Tell a story about being poor in college

Luckily I was never that poor in college, as I got help from my parents and financial aid. Never had to pay rent myself, and my parents would help me out with utilities if I needed money. I worked at the campus newspaper (made $15 per story) and worked part-time at a daily as well (did box scores, roundups, stuff like that. Covered stuff here and there). So I still sort of live paycheck to paycheck but was never dirt poor.

Unfortunately, most of that money either went to A. the liquor store, B. the bar, or C. fast food/pizza. Luckily I've since lost a lot of the weight that I gained then.

 

Went back to college in 1994 for a new career after a job layoff. Had a baby. Poor before, poor afterward.

We used my graduation money to pay bills. I was 31, dark hair and in shape. Now I'm gray, broken down and still make what I made when I was laid off.

 

I was a host of many parties that had to deal with cheap fucks like you.
To prevent people from doing this, my buddies and I would write stuff on the bottom of the cups. We'd have a guy stack - cups would say stuff like "I Heart Cock" - and a girl stack - "I'm Easy".
One party some kid I didn't know was near the keg and talking about how he brought a cup with him to save five bucks and the people who hosted parties were too dumb to figure it out.
I said "I know ... by the way, I live here - and you can get the fuck out."
About 20 minutes later he came back with a five spot in his hand.
Those parties paid for themselves. My roomates and I would spend like 20 bucks each on booze and we'd quadruple our investment.

 

I wish I had more stories to tell. I just loaded up on student loans. "Sucks to be you, Future Rick."

 

Yep. Apparently she was taking an art class at the time and she was coming from class, saw the van, saw the foggy windows and opened the door.

She was pissed. Both because of the situation, obviously, but also because she really liked her daughter's boyfriend.

 

Can't you get the income-based repayment plan? I don't have to pay a dime because of the kids. If you teach, work for government or work for a non-profit, the rest of your debt is discharged after 10 years, otherwise it's 25 years. The time you qualify for no payments counts toward the 10 or 25 years.

As for how poor, we did OK while I was in school. We got about $600 in food stamps with the kids, all of us were on Medicaid, and rent was affordable.

 

It's funny how many people are confusing telling a story about being poor with telling a story about being a thief.

 

I knew a group of guys in this one house that would have parties each and every weekend. They'd draw a couple hundred people to their little house. It was wall-to-wall. Thank God a fire never broke out, it would have been another Cocoanut Grove.

And at the end of the semester, they had made something like $14 grand in profit. Supposedly, the landlord threatened to call the IRS on them if they continued to have the parties, so they didn't quite have as many in the second semester.

 

that discharged amount will count as income when it happens so be ready for a bigger tax bill that year

 

Kraft mac and cheese made with water (no milk)

Spaghetti sandwiches (no sauce, no butter, just cooked spaghetti on bread)

 

I have like a dozen of these.

1. Worked for the admissions dept one summer and volunteered to stay late each night and give campus tours. Was paid $20 per tour and got a free meal in the cafeteria. Also got free popsicles on the tours.

2. All of my roomates were engineering majors. They had this big event each semester called design day where they made things like pencil sharpeners that could sharpen 80 pencils per minute. It was open to the public, but no one knew about it. It had a ton of food, so I would go eat and take back a ton of food for dinner. I did this like 8 times.

3. Had a friend that worked at 7-11 she gave me free slurpees, taquitos and free magazines

4. Had a friend in college who would pump the keg and pour drinks at house parties for tips. He would do this at parties where he didn't know anyone (owners included). They were cool with this and one night he made like $40.

5. When I was 21, I got to know the bar specials real well. At Rick's, the dirtball college bar, you could get three pitchers of beer for $9. $7.50 if you opted for Busch Light. I always got Busch light, and with a $10 tip hada good night. This bar also gave out free pizza at midnight. So I didn't have to pay for drunk food. Another bar down the road had a $2 buffet each Friday. All you can eat shrimp, pizza, and chips and salsa plus $2 drafts. A third bar had $1.75 pitchers on Thursday with dollar burgers. We always ate and drank well on Thursdays.

6. Would buy season tickets for basketball and football from other students and then resell them individually for profit. One year I made enough money off of hoops tickets to pay for a trip to the final four. That was the first and last time I stayed at a Motel 6.

7. Made fake parking passes for the dorms and sold them for $5 to $10. Looking back, I could have done much better.

Also, Holy Bull - I've made spaghetti tacos before. Awesome.

 

I also did the cup thing all the time, but I found that if you walked in late enough in the night you could just ask for a cup and no one would care. In fact, I walked into a college party at my old campus two weeks ago (shakes head) and yelled "I need three cups". I got 'em too and then lectured the kids about staying in school as long as possible.