In your worst financial times what have you done to pay bills and make ends meet?

I’ve only been that desperate a few times in my life and that was when I was married. My ex wanted us to borrow money from a relative and I flatly refused. We (he) got us into that mess, we would get ourselves out. We sold stuff we didn’t need and a few things we did and along with his regular job, he mowed grass to help out. It all worked out within 3 months.

I have been there. Almost had to resort to begging. After the jar of change was gone.
Things have always come through for me at the last minutes. Thank goodness for friends and family to fall back on.
One of those if it don’t kill you it will make you stronger type of things.
Funny thing. I am doing sooo much better now I am not married. lol

I even had to sell my B9 Robot. THAT REALLY sucks! :-)

I went through a sticky patch during a divorce when money became very tight and I could hardly afford to eat. I set up a spreadsheet with every penny of income and expenditure noted month by month and this helped me keep a handle on it and made me feel I was in control. It was a very worrying time. Lack of money is a constant worry like toothache, it is there when you go to bed it is there when you get up. I have got through that bad patch now and things are different.

I used to know a woman that admitted to me that when she was desperate for money she picked up guys in a diner and had sex with them for money. She had 2 kids and was almost homeless and she had no family or real close friends who could help her. She told me she would do it again in a heartbeat to feed her girls.

@ChazMaz Funny, I’m doing so much better now that I’m not married too!

I remember using a credit card to buy food for awhile. I was in my early twenties. Not sure what I would have done had I not applied for and received my first cc—from Montgomery Ward
The worst time was when I was PG with #1. We were staying at an old mouse-ridden Army barracks in Colorado where H was in school and I was starving. We had left some money with my mother , for some reason, and I had to call her several times to send us more food money. I remember going to the drugstore and moaning over all the lotions and creams-I wanted one so badly.

I tend to live pretty frugally anyway, so I don’t really cut back in hard times. I have, however, worked two full time jobs when I was suddenly responsible for the entire rent payment myself. I worked the overnight shift, went home and showered, and then started my day shift at a second location. Those were some seriously exhausting times. Luckily, I didn’t have to keep it for more that about 2 months.

we just dialed back on all unnecessary stuff. We sold some things. A boatload of money can be saved by not leaving the house unless for a job or grocery shopping. It sucks.

I was a hippie for many years – no bills to pay, asking (begging) for food in the street, helping out with a co-op food/clothing store, living on a communal farm.

@chyna – Well I hope that does not stop you from still looking. ;-)

@YARNLADY You blow my mind with your life. From hippie to yarnlady in one lifetime. Amazing.

I’d like to reinvent the communal living lifestyle. I can save SO much money…

@ChazMaz Got to find a job first.

@Aster I was also a stage magicians assistant, a tour guide, a bookkeeper, an amusement park food server, a foster care provider, a prize winning costumer, and countless other things to help make ends meet.