1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Tell a story about being poor in college

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by pffft, Mar 10, 2011.

  1. I continued dating a girl long after it should have ended just because she had a washer and dryer and I found it hard to justify using $2-3 for laundry (which, I should mention, I would do by breaking into the gated apartment complex across the street to use its laundry room).
     
  2. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    For two quarters (my alma mater is still on the quarter system), I helped out with Sports Info. While trailing the SID on one errand - some sort of important goings-on in which they distributed a special packet and nerf balls to the local media - we went to see one of the local radio guys. He was part-owner of a deli and he liked to hand out business cards that doubled as a gift certificate for a free sandwich. He gave the SID about 50 cards to hand out to staff. I pocketed every freakin' one. There were two locations, so I alternated each day. Still, they must've known something was up since I showed up at their store every other day to get my free rueben, potato pancake and Coke.

    My other story? Much more shameful. My parents had given me a BP card for gas. I ran up a $400 bill, buying food with it, before they cut me off.
     
  3. Shaggy

    Shaggy Guest

    My junior year of college, I lived in a tiny, shitty studio. I had 23 bucks in my checking account (unknown to me) and tried to pay the 30 dollar power bill with it. Obviously, that check bounced and the bank charged me a $20 insufficient funds fee.

    Later that week, I met the woman I am now married to. I had negative-27 dollars in my bank account when we met 10 years ago. To this day I always joke with her that she married me for the money.
     
  4. Shaggy

    Shaggy Guest

    A couple of other stories

    -- The Pizza Hut on campus had a drive-through that closed at midnight. I would show up at 11:58 p.m. once a week or so and asked if they had any personal pan pizzas they were about to throw out. I would go home with about 7 personal pan pizzas, stock them in the fridge and eat them for lunch for the week.

    -- Whenever I wanted to get drunk, i would go to the liquor store and buy a pint of Viaka Vodka, some of the shittiest, most vile alcohol you could ever imagine. I think a pint was 3 bucks. I would go back to the dorm, pretty much chug the entire pint, and be hammered for the next 3-4 hours. For 1 dollar an hour, that's hard to beat.

    I was so good at living cheap, it carried over into the real world. My first job covering preps, my paychecks were about $340 a week. And I saved half of it for a while.
     
  5. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Her mother was on the college campus?
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    One of the big gas places has a credit card that you can only use for gas. Companies that give employee gas cards and parents who give their kids gas cards would be very wise to get them.
     
  7. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    My roommates and I could rig up the coin laundry machine in our apartment and use it free. The quarters went in slots vertically, but if you put them inside a thin pair of pantyhose and then push/pulled the lever quickly, the machine would think it got money and click on. This worked about 95 percent of the time. At the end of the year the landlord had to wonder why there was only about $11.25 in the machines.
     
  8. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Right before Christmas one year, a TA from an astronomy lab I had dropped ran a red light and smashed up my front right quarter panel, bashed in the bumper and killed the headlight. My best friend had to help me peel the wreckage away from the tire, cutting his knuckles in the process. Finally we finished.

    "Hey dixiehack, you're sure this guy had insurance?"
    "Yeah."
    "Good."

    He then took out his frustration by bashing my turn signal indicator with his mag light.

    I never got the car fixed. Used the insurance check to pay tuition in January. And I got an extra $40 for a broken turn signal light.
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    One of my roommates worked at a convenience store/deli and would come home with so much free food that was going to be thrown away that it was crazy. None of it was even close to being spoiled.
     
  10. copperpot

    copperpot Well-Known Member

    Big Circus, that hot dog story is awesome. Playthrough, love the laundry machine one, too.

    One of mine: Went out to Friendly's with friends. After we finished, I lingered putting on my coat so that as everyone else headed for the door, I could pick the tip up and pocket it.
     
  11. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    i was never "poor" in college, but worked a variety of jobs every year for some walking-around money as a freshman and sophomore, when I lived on campus, and to pay for my apartment my junior and senior year: Intramural referee/scorekeeper; scoreboard operator at baseball; Kings Dominion mascot; traffic monitor for my school's basketball games/concerts; delivered papers on campus; worked on the line at a local food-equipment company, and in the dish room at a local private school. I didn't have a car until I bought a beater just before my senior year.

    About the only thing I didn't get paid for was working for the campus newspaper.

    Living in a college town today (average state public school, not a rich-kids private school), I'm amazed at the rides and overall affluence of many of the students I see every day. They have a lot more money than I or most of my fellow students ever did.
     
  12. NickMordo

    NickMordo Active Member

    I ate a lot of Mac n Cheese and made friends with the rich potheads. Remember, it's not what you know; it's who you know!
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page