What do you do when you're broke?

[Mr Mystery]

Yep. The bank, and unknown chancers have just bummed me horribly.

Some scrotes have been using my address to attempt credit fraud, meaning my flat is now black listed.

This has prompted my bank to withdraw my overdraft facility, which I really cannot afford right now. So I now have to move out my flat, as I don't fancy being black listed due to an address...

Anyways, thanks to my brother financial woes are about to be sorted. However, it does mean I have sod all money this month, and likely until the new year.

On the bright side, this does of course mean many nights and weekends at home. And I figure what better way to pass the time than watching my Dr Who VHS collection. This extends from the first Pertwee story (Spearhead from Space) all the way, unbroken, to Sylvester 'massively under rated' McCoy's last outing in Survival. Plus no doubt building my fledgling Emperor's Children. Possibly even painting them!

So what do you do when the pennies are tight?

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Woah! Man! That's terrible!

Can I help in any way?

[Mr Mystery]

Nah. All ticketyboo.

Friend has her own flat and a spare room so moving in there. £2,000 loan from brother, to be paid back in a matter of weeks (no rent, so that's £450 a month off it, plus no other outgoings next month means I can cough up £550 from wages on top, plus return of the £675 deposit on flat leaves, after just the first month, a meage £325 to come out of Novembers pay packet.

Bung my stuff in storage (at least what I won't have room for at my friends) in the short term. Oddly, this leaves me in a stronger financial positions, as after rent to friend and my season ticket, I'll have just over £700 disposable. Save for a couple of months, boom straight into a new deposit, and look to move up London once me season ticket has run out. Nice and straight forward! Just need the £2k from my bro to make it possible, so I can pay off my debts and move off clean and spangly.

Getting sick of having to contact various lenders and explain it's not me, it's someone else, please block all future attempts from my address. What worries me are the successful applications against my address. I'll likely never find out about them. On the bright side, none of them seem to be trying to impersonate me!

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I... I don't quite know what to say...

I'm glad you've got something in place, I don't know what I would do in that situation.

[Mr Mystery]

Thankfully I'm above blind panic.

Manic planning however, that's what I do! It's not that I'm being kicked out my pad, it's just in order to pay my bro back and get out of this particular credit blackspot I need to bail out. Debts are nothing massive, but I do like to be paid up before I nick off, in case a company writes to my old address and gets heavy (had that happend once before!).

Merely a matter of cash flow, steadying the keel and continuing to sail into the horizon!

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Yeah, but I'm 20 and have no way near the amount of money that you do! :p

Or contacts for that matter.

[Up The Walls!]

What do I do when I'm broke? Same thing I do all the time. It's a rare day indeed I have money.

[ElectricPaladin]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune - that sucks.

Money's pretty much perpetually tight for me - though not as bad as you! - because I'm a middle school teacher. I hear things are better in Europe, but in America we get paid f^ck-all.

Personally, I do a lot of kit-bashing. I stretch every piece of plastic about as far as I can, and my floor is littered with completely unrecognizable bits. Just yesterday I made a man-portable heavy bolter out of a predator's heavy bolter sponson. The day before I made a dreadnought flamer, multi-melta, autocannon, and heavy bolter, all out of other assorted bits.

And then you have my entire Blood Ravens force, all made out of leftover Blood Angels bits. I explain the occasional bit of visible Blood Angels iconography with the fact that Blood Ravens like to jack sh*t from other chapters and organizations.

Actually, it's a lot of fun.

EDIT: Ah, this was in the Oubliette, not one of the wargames forums. Oops. Please ignore my foolish game-focused advice and center on my condolences. That's the important part.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Oh Electric Paladin. :p

[Mr Mystery]

Thread isn't meant to be about my temporary woes! It's about how to entertain oneself on a budget.

Monsieur Paladin, on account I typically just bin my bitz (sinful I know!) if you like I can chuck my odds and sods your way periodically?

[ElectricPaladin]

Thread isn't meant to be about my temporary woes! It's about how to entertain oneself on a budget.

Monsieur Paladin, on account I typically just bin my bitz (sinful I know!) if you like I can chuck my odds and sods your way periodically?

Like I said, I'm American. It sounds like right now would be a bad time for you to be shipping things to me. That said, you (and anyone else!) can ship me bits at:

Mark Stone
528 Merritt Avenue, Apartment 107
Oakland, CA 94610

There's also a thriving swap meet culture here, so what I don't use will find a home eventually :p.

But dude! We should be talking about what we can send you. That's some lousy freaking luck, man. Some people...

[Up The Walls!]

Yeah, to be fair, Mystery, an opportunity like this to benefit from the kindness of others, especially when you're in a situation where you can do it genuinely, is something that should not be passed up.

