, one service station, no houses and a railway loading platform. Lots of semi's use this road.
It is now dark, the servo is closing, he only takes cash and can't fix the car until Monday, and there is no accommodation in Gurley.
So, we left the car at the servo, the guy promised to send it back to Melb on the first available empty semi (good luck) and hitch-hiked out of Gurley towards the next town - Goondawindi I think - carrying what we could; in the dark. Looking like sleeping out in the open at this point. My mate is beginning to realise this and is starting to freak a bit.
Two hours and 200 trucks passing us without stopping later, and he's really freaking now, we finally get a lift into town and the truckie drops us off at the caravan park. The next bus to Melb is on Mon morning, so we use up what was left of the c/c on the caravan and bus tickets and waited, watching the L.A Olympics on the teev and eating packets of chips.
Finally got to Melb after 5 days on Tues, back to my mate's house - both broke, no jobs and I still had a wrecked car sitting halfway up QLD in a servo. I lived there for about 5 weeks.
The car was deposited on the front gutter of my mate's house (I was still living there) about 3 weeks later, and still needing repairs. My mate's dad paid the truckie $50 for the trouble. I thought I'd never see the car again.
So, now I owe him for board (I insist on paying when I get a job), the $50 towing fee, c/c is maxed out, car needs about $1k spent on it and no job.
It all worked out.
I just thought of another instance of being broke (as distinct from poor) that I experienced and had forgotten about (maybe I was suppressing it?
). This is a long story.I decided to go up to QLD to play the pro-am circuit after I finished my training (1982). Had amassed the grand total of about $1,000 cash and a c/c with $1k on it. I owned my crappy car thankfully and a few clothes.
Pro-ams are single day, small prizemoney events that you need to finish in the top 5 to make a decent day's wage after expenses (I had no sponsors). Basically; shoot "par" or starve. There were 4 events on average per week for about 4 months from May onwards. Good time to get out of Melbourne, and hopefully become a super-star.
My best friend decided to chuck his job (he hated it anyway) and come with me as a caddy and for the experiences. He had about the same amount of money as me roughly. Our plan was to stay in caravan parks and try for "billets" at the various locations, and split the prizemoney and expenses. Cool.
Off we go, driving to QLD. Great adventure coming up! First tournament was at a place called Calliope, about 1 hour inland from Gladstone.... we went to the general store to get some supplies for the caravan, and saw a kangaroo wandering around the isles....omen?
Fast forward 3 months, and we are in Cairns and almost broke - about $200 left over both c/c's and not much cash. We decide to drive home to Melb before the money really did run out, and we are gunna do it without stopping to save on accommodation money. Bad idea.
We left at dawn on Friday, travelled for a whole day, and just after dark around 7.00pm we hit a kangaroo head-on at 110km's per hour. Big red male, bounded right out of the dark from the side, and hit the bonnet squarely in the middle. Sounded like a cannon had gone off in my ears, and we skidded for about 50 metres. We were in the middle of nowhere. Pitch black except for the car lights.
Car was undriveable, I blew out both front tyres in the skid after hitting the brakes (the tyres were nearly bald anyway due to bad front-end alignment - we didn't know this was the problem). The radiator was sitting on the engine, and the bonnet was folded up against the window. Kangaroo was dead.
We were 90 miles from nearest town, it was dark, so we slept in the car with a dead kangaroo outside the door. Next morning around 7.00am, a farmer wanders by on a tractor, and goes home to call a tow-truck for us (no mobile phones then). We get towed the 90 miles into town to get the car fixed. This is saturday morning
After 2 new tyres (second hand ones), a radiator and towing, we are down to less than $100 on the c/c's between us and about $50 cash. The bonnet was hammered down with the mechanics sledgehammer and tied down with coathangers, and off we go again about midday on Saturday.
