by Hope
I don’t know if I every told you that, this application to BAD was my third. Last June, I wrote a couple of blog posts for them to see my style, and as I was considering what to post today, I went to look at those old posts. It’s never been published anywhere and is a great segue into my post in a couple of hours. So here’s a glimpse of my financial status last summer…June, 2013…posted just how I wrote it back then.
There’s a lot of ways that you know you are broke, but let me tell you my most recent realization experience…when you run out of toilet paper and don’t have the money to go buy more! Now that’s broke.
Ok, I’m not living in squalor. One thing I’ve become very good at while I’ve been trying to live on a budget and get out of debt is taking care of the essentials…I make sure I have both cars full of gas and a house full of food before anything else happens with my income. (This is VERY important when you are supporting more than yourself.)
Because my income fluctuates and I don’t have predictable pay dates…it’s just luck of the draw if my existing pay lasts til the next bills or needs come up. But this time, the fail is completely my own. I didn’t pay my PO Box bill. Ok, I forgot and they didn’t put a reminder in the box. When I went to counter after realizing I was locked out, they told me the reminder was a courtesy…and because my paychecks come there, I had no way to get the money to pay the bill. You see the cycle here, right?
So I’m living on less than expected this month, way less, and praying when my check is returned to my client they will forward to my new address. Hoping!
So I’ve learned two very important lessons with my toilet paper debacle:
1. Always stock up on extra toilet paper; AND
2. In addition to knowing what bills you have in a kind of general way, keep pay dates and amounts somewhere and check it regularly. This will keep them from locking you out of your PO Box which is essentially your bank when it comes to getting your paychecks.
As of now, we have two rolls of toilet paper (we have 3 bathrooms, well, 2 1/2) and are using tissue in the 3rd. Will probably be doing a couch change crawl if my check(s) don’t arrive tomorrow.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
This is another thing old rags work well for in an emergency.
Wow! That is broke. Seems like you have learned quite a bit since then now that you are starting an EF. This is also a good arguement for “bulk buying” or “prepping” or whatever you want to call it.
having no toilet paper when you need it really bad… sometimes you have to use very few paper then wash yourself with water…
Whilst I can appreciate the spirit of this post, I do feel the need to point out that toilet roll really isn’t one of those things you need to worry about. As someone else commented, rags work just as well. Just up some cloth (old towels, t-shirt, whatever) and hey presto, you have something to wipe your bum with that can be washed afterwards and re-used. I knew I wanted to try this as soon as I got my own place and didn’t have to worry about housemates being grossed out and I haven’t looked back since I started it. I’m not quite at the point where I bring wee wpies/family wipes/my squares of cloth to work with me but I do occasionally find myself ‘waiting’ until I get home rather than using the loos in work.