4 ms·

> when I was broke I had a fair amount of free time How did you manage this? I was working my ass off just to keep the bills paid and doing chores to avoid cos

> when I was broke I had a fair amount of free time How did you manage this? I was working my ass off just to keep the bills paid and doing chores to avoid costly services like dining out and maintenance.

varjag 6y ago
Broke and poor are different circumstances, usually amounting to coming from a family or social circle which ain't really poor. A college student can be broke, but a poor person can not afford to be a college student.
panopticon 6y ago
I imagine a lot of it depends on your lifestyle too. I have an old friend that only works enough to bankroll his skiing and biking. No kids or other "adult responsibilities", and he lives extremely frugally (favors and freebies are his bread and butter).
BluePen7 6y ago
Not who you asked, but without extra means you end up with free time any time you're not working. You can't afford to do anything. If you don't have a job where you can simply take on more hours, but it's also not predictable enough that you can get a second job, you just end up with a lot of useless free time on short notice. Can't afford hobbies, trips, no significant other (being poor doesn't help your dating life), what else is there to do? It took money for me to actually run out of free time. I honestly really enjoy tinkering and fixing stuff, but it's usually no longer worth my time (to my own dismay). Before money learning to fix something meant the difference between keeping the car going, or having your car break down without money for the shop bills. I've fixed lots of stuff by flashlight so I could get to work the next day. Nowadays being put in that sort of back-against-the-wall scenario isn't likely to happen, unless I sign up for some sort of game show or reality TV where it's purposely planned.
- jlokier 6y ago
  > what else is there to do? If things are tight enough, you spend all that useless "free time" hunting for more work. You feel you can't afford to just enjoy the time. More gigs. More waiting for an Uber request. More time polishing your resume, or your profile on Fiverr. Or improving your "Github is the new resume" look. Then it's not really free time. It's a job, but you're not paid every hour you're working on it. It can even resemble socialising, because in some lines of work you have to keep socialising for people to think of you when they have a gig.
  - JAlexoid 6y ago
    > More waiting for an Uber request. Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. >More gigs. You are aware that gig economy is just about 5 years old, right? And you have to be in a high demand area to do it. There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap.
    - jlokier 6y ago
      > Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. Uber is just to illustrate. It's just an example. If you're in the wrong area, or the wrong time for that matter, then it's something else. Either way you're (and were) spending that "free" time looking for jobs, quick jobs, whatever jobs. They used to call it pounding the streets or getting on your bike. Even going door to door. When I was young I did it myself, literally going from door to door asking if they had any work. > There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap That's why I mentioned Fiverr, as an example, which is a version of the coders-for-low-pay thing generalised to other kinds of work.
      - JAlexoid 6y ago
        > When I was young I did it myself, literally going from door to door asking if they had any work. This depends very much on the location and the community around you. Looking for odd jobs around you yields no results in a poverty depressed area.

varjag 6y ago

Broke and poor are different circumstances, usually amounting to coming from a family or social circle which ain't really poor. A college student can be broke, but a poor person can not afford to be a college student.

panopticon 6y ago

I imagine a lot of it depends on your lifestyle too. I have an old friend that only works enough to bankroll his skiing and biking. No kids or other "adult responsibilities", and he lives extremely frugally (favors and freebies are his bread and butter).

BluePen7 6y ago

Not who you asked, but without extra means you end up with free time any time you're not working. You can't afford to do anything. If you don't have a job where you can simply take on more hours, but it's also not predictable enough that you can get a second job, you just end up with a lot of useless free time on short notice. Can't afford hobbies, trips, no significant other (being poor doesn't help your dating life), what else is there to do? It took money for me to actually run out of free time. I honestly really enjoy tinkering and fixing stuff, but it's usually no longer worth my time (to my own dismay). Before money learning to fix something meant the difference between keeping the car going, or having your car break down without money for the shop bills. I've fixed lots of stuff by flashlight so I could get to work the next day. Nowadays being put in that sort of back-against-the-wall scenario isn't likely to happen, unless I sign up for some sort of game show or reality TV where it's purposely planned.

jlokier 6y ago
> what else is there to do? If things are tight enough, you spend all that useless "free time" hunting for more work. You feel you can't afford to just enjoy the time. More gigs. More waiting for an Uber request. More time polishing your resume, or your profile on Fiverr. Or improving your "Github is the new resume" look. Then it's not really free time. It's a job, but you're not paid every hour you're working on it. It can even resemble socialising, because in some lines of work you have to keep socialising for people to think of you when they have a gig.
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  > More waiting for an Uber request. Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. >More gigs. You are aware that gig economy is just about 5 years old, right? And you have to be in a high demand area to do it. There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap.
  - jlokier 6y ago
    > Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. Uber is just to illustrate. It's just an example. If you're in the wrong area, or the wrong time for that matter, then it's something else. Either way you're (and were) spending that "free" time looking for jobs, quick jobs, whatever jobs. They used to call it pounding the streets or getting on your bike. Even going door to door. When I was young I did it myself, literally going from door to door asking if they had any work. > There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap That's why I mentioned Fiverr, as an example, which is a version of the coders-for-low-pay thing generalised to other kinds of work.
    - JAlexoid 6y ago
      > When I was young I did it myself, literally going from door to door asking if they had any work. This depends very much on the location and the community around you. Looking for odd jobs around you yields no results in a poverty depressed area.