At about 5.00pm, we blew out one of the 2 new tyres which had scrubbed out on the awesome QLD roads and the bad alignment, and the spare is flat of course! So we put it on anyway - it had a tiny bit of air in it - and continued on, but a half hour later it too blew out, and we managed to limp 5 miles on a flat tyre to a town called Gurley. One pub, one service station, no houses and a railway loading platform. Lots of semi's use this road.
It is now dark, the servo is closing, he only takes cash and can't fix the car until Monday, and there is no accommodation in Gurley.
So, we left the car at the servo, the guy promised to send it back to Melb on the first available empty semi (good luck) and hitch-hiked out of Gurley towards the next town - Goondawindi I think - carrying what we could; in the dark. Looking like sleeping out in the open at this point. My mate is beginning to realise this and is starting to freak a bit.
Two hours and 200 trucks passing us without stopping later, and he's really freaking now, we finally get a lift into town and the truckie drops us off at the caravan park. The next bus to Melb is on Mon morning, so we use up what was left of the c/c on the caravan and bus tickets and waited, watching the L.A Olympics on the teev and eating packets of chips.
Finally got to Melb after 5 days on Tues, back to my mate's house - both broke, no jobs and I still had a wrecked car sitting halfway up QLD in a servo. I lived there for about 5 weeks.
The car was deposited on the front gutter of my mate's house (I was still living there) about 3 weeks later, and still needing repairs. My mate's dad paid the truckie $50 for the trouble. I thought I'd never see the car again.
So, now I owe him for board (I insist on paying when I get a job), the $50 towing fee, c/c is maxed out, car needs about $1k spent on it and no job.
It all worked out.
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Wow, I've been lucky...the most "broke" I've been in my adult life was having about $50/fortnight left for entertainment (and at the time, in 2007), which for me was lawn bowls twice a week. It was all for a good cause though...
Now my wife and I have too much cash, soon to be rectified though...
Now my wife and I have too much cash, soon to be rectified though...
You know you are poor when rats leave your kitchen because there's no food left.
We were very poor,
Mutton dripping was our butter with pepper and salt.
We were not allowed to take the mould off our bread.
All our meat was salted,no refrigeration.
I got my first pair of shoes when I was a teenager.
After we lived that life of luxury we were sent into an orphanage.
Mutton dripping was our butter with pepper and salt.
We were not allowed to take the mould off our bread.
All our meat was salted,no refrigeration.
I got my first pair of shoes when I was a teenager.
After we lived that life of luxury we were sent into an orphanage.
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felt poor 1999
centrelink took my bank account, and $150/week more than I was earning, to pay back child support,
ex-wife told them she had the child.
she didnt, just child support
centrelink check women , , , not so much
took long enough to stop them taking money that the the electricity was turned off, no food, no gas to cook on if there was food,
final letter from the mortgage company.
Sebastian didnt go hungry, but $50 from the salvos had to last 7 weeks (and all the bread I could eat from the bakery in back of Aviation Rd, Thanks girls)
92->68 kilos
got back $1287 of it in 2009, Thank you Ombudsman
Centrelink say they only refund the interest they charged,
the rest they give back if the ex-wife agrees(?) to give it back to them.
hell doesnt seem to have frozen over,
centrelink took my bank account, and $150/week more than I was earning, to pay back child support,
ex-wife told them she had the child.
she didnt, just child support
centrelink check women , , , not so much
took long enough to stop them taking money that the the electricity was turned off, no food, no gas to cook on if there was food,
final letter from the mortgage company.
Sebastian didnt go hungry, but $50 from the salvos had to last 7 weeks (and all the bread I could eat from the bakery in back of Aviation Rd, Thanks girls)
92->68 kilos
got back $1287 of it in 2009, Thank you Ombudsman
Centrelink say they only refund the interest they charged,
the rest they give back if the ex-wife agrees(?) to give it back to them.
hell doesnt seem to have frozen over,
When my husband and I bought our first house when I was 21, I remember emptying out our money box to get some money together for groceries.
