poor as I've ever been

I mean, I can eat. But I look longingly at sandwich shops and think, "I once just bought those things. $6! And I just spent it, without thinking!" Now, in order to be able to pay rent, I'm saving every possible penny. No more impulse buying. Yesterday, upon receipt of the $1000 that the school owed me for my summer, I celebrated by buying a bottle of almond syrup from a coffee shop so I can make my own almond steamers at home. (But not with a milk frother. Oh, no. I'm too cheap for that. I use a whisk on the milk just before it gets hot enough to boil. It works.) And I bought some bread and have been eating it with the cheese that Tante Dieneke gave me when I was in the Netherlands. I brought it for lunch today, in the coffee bag that the coffee shop gave me to protect the glass bottle of almond syrup.

I'm poor as I've ever been, but not really, because never before have I had to pay $900 a month in rent. So I have a lot more money than, say, college, but a lot more of it is tied up. (Oh, and nearly all of it is borrowed from Citibank, my owner.) I'm trying to recover from the expense of getting this apartment by babysitting like mad and living on the babysitting money and even putting some of said babysitting money in the bank. It's a tightwad's dream. And I might (maybe, possibly) be able to pay rent through January, until I get my next loan check.