Living on nothing (after being spoiled for years)

Surviving in a bad economy.

Some of you may have always been poor, so knowing how to hustle may be nothing new. However, some of you may have had it made for several decades and living in this new economy may be more of a challenge. Like myself, I made and wasted over a million dollars in the past ten years. I was not rich, but I didn’t have to worry about getting by. For one year, shortly after Obama was elected I got Louisiana unemployment. Although my last job paid $53 per hour, the maximum benefit was $280 per week. The Obama administration threw in an additional $25. I collected that for 18 months. Once that run out I had nothing for almost another year. I had Nothing to live on at all. But Laura and I have a saying and that is, “Nobody should starve to death in the USA”.

I met Laura, my girl friend a few months after losing my job in Louisiana. We met in Oregon. Laura is a true hustler and she taught me a lot. We were happy to just be with each other, and traveled all over Oregon with no real money, no home and a blue nose pit bull named Guiness. Not only did we not have any money, we both had some legal problems to deal with. Not many places will rent to you or let you stay with them just for having the pit bull. Just getting by had a lot of challenges that I, for one, was not familiar with.

One of the first scams that Laura and I used was the fast food restaurant scam. You call a fast food restaurant around dinner or lunch time and tell them that they messed up your order. Almost all of them will tell you to come in and get a replacement meal. We didn’t just call and say they left out a hamburger. We would call and say that they gave us someone else’s meal and would get a full meal replacement. Sometimes they would throw in a desert for your trouble. We would be driving down the road and look for fast food on the GPS. It would show all the available places and even have their phone numbers.

Craigslist was a very valuable resource for us. One time I put in a ad that we were looking for a place that was cheap, a roommate situation. I also mentioned that we were 420 friendly. What we got was nanny situation with some medical growers in Oregon. Upon meeting we gifted about an ounce of homegrown and given a pretty nice place to stay. We could have lived there forever, but Laura was a bit jealous of me being around this lady and some of her friends. The location in Oregon was in the St Helens area and sort of depressing. Our life has been a journey together and it has always been interesting.

Laura showed me another scam that seemed to work pretty good. There is a Goodwill that sells things that cannot be sold in the other stores in these giant bins. They just pile all this stuff together and sell it by the pound. I use to hate going in there and I swore being there made me itch. She would sort through all this stuff and buy clothes that looked new. It didn’t matter if it fit anyone, just was just looking for something new looking. A pair of name brand jeans can be taken to the store and exchanged for in-store credit for about $50. When you are broke that is a lot of money.

We tried a bunch of scams over the past couple of years. I did finally get another job and I hope it works out. I was beginning to think I was getting washed up. I had a hard time adjusting to the work world again, and I am only making about half of what I use to make, but it is good. I am in a high tech industry and staying out for too long is not too good. And I am living where I want, Oregon. I could have accepted a job in the Gulf of Mexico, or the East Coast, but I come to Oregon for a reason. I just want to live here. Laura is not too happy about me being gone all the time, but as the money starts to build up again she will appreciate it. We can get her a car and she can do her thing while I am at work. We have a tiny little house now that is cute as hell too. Things are improving slowly.

I would like to see what other people have tried to get by in a tough economy. Sure there are food stamps, food banks. We found we could get just about anything we want for free from Craigslist. A man gave us a nice 42 inch plasma tv believe it or not. If you don’t see something in the free ads you can post an ad of your own. Something like, “I have been out of work for two years and lost just about everything. I am just getting back to work and need to fill a home.” You will get so many replies you will not believe it.

 

You should just edit this and replace your story with "I'm a piece of shit".

 

Maybe you need a taste of the life Bolero.

 

things are lookin up now bro, hope its nothing but blue skies from here :cheers2:

 

i did'nt like the bit where you said."some of you might have always been poor an just assuming all poor people are hustlers.there are loadsa poor people that work very hard to make a decent honest living.

 

Sorry roamy, it was not meant as an offense. personally I could not have survived without hustling.

 

Let me put it this way... If I had no money, no place to live, and no food, the last thing I would be doing is trying to find out the "latest scam".

I would be trying to pick up the pieces of my shitty life instead of prolonging the experience eating cheeseburgers and frosty chocolate milkshakes.

 

Well that is you bolero. Walk in my shoes and tell me about it afterwards.

 

Well my friend, that is the difference between you and I.

 

it was not taken as a personal offence.i was merely considering all the poor people who have and are still surviving on very little.people who have never hustled.i just found it with respect to all those people an extremely arrogant and condescending comment ta make.like if someones poor that its a given that they hustle.not true.also you said you hated gong inta the goodwill shop.that it made you itch.so how would you feel standing beside someone then that was wearing goodwill clothes?but even though you would'nt put your hand down ta dig the clothes out with your girlfriend,you were still quite happy ta live off the profits of them.i think that is very contradictory and hypocritical.

 

This is the most pathetic thing I've ever read in my life. I'm not even joking, you've honestly raised the bar for being a scumbag.

 

well I hope your saving money this time around so if you, God for bid, ever get into that situation again you don't have to steal.

 

"Some of you may have always been poor, so knowing how to hustle may be nothing new."

Perhaps romey is not taking offense but I sure am. You certainly do have a sense of entitlement. Stealing from others is stealing, plain and simple. Don't equate poor people with scamming and stealing.

I grew up middle class but have lived poor my entire adult life. I have never hustled or scammed to get by. I worked for what I have. I often found myself in tough situations, I lived without. Try it.


Now if you had said, "Some of you have always worked on Wall Street, so knowing how to hustle (lie, cheat, steal) may be nothing new." , I would not have even posted on this thread.

 

Qft :2thumbsup:

 

^^ this

look at the big picture my friend

 

LOL. I may have to ask your permission to quote that last sentence sometime - it's the best line I've read in weeks.

 

I work my ass off to make my tiny salary and I live within my means. That is how I survive being poor.

Not that I consider myself poor. My mom didn't make a lot of money growing up either, but she never made me feel like we were poor. Being poor is a state of mind.

You sir are poor.

Seriously, everytime you scammed a fast food restaurant you could have turned in an application instead.

You didn't have to live that way. It was a choice.

 

Being down and out in Oregon would be a lot like being down and out in Colorado, I suppose, and when I've been so I've taken to eating wild. There are fish in the waters and small game that can be legally taken all year. Tasty, nutritious plant foods can be wildcrafted in three of the four seasons. If you're living in one place and can come up with a cheap freezer you can load it up on the cheap by simply taking what nature offers -- and if you can come up with a rifle or a suitable bow, you can take a deer and/or an elk in the Fall or early Winter. If you've got a patch of dirt you can grow veggies in it or raise chickens on it.

All it takes is good sense enough to get out of the city when hard times hit.

 

HeathenHippie has it right, the OP is using an unfortunate time to excuse horrid behavior. Did you really think we were going to support you and give you tips? We may be stoners, but we certainly aren't dishonest.

 

Well I am an engineer, not a fast food clerk or whatever. I kept getting close to getting work and something would fall through. It was like I was under a curse. I hate fast food and never really ate it before, but did it to keep alive. I was living without even unemployment for almost a year. I had run myself to the ground from the loss of a job and a couple of divorces. I didn't start off scamming.. it came a little at a time. I am surprised I made it. And everyone that gets that down and out ought to know there are ways to survive when you get that far down. I see you all standing there judging me, but someone may read this and find a way to feed their kids in a pinch. What I did was wrong, but I put myself out there and own it. Now things are getting better for me and I have learned to be more humble and to not be so wasteful when I am in the chips again. Thanks for all the shit from you all that have never been so far down to have to cheat a fast food joint out of a hamburger.