Hello everyone,
The issue of being broke is something almost everybody has experienced at one point in their life but the funny thing is being broke means different things to different people for some being broke is when they don’t have millions in their account while for others it is when they don’t even have enough to buy food forr me i have my own definition of what it means to be broke when I say I am broke it usually means my money has dropped to a level where I can only cover basic things like food and transport, but nothing extra to put it in numbers, if I have less than ₦5,000 in my account and pocket combined i consider myself broke with that amount I can maybe manage rice, bread, or small soup ingredients, but anything outside of that becomes a struggle If someone invites me to hang out or if an unexpected bill comes I cannot afford it that iswhen the reality of being broke hits me.
Another indicator that I am broke is when I start calculating every single expense carefully for example, instead of entering a bike that costs ₦300 I may decide to trek or wait for a cheaper option or I begin to cut down on things I normally wouldn’t think twice about buying snacks or soft drinks becomes a luxury at that point even subscribing for data feels heavy on me because I start asking myself should I use this money for food first or for data that internal debate is a clear sign that I am broke i remember one experience that still makes me laugh and also taught me a lesson some months ago, I had just ₦2,000 left, and I thought I could manage it till the end of the week but one of my children suddenly needed money for something in school i could not say no so I gave her ₦1,500 out of it that left me with only ₦500 by the next day, I was completely stuck because even pure water and transport took most of it at that point, I knew I was fully broke the feeling of having nothing left on me was not funny at all i had to call a friend to bail me out and that experience made me more careful with planning.
For me, being broke is not only about the lack of cash in hand, it is also the feeling of helplessness that comes with It is the moment when your needs are more than what you can provide for It is when you start postponing things you would normally do because there is simply no money to back it up.
So, in my own words, being broke means having just enough to survive but not enough to live comfortably It is that stage where you are only covering the basics, and even those basics sometimes feel like a burden it may not be the same for everyone, but that is how I see it and how I know when I’m broke.