One time I had so little money

Shortly after graduating from college I was so broke that I raided my childhood coin collection for pennies, nickels, and dimes to make a deposit at the bank to prevent the checks I had written from bouncing.

Here's another good one:

We were so broke I cut up the souvenir sheet of currency I got at the U.S. Mint!

I can so relate to scrounging money from every pocket and purse. If you found a nickel, dime or quarter it is a great bonus.
Now, sometimes I open an old purse and find a $20 bill I had forgotten about. But I remember those old times and really, really enjoy the found money still.

In my first year of college I was a full-time student and worked very part-time. I went to a commuter school so there was no student housing, cafeteria, etc. I had no car, shared a one-bedroom apartment with my cousin and was so broke that most of that year breakfast was ice cubes, there was no lunch, and dinner was powdered onion soup. Ramen noodles were beyond my pocket book. Yup, you find way to get through it, but I wouldn't wish that kind of situation on anyone. I still can't look at onions with a friendly eye!

I was so broke that I once bugged out of an apartment without paying the rent because I had no money. My husband and I were once so broke that we paid for gas to get home from Michigan with a paper bag full of pennies.

One time we had so little money that:

--I fashioned a Christmas tree out of green construction paper and stapled it to the wall because we couldn't afford to buy one
--DH ate a can of corn for dinner because that is all we had (bad idea, by the way)
--we walked to a local video store to check out a free kids movie and stopped by a gas station on the way back to buy a small bottle of soda to split. We paid in change, mostly nickels and pennies. This was date night. (this one brings back fond memories) :-)

--Closed a bank account to get out the 'minimum deposit' amount

--Went dumpster diving for food, but only found a case of expired Naked Fruit drinks. Lived off expired Naked drinks for 2 weeks until I got paid again.

Not too bad compared to some of them on here!

~ lived in an apartment that the landlord had not paid for heat or water and both got shut off in March. I carried 2 gallon water jugs home from work each night to flush the toilet and make coffee the next AM. Wore wool coat to bed.
~ money ran out at end of month and only food left was popcorn and peanut butter. Fed this to toddler for evening meal (he got breakfast and lunch at daycare) so he wouldn't be hungry. I ate it as only meal at dinner, skipping breakfast and lunch.
~ didn't have a car and grocery was 2 miles away. Either walked each way with toddler in red wagon and groceries with him on way back or walked 1.5 miles to where friend worked, borrowed her car, gorcery shopped, took groceries home, took car back.
~ had bad strep infection and tried to wait it out. After 4th day of 103+ temps, went to doc in box place and got IM and po penicillian. Wrote bad check to pay for it. When I got home, there was Christmas card from my brothers with gift check for exact amount of my medical care. :)
~ spent Christmas alone as did not have money to travel to see family.

Most of these occurred when I was in nursing school. It's been a long time since I was that poor. It gives me deep compassion for people who have lived through it. And I always knew that I wouldn't starve....if I had been really desperate, I could have asked my folks for money. I just never got that desperate.!Splat!

I say this in total humility, please realize that there is not an ounce of smugness in this comment, but for all the times I've ever said I was broke, I wasn't - I clearly didn't even know what broke was. You guys are amazing! And if anyone ever hears me complain about being broke, please slap me in the head :)

I can remember when broke didn't matter. In the late 1960s and early 70s, I would leave home to hitchhike clear across the country, in many cases with no definite destination in mind, with no money at all in my pocket. During the 1971 May Day demonstrations in Washington, D.C., I left the UP of Michigan by myself with a nickel, hitchhiked to D.C., stayed there for a couple of weeks, being arrested a couple of times, then hitchhiked home, well fed and with a few dollars in my pocket.

A time that I felt broke though, was one winter when I was hitchhiking back to Michigan from California by myself. I was dropped off on some godforsaken stretch of highway in Arizona. It was very late, probably about 2:00 in the morning, and not a single car on the road. Everything was quiet, dark, and suddenly very cold. It was as far and as lonely behind as it was ahead, so I started walking. Still no traffic at all. Finally, I found a spot in the dark where there was some pavement alongside the road. I couldn't tell what it was because it was so dark and I didn't have any source of light. I followed the paved area far enough off of the road so that I wouldn't be seen by any cars that might happen to come along, but where I could see the headlights before they got there, in the event that I was awake. I didn't have a sleeping bag with me so I pulled what clothes I had out of my backpack, laying some of them on the ground and trying to cover myself with the rest. I dozed off several times, but probably not for more than a few minutes at a time. It seemed forever before morning came, and it was a miserable, cold and sleepless night. In the light, I looked around me and found that I was in a filthy gutter, one that I wouldn't ordinarily have even wanted to walk across, and if it hadn't been so cold, who knows what might have been crawling or slithering around me. I had slept there, and I didn't feel very good about myself. I was sixteen.