What's the poorest you've ever been (as an adult)?

[Flieger]

After my divorce, I had to borrow money from a friend to take my now DW out on a date....

Flieger

 

[Surewhitey]

I was ignorant in my bliss until getting married @26. Some moments I remember... Getting a $6/hr job and moving out at 18 in 1989. Had 2 roommates in a 2/1 without a/c in Memphis. I remember having a 5 gal bucket of ice with an a/c fan (buddy in the biz loaned it to me) on top of it to cool the room.

I dated a gal while broke @ 20 & the same friend let me crash in the garage / shop for some time. I didn't want to move back to mom's place... Just had a flashback to the guys at work. They called my car "Hotel Hyundai" for a reason... So many things sound so foreign to me now although I have been known to camp in my van.

Eventually needed more & asked the boss for O/T & was declined so I got an after work p/t at a hardware store. At the time I had a 23" Phillips TV & a microwave (Circuit City financed of course) and I eventually got the O/T. In 1994 I made like $38k & was broke at the end of the day.

Found a new job in Louisiana as a CAD user / designer and took a $30k salary to get the experience and lived on frozen Totinos pizza and Taco Bell. Thankfully I found my better half in 96 & I finally got a clue. Moved to Dallas and off to the races in 1999.

 

[big-papa]

Probably right after I finished college. I had the job offer in hand and it was out of state. Problem was I needed to find an apartment (and all of the deposits that go along with that) and I didn't have a car. I probably had less than $200 to my name at that point. And student loan payments were about to start. This was 1984.

My parents weren't well off at all, but my Dad co-signed for a loan so that I had some cash to get going and he co-signed for a car so that I had something to drive. It was a car that I had no business buying as my first car as the payments were incredibly high. Plus, in 1984, interest rates were still sky-high.

Moved, got my apartment, bought car insurance (in the most expensive county in the state for car insurance, which I didn't know about ahead of time or I would have moved 2 miles away into the next county), paid all of my deposits and got started. Month by month what I had in savings was slowly dropping. Holy crud - I'm not making enough money to support my spending! And I absolutely hated my job!

Former professor left the university and recruited me to a job in another city about 3 hours away. I quit my job after only about 6 months and moved. Job had slightly more pay and was much more to my liking. Car insurance was cheaper and I got a roommate. Finally things began to turn around. Refinanced the car and saved there. Savings was finally trending upwards. Never ever got that close again.

Cheers.

 

[street]

Interesting humbling starts has been fun to to read.

When I finally got my dream job start of my career. I slept on a mattress on the floor for about one year with cloths in a paper box. A couple of guys I didn't know let me stay there for a reasonable price. Eggs were the main menu they were cheap. I left college with ~300$ in my pocket to a place I knew no one.
never broke but I mastered living below my means to a T.

 

[dixonge]

During my first marriage we were on food stamps. At the end of the marriage I ended up spending a night in a Salvation Army shelter in Austin.

This was mostly self-induced poverty due to bad choices and immaturity.

Around this same time my wife-to-be was going to court reporting school, working a part-time job, had a roommate and ate nothing but Ramen noodles for extended periods.

Ever since we married (35 years ago this September) we have seen nothing but steady improvement. We did spend down our savings from 2011 to 2015 in a 'trial retirement' until we were below $10K net worth, but it's been all uphill since then.

 

[Koolau]

I lived at home during my university days so I ate at home. But when I was at school, I often had no money for lunch. I lost 16 pounds my first year. When I graduated I had no money but at least I could eat and sleep at home until I got my first paycheck at Megacorp. So, my story pales in comparison to most here. I had no money but I could eat and sleep in comfort. No biggie!

 

[scrabbler1]

I was never so poor so I would have to take the dire measures others have described. But for a few days in the 1980s, I had less than $100 in my checking account and less than $100 in my savings account. I had just bought my first car with cash and it took nearly all my money. I had some cash in my wallet along with my monthly LIRR ticket and subway tokens to get to work through the week. And I had enough food at home to last me at least a week.

I was getting paid from work a few days later and would get paid again 2 weeks later before the end of the month, giving me enough money to pay the rent and other monthly bills such as my LIRR train ticket and student loan payment (which was pretty low).

I was a little nervous for those few days but didn't have to live any differently the whole time. I was LBYM so the paychecks exceeded my monthly expenses, even then.

 

[DuluthGA]

If you consider a 20 year old an adult then flat broke every Thursday (some weeks earlier) waiting on Friday payday. Like others i paid for my own college (but I did get to live at home and was provided a car i bought the gas for) while working 2-3 part time jobs. When I graduated I was engaged and was able to find a full time job (1981) paying $14,400 per year and i started saving $300 a month (25% of gross). DW has always been a saver and now 44 years later I’m the one considered a frugal saver. Thank God for his mercy and grace and a strong willed wife!

