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For a while, I continued along in some sort of haze. While the emotional pieces eventually fell back into place, I found myself becoming quite accustomed to my new spending sprees as well as the type of life they brought with them–even if it was only an illusion of a life that I thought I wanted.

I began to think of myself as a hard-working person who “deserved” to have new things, expensive dinner tabs, vacations, etc. Despite my aptitude for clearance sale navigation and affinity for bargain-store pricing, I still managed to spend an exceeding amount of money on needless things such as clothes and shoes.

Queen of the Shredder; Princess of Interest

I also developed an aptitude for shirking financial responsibility–I was the Queen of the Shredder, the Princess of Interest. I charged and charged and charged some more. I began playing balance transfer roulette when I started to have a hard time paying the minimum payments on my sizable credit balances.

I also applied for new cards like a child tears through a Halloween candy stash–I was out of control and nobody knew the difference because I lived on my own, made my own money, and “paid” my own bills.

That was until I gave my notice at work because I was moving to Boston for grad school in a few months. I gave one full month’s notice but it was cut short by three weeks by my employer. So there I was with three weeks less pay than I’d counted on: penniless, in a mountain of credit card debt and the rent was due in one week.

$1 to My Name

As I packed up my things in my office, I realized that I wouldn’t have enough money to pay my rent. After I put my things in my car and drove my final drive out of the parking garage, I went to the ATM to check my account balances:  I had $27.32 in my account and my electric bill was set to pull, which was $26.44 (thanks to my trusty Excel sheet, I could look up exact figures..haha!). Essentially, I had $0.88 to work with.

Add in the pennies and dime in my pocket and I had a whopping $1 to my name.

Enter PANIC.

This post is part of my Confessions of a PF Blogger series.  Other posts include:

• Confessions of a PF Blogger:  The Series
• Confessions of a PF Blogger:  No Happy Meal for You
• Confessions of a PF Blogger:  $0.25 per Quart
• Confessions of a PF Blogger: 16 Candles
• Confessions of a PF Blogger:  $5,500 in Cash
• Confessions of a PF Blogger: A Slow Slide into Credit Card Debt Hell
• Confessions of a PF Blogger:  $1 to My Name
• Confessions of a PF Blogger:  Homeless 
• Confessions of a PF Blogger: Powerless
• Confessions of a PF Blogger: A Second Chance

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