I look back now at how uncomplicated our one little loan of 125k was and have a little laugh! I would certainly not have ever thought I would own multiple properties and be in debt to millions of dollars!
It is an interesting thought. The hard times I went through back then, are in no comparison to the hard times I have recently indured, but I coped in pretty much the same way!
"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." Albert Einstein
Thanks for the recollection and the realisation, Marc.
Regards JO
I love that Einstein quote!
And I think it's the key. Keep learning and do things as well as you can, as my grandmother used to say "in everything you do, you should search for a way to do it well".
Absolute classic!
Our business failed a few years ago, and we were juggling huge debts (still paying them off, over 5 years later).
Before the business had started to really deteriorate, we had booked and paid for a 4 week holiday in US/ Caribbean. The business failed about a month before we were due to leave. We looked into cancelling it, but we would have basically got no money back. So, we had a lovely long vacation, with no money to spend! Fortunately, we were staying in places where we could cook for ourselves, or where meals were included. It was the best holiday we've ever had, but we were not looking forward to coming home to face the disaster again.
We had to borrow money from my family, sell stuff, get additional credit cards to pay low interest on card transfers etc.
But even though we were in trouble, we managed to never missed a payment to banks, business landlord, salaries etc..... but we did owe the ATO alot of interest. ( A few years later, because of the financial hardship, ATO offered to repay all the interest we had paid!! AMAZING!)
We were also slow to pay our suppliers. I think it took us about 12 months to finally pay them all........ I now work for the supplier who we were the slowest to pay! fantastic job, great benefits, great salary.....
So, the dark clouds definitely had a silver lining.
Pen
Before the business had started to really deteriorate, we had booked and paid for a 4 week holiday in US/ Caribbean. The business failed about a month before we were due to leave. We looked into cancelling it, but we would have basically got no money back. So, we had a lovely long vacation, with no money to spend! Fortunately, we were staying in places where we could cook for ourselves, or where meals were included. It was the best holiday we've ever had, but we were not looking forward to coming home to face the disaster again.
We had to borrow money from my family, sell stuff, get additional credit cards to pay low interest on card transfers etc.
But even though we were in trouble, we managed to never missed a payment to banks, business landlord, salaries etc..... but we did owe the ATO alot of interest. ( A few years later, because of the financial hardship, ATO offered to repay all the interest we had paid!! AMAZING!)
We were also slow to pay our suppliers. I think it took us about 12 months to finally pay them all........ I now work for the supplier who we were the slowest to pay! fantastic job, great benefits, great salary.....
So, the dark clouds definitely had a silver lining.
Pen
Luxury!
One thing that stands out in my memory from poor childhood is that some of my underwear was second-hand. Yes underwear. From St Vincent de Paul. I'm sure a lot of my other clothes were from Vinnies too but it's funny how their undie pile is such a vivid memory.
As an adult, broke to me just means living in a share house on Austudy, and eating noodles and savings-brand pies.
-Ian
One thing that stands out in my memory from poor childhood is that some of my underwear was second-hand. Yes underwear. From St Vincent de Paul. I'm sure a lot of my other clothes were from Vinnies too but it's funny how their undie pile is such a vivid memory.
As an adult, broke to me just means living in a share house on Austudy, and eating noodles and savings-brand pies.
-Ian
My only time being really broke was for a brief period when I was at uni. Was in a share flat and didn't have enough money for food. I worked in a pub and could eat the fried pub food. Went food shopping with flatmates and pumpkins were on special...one flatmate was a good cook so we had mashed pumpkin, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup etc. I got pretty good at finding loose change on the floor in the bar I worked at after closing...and would walk long distances to save on fares.
Another guy at uni lived in his car for quite a few weeks...near a football oval where he could shower and use the toilets. A tough experience for him at the time...it paid off in attitude to work later and he has been quite successful.
Studying at uni is often criticised...but at least some students learn to get by on very little...such that their want for creature comforts when they enter the workforce might not be as high as others.
