Broke is the New Cool
For several years, I've been a fairly invisible member of the one-paycheck-away-from-disaster class. As a writer with a down and dirty day job, I've lived dangerously, with no health insurance, no benefits, and precarious hours. I've gone without many American trappings, like protein, root canals, and Netflix. I've flipped my sofa cushions looking for spare change to put a gallon of gas in my car, and gotten downright giddy over a five-dollar bill found in the dryer. Until now, I've harbored something close to shame over my one-ply lifestyle, but no more. I have found a higher calling.
Since the recession hit, and the tsunami of poverty has claimed some of my previously well-off friends, they are now coming to me for advice like I'm the Suzy Orman of the down-and-out. Suddenly, I'm the one who's cool -- the one who knows how to make do with little or nothing.
I'm more than happy to share my expertise -- and not in that snotty tone they once used when berating me for my lack of name brand lipstick, a 401K, or fashionable shoes. The first lesson of poverty, after all, is empathy. Once you've crossed a certain line -- when you're not just reusing vacuum bags and disposable coffee filters (which can be passed off as environmentally friendly, not desperate) -- but clipping coupons for spongy white bread and generic shampoo, it's hard to be judgmental about somebody else's paycheck-to-paycheck existence.
So when they ask me how to make their fancy cars run on empty, I don't laugh. I tell them straight-up that this is something only older, tougher, more constitutionally American cars can do. I suggest they trade their fancy ass Volvo for a car that's accustomed to running on willpower rather than a computer chip -- like a nice Ford Grenada or Dodge Aries.
If I have to be late on a bill, they ask me, should it be the credit card or electricity? Of course it should be the utility bill, I tell them in a way I hope doesn't sound condescending. The utility company's late charges are less than credit card interest, and besides, you're going to have to pay down the balance on the credit card in order to charge the electricity.
And no, I explain patiently, you never go to the sliding-fee dental place when you need a root canal. They'll just want to pull your tooth, and when your nerves are on fire and your face is swollen to the size of a football, prettiness won't matter to your anymore and you're going to say yes. Just keep popping the antibiotics and pain meds until you get a tax refund or manage to sell your family heirlooms on Craigslist.
My nouveau poor friends are amazed to discover that the $30 towels they once bought from upscale retailers really aren't any more absorbent than $9 towels from Walmart -- and that they actually can get a good night's sleep on mere 400 thread count sheets. After some lost pride and false starts, many of them have become downright bubbly about two-for-one shoe sales and Sunday coupon clipping. And even though it's gauche, there's something sweet about their new found enthusiasm for $8 t-shirts and homemade lattes. As their de facto mentor, it's gratifying to see my friends taking pride in, and even bragging about, their fledgling Target prowess and E-Bay bargains. I never felt as valued or as part of the conversation when they were discussing vacation homes or profits from flipping real estate.
I still expect my newly poor friends to rebel when I explain that old-school poor people don't sign up for the biggest cable TV package, change their oil every 3000 miles, or buy a new coat every season. I'm sure there will be some hand-wringing and despair over lost seasons of The L Word and having to wear the year before last's fashions, but I'm sure they'll come around.
Broke is the new cool, and being in fashion has never been as easy.
Follow Jane Devin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/janedevin
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Clever narrative ... extremely ... LOL.
D~
I probably watch too much youtube but all I have to say is LOL !! The sad thing is your life still sounds luxurious from where I'm sitting.
Arrived at this article after reading another: "Living the good life on $5000 a year", which is posted over on Alternet.o
It's a short profile on Jim Merkel, a mathematician who lives a nearly 100% self-sustainable life in Vermont. He's also written a book called "Radical Simplicity" which is required reading for freshmen at a Virginia university.
As a weapons engineer who had just helped design a computer that could survive a nuclear blast and transmit military secrets, Merkel was inspired to change his consumer-based lifestyle the day the Exxon Valdez spill occurred in 1989.
His story reminds me a lot of what happens to people after they read the book, "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.
Merkel did the unusual: He actually acted on his newfound conscience.
I've long thought our American culture is heavy on wastefulness and light on self-reflection. The way Quinn puts it is we are either leavers or takers. I don't know too many leavers in the U.S.
Merkel certainly qualifies.
I read "Broke" and the readers' comments with awe and disgust. One thing is clear: The US is a Banana Republic.
There was a time when I too was poor in the US, and unable to get health insurance. I pcked up and moved to Europe, where my skills are better appreciated.
I'm writing this from my beach house in France. I also have a nice flat in Paris.
Good luck to all of you. It sucks to be poor in America.
And yeah... I pay loads of taxes over here. Funny thing though: that money ssupports the safety net that helped me get on my feet when I arrived, and so I don't mind one bit paying out that money.
