The "I Am Broke" Moment

Have you have had that moment when you realize you are completely broke? I am not talking about the emotional "I feel broken" type broke; rather the "I have zero money to my name" type broke. Well I finally experienced this moment and I almost did not even realize it was happening.

As a little background information, I recently have had financial misfortune.  First, someone attempted to steal my identity and use my credit card information to buy stuff in New York (mind you I have never even been there before in my life). Lucky my bank caught it and froze by card and information before anything serious could happen. On the other hand, that means I am credit card-less until it ships me the new card. The only issue with that is the bank ships the new card to my house in Michigan, which means my mother then has to ship it to me in Ohio. So it might be awhile before I have my old reliable back. The bank account that I use to pay my credit card bills needs me to reset my password before I can do anything with it. In terms of having a job to help my situation, I am still going through the paperwork stage, so there is no cash inflow right now.

From this, my main financial purchased have turned to my savings account, meaning I constantly am withdrawing money. Withdraw after withdraw; I sadly watched my savings dwindle until I could not take any more out. This now leads to the "I am broke" moment.

Yesterday, my roommate asked if I wanted to split a pizza from East of Chicago for dinner, so I of course said yes. Keep in mind that the pizzas are something around $15, due to the tip and the size we get. Therefore, with no money in the bank and no credit card to use, I had to somehow gather up just about $7. As I am brainstorming where I might have the money, the moment has yet to set it. It was about 5 minutes later when I was tearing my room apart; searching for every quarter and dollar bill I possibly could have that it finally set in. After minutes of looking, I gathered that $7 and it consisted of four dollar bills, $2.25 in quarters, $0.70 in dimes and one nickel. Here is how the moment came about: I looked at the $7 that I gathered and said out loud "wow, I am broke as hell."

Granted my situation could be so much worse, but realizing your broke still sucks at any level. If you have experienced this moment you can relate to this low and saddening realization.

Until next time,

Matt