 

[AudiDudi]

Mid 70's, in the US Navy, I'd typically put my last $ in the gas tank to get to the base to pick up my paycheck. Wife and 2 step kids - we'd go shopping at the base exchange the day before payday, write a check and then hurry to the bank the next day to deposit the paycheck before the check cleared.

 

[Sue J]

The poorest I've ever been was the last couple of months of my 3rd year of college. Tuition was paid and I could cover rent and utilities but it left very little for food. I only ate hot dogs and generic store brand boxed mac and cheese for a while, canned green beans and expired bread. I don't think ramen was invented yet!

But compared to some of the stories here, I see I was quite well off!

Congratulations to all of you who overcame and ended up HERE!

 

[Semi-Retyrd]

My low point was my freshman year at the University of Michigan. My parents couldn't afford college expenses but luckily I had a scholarship that paid my tuition. That summer I had a minimum wage job at Vlasic Pickles as a pickle packer. I saved all the money and together with a gift from an aunt that paid my room and board at the dorm. The dorm provided all my meals except on Sundays they only served breakfast. So I would eat an extra big breakfast on Sundays and that was it for the day. I remember walking by some of the nice restaurants on the edge of campus and watching the people eat and thinking someday I would eat there. But I didn't feel poor because my focus was on my classes and I felt surrounded by brilliant professors and I soaked up knowledge like a sponge.

The next summer my neighbor got me a job at a GM foundry in my home town of Saginaw at the incredible sum of $10/hr as a UAW member in 1968. From then on I was on my way and never again heard my stomach growl Sunday evenings. I graduated summa cum laude and went on to get my PhD at Caltech on a company paid work/study fellowship.

Looking back those university days were some of the happiest days of my life and I feel blessed to have lived them.

 

[pacergal]

Probably the first 5 years of marriage, while we were both finishing college. Often we barely had $20 from one paycheck to the next.
DH grew up in relative poverty, many times without food or heat. So, early marriage, I always made sure we had food in the house, sometimes wasn't much, but eggs, bread and peanut butter can sustain you!
Even when kids came along, there were times we struggled.
We have a wonderful govt pension now, but the pay for those jobs along the way was not high.

 

[deserat]

After graduate school moved to CA hoping for job with medical devices mfr. No offers even though quite a few interviews and credential, MSBME. My husband did not have job either. I took a job in a restaurant as a hostess so we could eat. I was very grateful for every other month weekend and once yearly two week Reserve duty to also help with bills. Did not have health insurance at this time in my life. I then volunteered in a biomechanics research lab which led to part-time position which paid better than restaurant hostess. Volunteered at another hospital where I saw ad in professional journal for clinical engineering position in AZ. Interviewed and got job that launched my new career. This all happened over 9 months. Interesting time in my life as I look back...serious piece of humble pie, but well worth the taste for my future behaviors and beliefs.

 

[UpQuark]

Although I was miserably poor in my twenties until I finally finished university (part time student for years and years), there wasn't any worry about food because I knew I could get money in an emergency from my parents.
But, once when I was overseas, I was unexpectedly expelled from a program that had been a live-there, eat-there, work there situation, so I wound up homeless and without enough money to eat. I slept at the beach but then I hitchhiked toward a town that I figured I could get food and shelter, and the guy that gave me a ride gave me the equivalent of $5 for food, and the place I went to let me stay briefly (with food/shelter), then connected me with a man in the next town.
He was the kind of person who knows everyone and had lots of connections. He matched me up for a month with a family where the parents had left their children alone (eldest kid in charge of the younger ones), so I stayed there (food/shelter) as the babysitter (though probably their eldest kid was more mature and dependable than I was). After that the man found me a job and got me government supported housing. Money was still tight, but there was enough for food.

 

[Midpack]

I have never been close to zero funds as an adult, my floor was a $2000 surplus when first out of college on my own. It's funny now, but back then if I had a $4000 surplus I would let myself splurge a little. But if my surplus got down to $2000 I had to watch my pennies. My plan has evolved since those simple days...

 

[dadu007]

Two times come to mind. Up until my junior year of college (which I was paying for myself with a scholarship and part-time student jobs) I would go "home" to my mom's house for the summer to work as a gas jockey. In the spring of my junior year, before summer, my stepfather said (in so many words) "I think it's time for you to live on your own". IOW, "Don't come home this summer." Literally slept on a generous friend's couch that summer while eecking it out with a completely different summer job.
Fast forward 7 or 8 years, after my liberal arts degree did not result in a real job, I did some traveling and found myself in Kyoto, Japan with the equivalent of $50 and plane ticket home in my pocket. That's all I had to my name. I was there trying to find a job "teaching English". I gave myself a week to find a gig, and if I couldn't, told myself I would fly "home". (Didn't have a place lined up to stay back in the States.) Somehow I did get a job in Osaka in the following few days, and stayed in Japan for almost 9 months, commuting from Kyoto to Osaka during the work week. Played tourist the rest of the time. It was a glorious time! I regularly sent money home to a friend to put in my bank account in Arizona. When I came back stateside I had $5000, which was enough to go back to grad school for what became my "real job". I probably could have asked my parents for help, but it never occurred to me to do so. In my family the unspoken message was "you're on your own kid".