What happened to thrift shops? Why aren't people buying their clothes (and other goodies) at a local thrift store? What happened to recycling clothing? I dress very well and it has all come from the "seniors resale" store near my house.
Walmart? Who shops at Walmart? Yuck.
I barely got my city utility bills paid this month..I am a month behind on the phone bill but my rent and the other necessary expenses were taken care of.
Oil changes? Yup.....be
Silverado and have spent a total of $500 on repairs. That doesn't count new tires, of course.
A front yard garden is so much fun and will fill your freezer for winter. Try slightly sauteing fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil for pizza sauce.....
We can be poor and get by. I just lost my job but lucky for me, I wasn't living beyond my means.
what can i do? i freakin relate.
Deja Vu all over again. Here I thought my 15 minutes had come and gone forever. Who knew?
Word of advice though. I'd keep up with them 3000 mile oil changes.
But instead taking it to the dealer, get yourself a Haynes manual, a set of jack stands & a case of oil from Pep Boys, Advance, AutoZone, Western Auto ...
Maintenance, particularly if you learn to do it yourself, is cheap compared to replacing a blown engine. If nothing else, a blown engine's gonna' negatively affect the sales value of that "fancy ass Volvo".
Waste of oil and filters. Everybody except the oil change shops and car dealerships agree that modern oil in modern engines is not worn out in 3000 miles. 6000 maybe. Follow the vehicle mfgrs. actual recommendations, not the dealer's.
I think it was Dale Carnegie who wrote: You can get anything else in life that you want, as long as, you help enough other people get what they need". Defining the difference between wants and needs, is half the battle.
Interesting article, but being broke is NOT cool. I read it as a bit tongue in cheek. Making lemons and all that.
I was laid off last week from a well paying job, and my husband was laid off a couple of months and is taking a lower paying job, we don't feel cool at all figuring out finances for our house, utilities, food, dogs, cats, cars, insurance, etc.
I do regret the flagrant spending I've been doing over the last years while we made a very good combined salary.
Umm...how about a garden? And fishing? Clam digging? I used to spend almost nothing in the summer between my great kitchen garden and my love of fishing...
You people just don’t get it! Shopping at
Wal Mart? Why don’t you buy a needle, some thread,
A yard of cloth or so and learn to make your own.
This way you will not need cable TV.
Buying ready made coffee? Really?
Why don’t you just make your own?
Better yet, stop drinking coffee.
It is a good idea about the oil change.
Get someone you know to help do this at home.
We will have to make the changes our selves
before this thing is over. The Dollar is still getting weaker.
People are still losing jobs and homes. And OPEC just
announced a very large cut in pumping oil, so the price
of gas will go up again. I know trying to
cut back on spending may mean, someone else will lose out,
but face the facts. We still have a long way to go
before things get better.
Im sorry but being poor is not cool, it never has been and it never will be. Worrying everyday how to feed your kids is not cool. I never want to be poor, and if that makes me uncool then so be it, I will be uncool eating delicious lobster at my home in marthas vineyard, or i will be uncool on my yacht in Monaco, to say its cool to be poor is wrong...a better statment is to say its popular to be poor, considering every is poor now.
Well if you really are that affluent maybe you will donate to toys for tots or the Salvation Army. I once knew a nurse whose husband was an anethesist. They had a lovely home and she griped about how she hated to go to the store and she didn't want to go to Disneyland because it was hot and she hated Christmas. Then one day her husband made a mistake and was suspended from his job for a year. They lost it all. You never know when you will wake up cool.
Your empathy is refreshing in such difficult times.
I converted to thrifty when, as a poor college student, I discovered thrift stores. I'm on disability now, but when I was working I funded my 401K with the money I saved by buying my clothes (and furniture) at the Sally Army and Goodwill, clothes I was often complimented on. The only thing that bugs me about thrift stores now is I have to get there early to avoid all the "nouveau thrifters" this rotten economy has produced.
There's no shame in being poor, only in dressing poorly, I always say. You can pick up some nice threads from Walmart, instead of going broke at the mall.
Loved the article, been there. Being broke is not a state of mind, just a temporary adjustment to negative cash flow, and it has been a decade or more. Lean is the new mean in the statistical sense. Siphoning gas out of my lawnmower so I'd have gas for an old beater truck. Turning in old clothes for money, saving cans to turn them into recycling, buying consignment, begging out of socializing because bus fare would eat up what I'd pay for a drink, using both sides of printer paper, never making long distance calls, never leaving the neighborhood unless it was for work, and when invited to lunch with a friend with money, always eating half and taking the other half home -- for dinner, plus the sugar packets. Garage sales, galore for cash flow. The list is endless. Wearing out clothes, actually wearing them out. I would not say this was the new cool, but rather the new reality.
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