Why It's Good To Be a "Broke Ass Bitch" At Least Once In Your Life

The title of this post is a little misleading because when I say Broke Ass Bitch, I don't mean a "Look Pretty and Be Paid For by a Rich Man" kind of woman.  I'm talking about why it's good; as an 'independent woman' (ick at the term), to experience financial hardship at least once in your life. This also applies to men too so read orrrn.

"But Lucy, why should anyone have to go through that?" I hear you say. 

Well, it's as simple as this: You never truly learn the value of money until you have none! When we are growing up, our parents might teach us to be grateful and not to demand certain things and there's a reason for this. They fully understood the value of the money that they earned. When we are children and teenagers we still don't seem to fully grasp it. We know that expensive means pricey and may cheekily give our mums the dough eyes (to make her crack and buy it)!.  Your Dad might tell you 'maybe if you're good this year Father Christmas will get it for you!"... but inside they may be thinking "Shit. How the heck are we going to pay for this" or "Shit. Why does my child have such expensive taste? Couldn't they just want a Nokia 3310!!!!!".  Whilst in the throngs of hormonal imbalances, raging acne and trying to obtain the same gadgets that your best friend had, we didn't really appear to know or need to know, that money wasn't as easy to obtain as it was to demand. 

Don't get me wrong, not everyone has been brought up the same way and i'm not here to criticise anyone's parenting style. Some parents say no and teach that you have to work hard to have money, others have a whole lot more money to share with their children and want to give them the best things they can. Both of which stem from good intentions, but I think a lot of kids would say they probably didn't really care; that the £600 phone they were demanding, was actually a huge expenditure!! 

Growing up around a lot of much wealthier kids, I did naturally find it frustrating that I couldn't have some of the things they had, or the audacity to outright ask each of my parents for £30.  It was GHD hair straighteners and phones at my school. As a girl with enormous hair, those £100 GHD's were all my hair prayers answered.  Then there was the £120 flip phones that resembled gadgets from James Bond, that of course my friend HAD to get first. Compared to my brick with an antenna (!), that tore a hole in my blazer and weighed the same as me, the green eyed monster loomed! Unsurprisingly I never did get either and by the time I was old enough to buy them myself from my first job, I wasn't bothered anymore. 

But I digress. Why the hell is it good to be a broke ass bitch? Be it as a teenager or a young adult, nothing grounds you quite as much as having nought but moths in your purse. Nothing drags you kicking and screaming into reality like having to turn things down because; dare you say it 'bloody hell that's a bit expensive and money is tight right now'. So you got a car for your 18th birthday from your parents, that's great and lovely and generous... But now you're 23, you've been made redundant and you can't afford a Pot Noodle let alone petrol. Your instinct is to do one of two things:

1) Scrabble around trying to find money again, be it by getting a new job as a webcam girl or selling some of your most prized posessions to cover your rent next month. 

2) Frantically running back to your parents, like you just lost them in a multi-storey Tesco. 

It is horrible to experience BUT nothing will give you a crash course in life and finances like having to count every penny that comes in or having to crawl back to those you were so adamant to prove how independent you were ;). Suddenly you realise why they winced when you said you wanted to "go shopping", or strategically left the Argos catalogue by their bed with every Barbie or Action man circled.  

I don't wish hardship on anyone because; if it can be avoided, why would you want to have to struggle? But I write this post more to encourage those who are finding it tough to see a positive in the negative experience that having little to no money can have. It will make you more aware of your income and expenditure each month, it may force you to make compromises in the products you buy and cause you to find something new you like, it could also give you time to reassess what you want from your career. When you come out the other side and find that great job, or your new company starts breaking even, or your mum does agree to help you cover your rent for the next month (because she's a ledge), at least you will know just how much she did for you and how to plan ahead for the future in case it happens again.