 

[Walt34]

The poorest I've ever been was having a net worth in the negative six figures. This was after the divorce and I'd just bought a house and (foolishly) buying a new pickup truck just before that. So between the two of them I was up to my eyeballs in debt. Fifteen years later everything was paid off, mostly the house. It only took three years to pay off the truck.

 

[MichaelB]

DW and I got married just prior to the start of my Sr year of college. My parents weren't financially able to offer much help with college expenses so I had worked part time at a large grocery chain to pay for the first three years of school and living expenses. I had the offer of a full-time summer job where I could live at home and build up some savings prior to going back to school (and getting married!) in September. The store manager where I worked said there would be no problem with me taking the summer off then returning to work when the fall semester began in mid-Sept.. - and he was true to his word.

The plan went perfectly, until it didn't. I worked the full-time summer job while living at home, saved every penny and ended up with a small but what I thought was adequate little nest egg. (Hey, this was the late 60's and campus apartments for married students were a whopping $75/mo, all bills paid!). We were married on Sept 1, and DW had an emergency appendectomy three days later. No medical insurance, no job, nest egg blown and honeymooning in the hospital - an interesting way to start out married life.

It was a very tough couple of weeks before I was called back to work at the grocery store and got my first paycheck. Took a while to dig out of that hole.

The definition of a very tender honeymoon. what a way to start a marriage.

 

[frayne]

A common thread running through many of these posts is that most of us have faced challenging times that ultimately led to the realization that freedom from debt and financial independence are essential milestones on the path to personal fulfillment and a good life.

 

[Out of Steam]

During my first year out of college, I thought that I might have to look for a second job to make ends meet, but it didn't prove necessary.

 

[shortstop14]

College years and the years right after college were pretty tight. Most of the time scholarships covered tuition expenses, but not living expenses. Fortunately I always had some sort of job, frequently full-time, to make ends almost meet. I lived in my car until the upstate New York winter got started, but could take showers at the gym at school. Rented rooms with roommates when the weather got cold. Working in restaurants as dishwasher, busboy, and waiter at least meant I got meals. Hotel desk clerk / night auditor work gave me breakfast and dead time so that I could study while working.

Got married after two years of school, and we packed up our beater Chevette with a U-Haul trailer and moved across country to Oregon where I had a better scholarship opportunity. Things were still tight for a few years, but with two of us working low-end jobs while in school, it got a little easier. But I still remember single digit checking account balance, and writing checks to pay bills the would hit just after the paychecks arrived.

I was never smart enough to figure out credit cards, so living beneath our means became a pretty ingrained habit, even when our incomes improved. We only had a negative net worth after buying our first (and still only) house, and a car loan.

 

[AudiDudi]

College years and the years right after college were pretty tight. Most of the time scholarships covered tuition expenses, but not living expenses. Fortunately I always had some sort of job, frequently full-time, to make ends almost meet. I lived in my car until the upstate New York winter got started, but could take showers at the gym at school. Rented rooms with roommates when the weather got cold. Working in restaurants as dishwasher, busboy, and waiter at least meant I got meals. Hotel desk clerk / night auditor work gave me breakfast and dead time so that I could study while working.

Got married after two years of school, and we packed up our beater Chevette with a U-Haul trailer and moved across country to Oregon where I had a better scholarship opportunity. Things were still tight for a few years, but with two of us working low-end jobs while in school, it got a little easier. But I still remember single digit checking account balance, and writing checks to pay bills the would hit just after the paychecks arrived.

I was never smart enough to figure out credit cards, so living beneath our means became a pretty ingrained habit, even when our incomes improved. We only had a negative net worth after buying our first (and still only) house, and a car loan.

I didn't know a Chevette would pull a trailer

 

[shortstop14]

I didn't know a Chevette would pull a trailer

Poor little car was never the same after the Rockies. Probably not one of my better logistical decisions.

 

[razztazz]

I didn't know a Chevette would pull a trailer

I used to own one. The most it ever hauled was 2 people and 2 pieces of luggage and struggled to do that. The gas mileage (which was never close to what was advertised anyway) dropped off a cliff.

 

[AudiDudi]

I used to own one. The most it ever hauled was 2 people and 2 pieces of luggage and struggled to do that. The gas mileage (which was never close to what was advertised anyway) dropped off a cliff.

I had one for a rental once back about '76. I pulled out of the rental lot, drove a block and hit the Interstate on ramp. Floored it in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4 going up the onramp and hit the Interstate at 45mph You could pretend to be racing people and they never knew it.