re: What is the poorest you've even been?

So poor, I couldn't pay attention.

Really, though, bought my first house at 21 with a co-sign. Got paid bi-weekly with an entry level job. Struggled for a while, but worked my way up. Living comfortably now, but not even close to where I want to be.

My senior year in college, I was completing my student teaching (which if anyone doesn't know what student teaching is, it is like an internship that you don't get paid for) and my wife was in her Methods witch is like student teaching but not as intense. Neither one of us could work much but I had a part time job that I was able to work about 18 hours a week. We were living with her mom who was a single parent and working two jobs and we couldn't afford to help her. For the first and only time in my life I went to apply for food stamps to help out, but (here is the kicker) I didn't qualify for food stamps because I was in college and working less than 20 hours a week. I explained to the lady that I couldn't work 20 hours a week because I was in student teaching which is full time (40 hours). The lady had never heard of student teaching and we were rejected for food stamps. Needless to say I am glad I didnt get the governments help and we made it ok. That was the poorest I had ever been and it only made me stronger.

Walked down to the gas station with a handful of dimes to buy a hot dog once.

When I was 19 I can remember counting nickles in my cup holder to pay for gas to make it to work, started selling all my furniture to have money to pay my fee bill. Also drove without a/c on just to attempt to save gas (I was pretty dumb at the time )

I remember a couple of times I had to choose between buying supplies in college versus eating.

The plus side? I paid for college in cash and lost a lot of weight.

Not counting normal things like mortgage, car notes, etc., the lowest point was in the period following Katrina. My practice was shut down for 5-6 months due to Katrina, and doing cleanup/repair work around my home and my father's put my neck over the edge - which led to spinal surgery and another few months out before returning to work. So being out of work for 8 months, living on credit cards and a $50K home equity loan, I topped out at around $70K of debt. Likewise, I had over $100K in medical expenses over the next few years. It could have been much worse though - I was buying the building my practice was in for $400K, and the closing was set for the day Katrina hit. If my attorney hadn't dragged his arse and we had closed a few days before, I would have been stuck with a massive debt on a worthless piece of real estate.
Thankfully, the next couple years after I went back to work were by far my highest earning years and put me back on track and debt-free.

21 years old

just got out of the Marine Corps, unemployed, car note, everything you could imagine.

nutrition was alcohol and bread except when my girlfriend would come see me on the weekends when she wasn't at school to take me to a random buffet.

I lost 45 pounds over the course of two months as I adjusted to my bank account not replenishing itself on the 1st and 15th anymore while battling a form of depression. Went from a hearty 190 to 155. Not healthy at all. My face started to sink in a bit. People thought I was doing hard drugs.

I swallowed my pride and took a really bad job just to get money coming back in again, I worked on job apps and eventually got what I was looking for after taking a nice big slice of humble pie.

Looking back on it...it was one of the scariest points of my life and for some reason at the time I didn't see how bad things had gotten for me.

my 4 years in college I survived off of $100 per week. That had to cover food, gas, school supplies, etc. I worked part time but ended having free rent with my family. I drive a POS truck that needed work all the time, including a engine rebuild. I rarely went out because I did not have the money. I did work on a farm on semester break and it was usually enough to cover books and new clothes for the semester.

A lot of my friends lived off of their parents or student loans. I finished college not owing a penny and it I am thankful for that. Yes I would have liked to party more and travel, but it made me appreciate the little that I did have.

That money went straight to the bar