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Q: Anyone been totally broke?
I had to pay three months rent in advance on a new apartment and had some emergencies pop up. For about 2 weeks my whole diet consisted of rice with chili peppers 2 times a day. Anyone else been in similar or worse circumstances?
paycheque to paycheque is my norm .... and I definately hate the big yearly bills!!!!!!!!!!
Shit yeah, I got shitcanned once by a total idiot and, despite the myth that merely being fluent in English can find you a job in China, I was unemployed for two months. Finally I got a job teaching English part time, but it wasn't enough. Maybe 3,000 kuai a month. So, the point came where I was going to have to go home.
Upon hearing of my announcement my friends banded together and supported me with loans to the tune of about 2,500 kuai and my now-wife lent me 5,000 kuai when I told her I was leaving after that had run out. Three weeks later I had a full-time job back in my field and had paid back my debts in a month, but for the 5,000 my wife insisted I pay back when I could and then the debt was dissolved with our marriage.
I will NEVER forget the kindness of my friends during such a hard time, it had touched me deeply, and from then on took the expat code of looking out for each other very seriously. Since I've leant people in dire straights I knew untold sums of money and was always paid back. Honour the code people!
nevermind:
Other way around; She married me to get continous payments for life,.
I lost my bank card once while traveling in Nantong. It was a month getting a replacement from the States (after a comedy of errors and some interesting stories). Fortunately, I had a gf who knew how to live on a dime. I received a good education on Chinese life that month.
Man, I've had it bad. 14000rmb/mo job and somehow ended up for the first month counting up 1-, 2- and 5-mao notes daily to buy 4x 5-mao mantou. 2 in the morning, lunch at the kindi and 2 more in the evening. Good thing I still had enough cash on my metro card to get me to work and back..
feelsbad.jpg
Got robbed in Beijing, was penniless for 10 days... called the US Embassy.. yeap they didn't help much.. I found a nice place called 'The Bridge Cafe' in Wudaokou, open 24hours, free wifi and lemonade, and comfy couches and chairs.. and the staff didn't give a f- If I slept there every other day!
In the end, actually, a person working there told me she was a Christian and asked if I was... I said.. umm 'I grew up Evangelical Baptist,' which meant 'not Christian anymore!' Anyways haha, she and her congregation were quite kind to me.. actually kind of restored my belief in... well human kindness (I'm buddhist and christian).
Without them, it would have been a CONTINUING HELL... bank card and new passport didn't come for about 5 weeks.
The OP seems to have a considerable run of bad luck here in the PRC in between egregiously dishonest employers and financial distress.
