On Being Broke

As I may have mentioned earlier, I bought a Playstation 3 this month. I did use my tax refund to make that purchase outright, without taking on further debt. But I also spent money this month on a road trip to a hotel, two nights out in Asheville, some new clothes, and quite a few meals dining out with Kylara. And every last one of those things was completely worth being broke now.

Tomorrow is pay day, and I’m pretty anxious to get paid. I’m not money-hungry or greedy or anything like that. There are creature comforts you miss when you are broke.

The most bothersome thing about being broke though, is that it reminds me of when I lived in Fredericksburg and worked at Blockbuster Video and made less than what I needed to get by on.

I had to learn to get by on what I had on me then. I’d lower my standards on what I’d eat when my money ran out. Also, my guidelines about what foods were appropriate for breakfast, lunch, or dinner became less stringent. Coupons were (and still are) my friend.

There was no such thing as “spare change.” Every time I received change, it went into a jar or a sandwich bag to be used later. I utilized Blockbuster’s trade account system to trade in some old DVDs I had in exchange for store credit (to buy more movies or refreshments while I was working).

Now I make considerably more (I’d wager to say twice as much), and I live much more comfortably. I stay in a nice-ish house (albeit with roommates), have a large-ish TV and between us we have all the major video game consoles, plenty of movies, and I manage to get my bills paid without dipping into credit. I’m also starting to climb out of debt, and hope to put away some savings soon.

I’ve said before it hurts my pride when I’m not able to afford to buy my girl dinner sometimes, but in retrospect I know she likes me for me and not because I put delicious food inside of her. It’s OK to have delicious dinner from a box that we make at home. At least we’re together. She bought me a sub yesterday at Subway – it was delicious. She’s pretty awesome. I think I’ll keep her around.