[Mr Mystery]

Seriously guys, it's all in hand. I get paid well every month, and it's just a cash flow issue!

The credit thing...well not much I can do about that can keep telling the people declining it's been an attempted scam!

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Hey Mystery... GOT ANY CHAINAXES?!!? :p

Heheheh.

[Mr Mystery]

Will likely have some Cataphractii ones left over!

[Kyban]

Thread isn't meant to be about my temporary woes! It's about how to entertain oneself on a budget.

Monsieur Paladin, on account I typically just bin my bitz (sinful I know!) if you like I can chuck my odds and sods your way periodically?

I end up with little solo cups of bits all over my desk.

When I'm low on cash I end up going through stuff I've shelved, like old video games.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Mystery, do want. :D

[Drunkencorgimaster]

I believe I may have a suggestion.

As an educator I don't get paid in the summer so that tends to be the lean months. My answer: TERRAIN! Being broke is a great opportunity to make terrain. Materials are relatively cheap so time is usually the biggest obstacle to good terrain building.

I once killed an entire month cutting little bricks out of cheap blue-sheet styrofoam. I had hundreds (maybe thousands?) by the end of the month and dumped them all around and on the inside of a ruined building I had made earlier. I actually won an award for that building later. The judges were blown away by all the bricks.

Was it boring? Maybe a bit but it was a way to work on the hobby when the funds were tight.

[Wildeybeast]

At the risk of being a massive downer, you are aware that previous address still show up on your credit file Mr Mystery? Moving will improve the situation, but it's not going to fix it outright, that one will be stuck on there for a while.

[Mr Mystery]

Indeed. But staying put is a bad move. I think your credit file goes back 6 years or so? I used Experian on a daily basis in my last job, and had a wee look at myself a couple of times. No debts registered, which is good. Shuffling out of here is the first step on the road to recovery!

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

The Parratt family is all too aware of debt... At least my Dad is.
Thank the gods that I haven't seen him in 5 years. :p

[Denzark]

When I am without cash, I can revert to:

Old PC games - lot of love for XCOM for £2.99 on steam.
The masses of unpainted plastic crack I have.
a humungous DVD collection
Drinking my eclectic drinks collection to avoid buying new stuff.

[Psychosplodge]

first I b!tch and moan about it,
then I blame the poor advice on post 18 education,
then I b!tch about the selfish ****s that bought up all the houses on buy to let schemes forcing prices up.
then I curl up in a ball for a bit.
after I've got that out my system Rome:Total war comes out, or sometimes medieval: viking invasion (It's glorious)
or I make a concerted effort to re-read all my books (now over 500).

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

GLORIOUS!

Does it contain Viking Technology?

[Psychosplodge]

Beyond the longboat, not really.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Awwwwwwwwhhh..

Longboats are cool though.

[Wildeybeast]

Indeed. But staying put is a bad move. I think your credit file goes back 6 years or so? I used Experian on a daily basis in my last job, and had a wee look at myself a couple of times. No debts registered, which is good. Shuffling out of here is the first step on the road to recovery!

It sure is. Best of luck with that.

[Mr Mystery]

Bugger. Bro has pulled out.

Time to make a new plan!

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

What? Why did he bail?

[Mr Mystery]

No idea. He's a tempremental sod.

Time to contact those I owe and start making arrangements. Means I can keep the flat, but I'll be broke for a few months. Still. Bonus hits around April time, so that'll help.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Damn dude. Sure you don't need help?

[Mr Mystery]

If someone fancies lending me £2k I won't say no!

Need to speak to landlord first. Rent is going to be late, and I need to shift rent day to payday, rather than slap in the middle of the month!

[Deadlift]

Exercise is good, and painting ALL the stuff you just know you have lying around cant be bad either.

On the dosh front, have you much you can flog on eBay. I sold a bunch of stuff I didnt even realise I had and made a few grand a couple years ago. 40k stuff, clothes etc etc.

I know its hard to part with toys, but do you have any armies you could do without ? If its painted well you could make some £.

[ElectricPaladin]

...painting ALL the stuff you just know you have lying around cant be bad either.

In the knitting community, they call this "de-stashing."

[Denzark]

Bugger. Bro has pulled out.

Time to make a new plan!

Kill him. Sell the body to medical science. Winner.

[Psychosplodge]

Can they give you money for bodies in this country? won't he have to take him somewhere else first?

[Sean_OBrien]

Last time I was broke was a while back...

We used to enjoy painting on the walls of caves and such back then.

Now a days though, when I feel like conserving money for whatever reason - I tend to do some sculpting...either 3D or putty. Lots of cheap or free 3D programs out there which you can mess around with. Doesn't cost anything more than the electric bill to run your computer. Putty adds a bit more, but still dirt cheap, especially if you use a polymer clay as you can reset the clay if you don't like what you sculpted up until the point you bake it.

