How I Got by on 100 Dollars for 2 Weeks

How I Got by on 100 Dollars for 2 Weeks - I've never been happier to see a week come to an end; Friday marked the end of my 2 week sandwich diet, which by the second week had turned into the all bread diet. Ladies, if you want to put yourself off carbohydrates to lose some weight, try the poor man's sandwich diet. I guarantee you that after 2 weeks of that, you won't want to see a slice of bread ever again.

Anyway, on to the point of how all this came to be...

It all began when I was heading to the doctor for a routine exam. I went in and scheduled the appointment for the following weekend and the receptionist told me that though they did not officially take my insurance, they would offer me a discount for it. Seemed reasonable, frankly I'd rather take the discount at a doctor I've been seeing for years than go to a new doctor just for the coverage. So I went ahead and made the appointment for the following weekend.

The next Saturday I arrived for my appointment as scheduled, greeted by a different receptionist who told me that there was no discount of any kind available for my insurance, and the grand total would be $169. Needless to say after the Holidays and bills, I knew I was screwed.

So my next check from work went entirely to rent which meant I was left with the 2 gift cards I had gotten over the holidays and $40 in cash. I had a sum of $100 that had to get me through 2 weeks, gas, cigarettes, food and all.

The first thing I did obviously was strategize and then came to the depressing conclusion that an all sandwich diet was about all that was going to get me through this. Though the first week did throw a monkey wrench into my plan because I also happened to be sick, which meant having to buy Orange Juice, Tea, and Soup - though that may be just about all that kept me from officially moving to crazytown because a diet of nothing but bread, peanut butter and jelly, and cheese makes a person flippin crazy.

Week 1: Not So Bad

Week one really wasn't too awful; I was just sick enough that I didn't want to eat much anyway and had a lovely Nyquil buzz which kept me sleeping more and eating less. I had just put some cash into the gas tank so I had a bit of gas and at the beginning of it all, still had my Camel Menthol's.

Basically my meals consisted of this:

Peanut Butter and Jelly for breakfast

Peanut Butter and Jelly for lunch

Cheese Sandwich for dinner

** and here and there in between a cup of chicken noodle soup or Ramen.

I felt like I was back in college in NYC and broke as a joke, only this time I was broker and it wasn't funny.

Week 2: The S*** Hits the Fan

Coming off of week 1, I was optimistic (mainly because I was weak and delusional from sickness and hunger), thinking I can do this, it's not so bad, it will soon be over.

It's possible that my positive attitude going in to week 2 was more to do with the fact that I decided to pawn my guitar for some gas, cigarettes, and drinking money. I know, sounds crazy to spend anything on alcohol at a time like that, but what can I say - being broke makes you want to drink. Thank goodness for the cheap dive bars where you can get drunk for $7.

After that night, it was all down hill from there. I was now irritable, tired, hungry as hell, and impatient for Friday (payday). Eventually gas had to be bought again, cigarettes had to be bought, the cost of cheese, bread and Peanut Butter had exceeded the bit I had left ,and I came down to my last $8. I stretched that $8 for an entire week. By Tuesday all I had left was bread. Wednesday all I ate was 13 slices of plain bread (no cheese, no nothing), I was losing it. Actually, I was quite literally losing it, I had lost 10 pounds in this 2 week period.

As you can imagine, after being strictly on bread from Tuesday through Thursday, I was hitting a wall. By Thursday afternoon I broke down and called my mom to see if I could bum a pack of cigarettes off her. So, intermingling my cell phone use with payphone use, I arranged my cigarette meet-up with my mom. I'm pretty stubborn so I never told my mom I was really broke, and somehow she knew, she showed up with a wonderful cajun creole bean soup, mashed potatoes, and hot chocolate. I had been craving hot chocolate for about a week - how did she know?

I ended up, thanks to my mom, with three dollars left, 2 packs of cigarettes, and some yummy soup.

It all worked out in the end, I got my next check, all has been well, and I've gained some of the weight back. I also made some decisions going through all that: I have vowed to never get carried away with the holiday spending again and to make sure to stick to my 2009 Budgeting Resolution.