When have you run out of money?

[Cricko2]

It was the early 80's for me ..I was living in Canada, had been for 3 months. I was working for a glasing company at the time on about 1000 dollars a month and free board which was ok. But it was getting close to Christmas and I was starting to feel home sick and missing my partner who was due to move out to Canada the following March. In a moment of madness late December my will broke.. At this time I add, I was out there on a yearly passport as the Uk passport office was on strike if I recall correctly. I had very little money but telephoned Vancover airport to try to get a flight back.They were booked solid right up to Christmas... My only hope was to somehow get into the USA and try from there. I rang Seattle and hey presto they had a few seats flying home Christmas Eve but were very expensive and I had no American Visa.

I decided to call the Uk for money...I foned Dick ...To those of you that know him Aka "The Rocking Goose" who had been a friend for years....He transfered the money instantly to Canada....I meanwhile queued at the American Embassy to try to get a Visa. After much grovelling and pleading "but it's Christmas"..I must be one of the few people that has ever got a Visa Stamped on a Yearly passport.

I boarded the Greyhound to Seattle the next day and arrived back late Christmas Eve.

Scarey times when your heart is set on coming home.



Anymore stories chaps?

 

[londonblue]

Me and a couple of friends were on a backpacking holiday around Israel many years ago. We ran out of money with two days to go. For two days we ate at the local supermarket in Tel Aviv. Breakfast, lunch and dinner consisted of walking in, eating as much of the pick and mix nuts and chocolates as we could, filling our pockets up with what we couldn't, and buying a half litre bottle of water between us.

The only way we could get back to the airport was to plead with two girls to let us share their taxi. They were really stuck up (went to Clifton College) and hated us, but in the end they relented!

Funny thing was, we saw one of them at a restaurant in London a few weeks later. She spent the whole evening (with her boyfriend) trying to ignore us.

I was tempted to walk up and say hello, and then introduce myself to her boyfriend (Dan) and then turn to her and say, "You didn't tell him then?"

I really wish I had!

 

[Slipperduke]

In 2002, the website I was writing for went under. I went freelance and started writing regularly for a weekly trade mag. That went under three months later.

Refusing to go on the dole, I simply applied for every single job going. No-one would take me.

"You're a journalist," said all the normal jobs, "you'll up and leave as soon as a journalists job comes up.

"You're not a journalist," said all the journalism jobs, "you just wrote for a website, that doesn't even count."

"You're overqualified," said McDonalds, "we don't take graduates unless they want to be managers."

The only way I could get a job was by writing a brand new CV with almost all of my qualifications taken off. I allowed my self a few GCSEs, but marked them all down by three grades. This meant I had a grade 'T' in French, but no-one noticed.

Unfortunately, one week before I started my glamorous data entry position, I ran out of money. Absolutely zip. I had to live off 20p loaves of bread from Tesco and gravy granules. You'd be amazed what that does to your poo.


In the end, I had to swallow my pride and ask for £100 from my Dad to see me through until my first data entry paypacket.

Still, it taught me a lessoon. Do you know what I did when I got that paycheck?

I went out, got ****-faced and pulled one of the data-entry girls and took her back to my place in a taxi I could barely afford.

Pah! I'll never be rich.

 

[Cricko2]

In 2002, the website I was writing for went under. I went freelance and started writing regularly for a weekly trade mag. That went under three months later.

Refusing to go on the dole, I simply applied for every single job going. No-one would take me.

"You're a journalist," said all the normal jobs, "you'll up and leave as soon as a journalists job comes up.

"You're not a journalist," said all the journalism jobs, "you just wrote for a website, that doesn't even count."

"You're overqualified," said McDonalds, "we don't take graduates unless they want to be managers."

The only way I could get a job was by writing a brand new CV with almost all of my qualifications taken off. I allowed my self a few GCSEs, but marked them all down by three grades. This meant I had a grade 'T' in French, but no-one noticed.

Unfortunately, one week before I started my glamorous data entry position, I ran out of money. Absolutely zip. I had to live off 20p loaves of bread from Tesco and gravy granules. You'd be amazed what that does to your poo.


In the end, I had to swallow my pride and ask for £100 from my Dad to see me through until my first data entry paypacket.

Still, it taught me a lessoon. Do you know what I did when I got that paycheck?

I went out, got ****-faced and pulled one of the data-entry girls and took her back to my place in a taxi I could barely afford.

Pah! I'll never be rich.

Slut!...... :p

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

When I bought my first flat, I didn't realise that it would absorb virtually all of my meagre income every month. For the first year or so I was absolutely broke. Within five days of pay-day, I had no money and had to wait three or even four weeks for the next one. My social life took a huge battering. If I went out then it was normally to Old Leigh to pay for a couple of pints of cheap beer with a handful of coppers with the occasional five or ten pence thrown in if I was feeling a little flush. The worst moment was one very hot summer afternoon at The Smack when my mates all took genuine pity on me and wouldn't let me pay for a drink all day; I'd popped down for a quick drink and was about to leave. They wouldn't let me and eventually I had to admit that I didn't have a pot to **** in. They insisted I stay with them for the next seven or eight hours and I got absolutely hammered - at their expense. That might sound great to some people but it makes you feel about an inch tall and that day could have been one of the worst of my life but I realised that I had some ****ing great mates. I tried to get out of the mess by successfully applying for a VISA card - and then could barely make the minimum payment each month so I sold my car for 10% of its value to get some money to pay for off the credit card and cut it up. The football season started and I sold my television and stereo so I could afford to watch Southend at home at least. To this day I have no idea quite how I got myself out of this mess but gradually my disposal income grew and things became a lot, lot better. But I remember those few months back in the early 90s with a shudder ...

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Aged 17, in Amsterdam... I'd stayed there in a hostel with a mate for a few days. We spent our money on... well, the sorts of medicinal substances one normally spends money on in Amsterdam. Seeking such substances, we'd managed to get ripped off by a chap on the street who sold us something wrapped in tinfoil for 15 guilders.

Yes, I really did have "gullible fool" written all over me that day. To my eternal shame, the tinfoiled item was... a bottle top, wrapped in tinfoil.

I could have wept.

By the last morning, I had one guilder on me - about 30 p - and my return tickets. So, we went to the Van Gogh museum to have a wander around, at least we could do culture for free.

We had to pop our bags into a locker - 1 guilder deposit, I noted. Sorted. I went to put my bag in, when I noticed that someone had left a guilder already there in the locker in question; they'd obviously misunderstood the concept of "deposit".

So, in true pikey fashion, I went round the whole room and checked every single locker. I ended up with 15 guilders.

:D

That was enough for lunch. Thank you, Vincent van Gogh...

:p

 

[Napster]

Matt the Shrimp's Sig - Availble to be sponsored... so place your advert here!


What happened to your ad?

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Matt the Shrimp's Sig - Availble to be sponsored... so place your advert here!

What happened to your ad?

Unfortunately, my advertiser and I have only managed to fulfil half of our commercial transaction (*), so as a result, my advertising space on my sig is once again up for grabs...

:)

Matt

(*In that I put up the ad, but he never paid for it!)

:p