Well, I guess that title just about sums it up.  No need for more awkward introductory bullshit?  Fantastic.  No?  Okay.

Image from Flickr, by D Sharon Pruitt

I was blessed with several gifts in this world.  First, I’m an optimist.  I can find the good in a lot of pretty crappy situations and people.  Second, I’m pretty good at using my life experiences to help other people.  And third, I’m like really good at being broke.

Now you may say that being broke isn’t necessarily a skill, but I would tend to disagree.  Some of you naysayers out there would say that I’m probably just really bad at making money.  That isn’t entirely untrue, but like I said, I’m an optimist.  The glass is always half full around here.

So, I’m 24 and I am a student, stand-up comic, writer, entrepreneur, and blogger.  See?  It’s like someone was like, “Hey Calley, what are the five things you can do to ensure that you will still be living at your parents’ house in three years?”  I’ve turned having no money into an art form.

It’s important to me to use the word broke.  That word is okay.  Penniless?  Too literal; I have a lot of pennies.  Bankrupt?  Too illegal.  Destitute?  Sounds like prostitute.  Poor?  Ugh, I hate that word.  When I hear that word, in my head I hear “meager, deficient, needy, inferior, inadequate, unfortunate, hapless.”  With words like that floating around in your head, how are you ever supposed to change your circumstances?  Mike Todd said it best when he said, “being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation.”

I’m broke but I’m not broken.  This isn’t a permanent state.  I won’t be broke forever, but I will have grown a lot because of it.

That’s where I’m at now.  So, I wanted a place where we could openly discuss our brokeness without shame, and where we could maybe learn how to not be broke anymore.  I’ve never really found a blog for people with my degree of pennilessness (that was kinda fun to say), so I had to make my own.  I don’t want to know how to save $20 on paper towels over the span of a year; I want to know how I can get the most of the only $20 I have right now. I don’t want to hear about how to budget for a family, I want to hear about how to budget for a Saturday night out with my friends.  I basically want to figure out how to make the best out of this seemingly shitty situation.  Responsibilities be damned!

I’m kidding…kind of.  I just want to find the balance.  I learned the hard way that punishing yourself for your bad decisions or mistakes does absolutely nothing to fix them.  It doesn’t matter what got me to this point, this is where I am and I’m going to make the best of it.

I hope you’ll join me.

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