I lived in Hong Kong for a while...being broke there would not be nice...their social security pays just enough to ensure you don't starve...that's it. The message there is simple...work..earn a buck (however you can).
Another guy at uni lived in his car for quite a few weeks...near a football oval where he could shower and use the toilets. A tough experience for him at the time...it paid off in attitude to work later and he has been quite successful.
Studying at uni is often criticised...but at least some students learn to get by on very little...such that their want for creature comforts when they enter the workforce might not be as high as others.
I lived in Hong Kong for a while...being broke there would not be nice...their social security pays just enough to ensure you don't starve...that's it. The message there is simple...work..earn a buck (however you can).
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In my uni days, my flatmate and I would order a pizza delivery to a mates place.
The guy would complain to the delivery dude that he didn't order pizza, but would be overwhelmed by the aroma and pay for it anyway.
Then my flatmate and I would rock round there and say "Hey, what's up? Wow, can I smell pizza?". Then we'd tuck in.
Of course we never offered to chip in. Didn't have enough cash
Who says you don't learn much at uni!
The guy would complain to the delivery dude that he didn't order pizza, but would be overwhelmed by the aroma and pay for it anyway.
Then my flatmate and I would rock round there and say "Hey, what's up? Wow, can I smell pizza?". Then we'd tuck in.
Of course we never offered to chip in. Didn't have enough cash
Who says you don't learn much at uni!
When I was growing up we had nothing, we didn't eat properly, on a good day we might have marmite on weetbix breakfast lunch and dinner, sometimes we had salery with salt down the middle to give it flavour, other times me and my brother would jump the farmers fence and pick a few green potato's and in the winter we would get carrots, now thats getting pretty poor, o yea and peanut butter on bread (yuk) to take to school and my mates thought that was better than there banana or yogurt so we would swap, yumm.
from a young age I started doing anything I could to make a dollar, help mow lawns, wash cars, walk in swamps in barefeet until I stood on a golf ball, working in vege shops and other shops, slowly I fed the family.
I got to a stage where I was doing good then we got ripped off and I had to start again.
now everything is going good, when we go shopping the missis sometimes complains that I buy the most expensive food, and I just say thats to make up for the crap I ate.
The goverment is **** theres so many people out there that bludge of the gov and they hand it out and then theres other people like my brother who lived in his car for 3 or 4 months with his pregnant wife and the gov did not care and would not help, now that does not make sence.
from a young age I started doing anything I could to make a dollar, help mow lawns, wash cars, walk in swamps in barefeet until I stood on a golf ball, working in vege shops and other shops, slowly I fed the family.
I got to a stage where I was doing good then we got ripped off and I had to start again.
now everything is going good, when we go shopping the missis sometimes complains that I buy the most expensive food, and I just say thats to make up for the crap I ate.
The goverment is **** theres so many people out there that bludge of the gov and they hand it out and then theres other people like my brother who lived in his car for 3 or 4 months with his pregnant wife and the gov did not care and would not help, now that does not make sence.
When i moved to sydney from country NSW about 10 years ago i was absolutely broke .I was staying in a crappy hotel near central station and although i managed to con a bloke to give me a job landscaping (glorified laboring) i had to wait 2 weeks for a paypacket
I thought the only way i can eat some lunch and dinner was to buy some cans of baked beans with sandwiches for lunch and on toast or whatever for dinner
It wasnt a bad plan but backfired badly on my first morning of work i had a shocking headache and felt like crap all day and realized the baked beans were old or off in some way
Dont remember what i ate for 2 weeks but it wasnt BB
I thought the only way i can eat some lunch and dinner was to buy some cans of baked beans with sandwiches for lunch and on toast or whatever for dinner
It wasnt a bad plan but backfired badly on my first morning of work i had a shocking headache and felt like crap all day and realized the baked beans were old or off in some way
Dont remember what i ate for 2 weeks but it wasnt BB