In either case though, you can get some useful items out of them and possibly even pick up a skill that you can use to subsidize your state of being broke (selling bits and bobs to production companies or possibly even casting some off your self).

[eldargal]

/engageB*tchmode

What is 'broke'?

/disengageB*tchmode

Sorry:p

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Oh EG...

Such a troll.

[Kyban]

/engageB*tchmode

What is 'broke'?

/disengageB*tchmode

Sorry:p

Metaphorically:p:

2983

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

She's just one of those upper class loonies. Pay her no heed. :p

[Kyban]

I just liked the pic and was looking for an excuse to share it. :D

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Hahahaha!
Sounds like you. :p

[Gotthammer]

Eldargal in the US:

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r314/Gotthammer/celebrity-pictures-sean-john-combs-comes-ones.jpg


-


On topic: having been severly broke in the past I did not handle it very well so have no useful advice, beyond make a plan and keep going forward - which you seem to be doing so I really have nothing to contribute :p

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I wonder if EG knows what a 50 pence piece is?

[Kyban]

Of course, she weighs the bottom of her Eldar's bases with them. :p

[Gotthammer]

They're those shiny things you throw on the ground near the help when you sashay past aren't they?

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Hahahaha! Poor EG. :p

Stop picking on her! :D

[scadugenga]

Damn, man...that's tou. Identity theft is a royal PITA.

That being said, the library is your friend.

As is hiking, or any other free to do activity that doesn't include sitting at home brooding.

Brooding is only really apropos in a theatrical setting. :)

[eldargal]

I believe so, yes. I prefer using notes though because you can have wad of them without the weight of them pulling the fabric and interfering with the drape of ones dress.

They're those shiny things you throw on the ground near the help when you sashay past aren't they?

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

'dem curves...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. :p

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0bkj3km5vc03l/610x.jpg

[Wildeybeast]

I believe so, yes. I prefer using notes though because you can have wad of them without the weight of them pulling the fabric and interfering with the drape of ones dress.

But then they just flutter ineffectively to the ground whereas cold hard currency can be flung at the peasants, clearing them out of your way and providing you with some amusement as they squeal in pain. This is why these fanciful notions of women in government are sheer nonsense, all they think about are clothes, shoes, marriage and babies.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I find a sword to be more effective.

[eldargal]

Pfft, you kick them while they are scrabblign around trying to grab the notes.

But then they just flutter ineffectively to the ground whereas cold hard currency can be flung at the peasants, clearing them out of your way and providing you with some amusement as they squeal in pain. This is why these fanciful notions of women in government are sheer nonsense, all they think about are clothes, shoes, marriage and babies.

[Wildeybeast]

Silly TDA, that's too much. Outright violence and murder will serve to only eventually enrage the peasantry and then it's off to the guillotine with you. You need to do just enough to keep them in their place, without being so oppressive that you give them cause to get ideas beyond their station. Take away their rights, hopes and dreams by inches and they won't even notice, try to do it outright and you seal your own doom.

[Wildeybeast]

Pfft, you kick them while they are scrabblign around trying to grab the notes.

What, and actually touch them? I'm beginning to suspect you're not an aristocrat after all.....

[eldargal]

Touching them with shoes is ok, it's flesh on flesh that is icky.

[Wildeybeast]

Nonsense, they need to be at least arms length away at all times. God knows where they've been or what they've got.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I can remain hidden in plain sight. :p

A ghost of an illusion of a chance wrapped in an engima.

[Gotthammer]

I believe so, yes. I prefer using notes though because you can have wad of them without the weight of them pulling the fabric and interfering with the drape of ones dress.

You mean you don't have a servant to carry your money for you? I was imagining some sort of treasure chest on a planquin setup being hled aloft by shirtless musclemen being hauled along behind you everywhere you go.

Severely disappointed now :(

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Damn... And I wanted a piggy back ride...

[Wildeybeast]

You mean you don't have a servant to carry your money for you? I was imagining some sort of treasure chest on a planquin setup being hled aloft by shirtless musclemen being hauled along behind you everywhere you go.

Severely disappointed now :(

Agreed. There are far too many inconsistencies in EG's account. I think she's not an aristocrat at all.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I think she is a potato.

http://dirgefornovember.com/s9y/uploads/portal_potato.jpg

[eldargal]

I poke fun at poor peopel and all of a suden I'm an aristocrat, what is this?:p

What are they doing to that poor potato? Looks like it violates the geneva conventions.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Have you never played Portal 2? For shame EG, for shame.

And you call yourself a gamer... ppphttt!

[Psychosplodge]

I met potato Glados once, she's quite insulting for something so defenceless...