The Awesome Benefits of Being Broke

Hubby once asked how I always knew when he was short of funds and I told him the same thing I’ve said to broke people who had been broke at some point in time but had tried to hide their broke status.

Broke people give out same “vibe” everywhere. And brokenness has no hiding place. Lool

Hubby used to belong to the school of thought that you only start saving when the money has accumulated into tens and hundreds of thousands and anything below that is meant for “flenjure” and to “jollificate”. No thanks to PMB’s regime and his ever aka-gum prudent spouse, he now understands that’s a very terrible mentality.

There are some good sides to being broke though and usually, when you are broke, you start seeing the good benefits to things or situations you would have never even given a second thought before.

YOU BECOME EXTREMELY HUMBLE & POLITE: 

This is the most visible sign of a broke person actually. You see in Nigeria, the most surplus attitude a lot of us have is pride. We show our pride everywhere, on Lagos roads, parties, on Instagram, Facebook, when we meet LASTMA, FRSC and VIO officials, everywhere you can think of. The air of pomposity we display daily can’t be quantified and we try as much as possible to intimidate everyone we come across with the “Do you know who I am” attitude. Some try to keep it subtle but pride and arrogance has no idle place. But you see, when you are broke, humility becomes your middle name. You start to notice the lower echelon people on your street, exactly how much PHCN charges you this month and compare it to last month’s bill, scrutinize the bill from Shoprite, argue with your mechanic and vulcanizer heatedly and shamelessly. And for the men, they become humble at home using more of “please” and “thank you” whenever they are offered food or something they know they didn’t contribute a dime to. 

This is usually the first sign women see and know “bobo yii tii broke gan nii”. Even on the road, when you are broke, you become very polite and less aggressive because you don’t want to jam anybody as money no dey. This also extends to parties. When you have wads of cash in your pocket, you go to a party reeking of extreme arrogance such that when it’s time to spray, the way you even saunter to the center stage sef, they will know you have arrived. But when you have just a flat line wallet, you collect your jollof rice and one fish with humility from the ushers and also quietly leave. Lol. This is why I’m wary of humility from people who are yet to hammer. Most times, na wash.

YOU BECOME VERY GENTLE:

This is another giveaway sign. I once visited a friend whose hubby was amazingly quiet that day, extremely nice and very patient with the kids. When he left us to go into the room with the kids in tow, I had to voice out to my friend “mehn, your boo is so quiet and peaceful” to which she responded very fast, “ma da lohun, ko sowo lowo e nii. If not, koba ti ri irin gbere gbere e lo”. (Let your Yoruba friend or neighbor translate that for you. lol) This even applies to me as well. When Hubby usually stayed back home on a Friday night, I initially expressed concern and worry and hoped he wasn’t coming down with a fever. But as time passed, I knew being home on a Friday meant he was short of cash. A man’s ego most especially is tied to his wallet. So when a man is short of cash, the gentility in character becomes laughable. When we are broke, humans generally take life easy and are very polite to the next person.

YOU BECOME AWARE OF WHAT’S HEALTHY & WHAT’S NOT: 

It’s safe to say the sweetest things in life are not usually the healthiest. The more processed a meal, the more unhealthy it is perceived to be; pizza, burger, frizzy drinks, indomie, Sugar, Popcorn, expensive jewelry etc. Lol. When you are broke, you become very prudent and begin to convince yourself that the things you cannot afford are actually not good in the first place. Remember the Naija arrogance pointed out in the first point? It applies here. Rather than tell ourselves we simply cannot afford it, we try to convince ourselves that it isn’t good for our blood sugar, our skins and blood pressure anyway. And besides, isn’t it the best time to lose those calories gained during Xmas?

YOU BECOME MORE RECEPTIVE TO BUSINESS IDEAS AND MORE AGGRESSIVE TOWARDS LOOKING FOR MORE STREAMS OF INCOME: 

When you are broke, you become jack of all trades (gbogbo oja lowo). What you sold last week is usually different from what you are now selling. People may even begin to wonder if you are not trying to engage in yahoo yahoo as such is your hunger to do everything. All na jamajama. And the more broke you are, the higher the likelihood that you will churn out new business ideas daily. (Lool, nope don’t look at me Jide. I’m simply a woman of many passions).

YOU BECOME VERY PRICE CONSCIOUS: 

I won’t even lie, I’m also guilty of this. I usually don’t bother so much about the prices of products as I purchase in bulk most times. But whenever I was short of funds and I was charged in bulk, I switch straight to the local side of me, “bawo ni mefa shey ma je N7,500? Elo wa leyokan? Oya eyo meta kuro”. (Ask your Yoruba friend to translate for you. Lol) Even at awkward places, you haggle prices. I once tried to purchase a high end brand pain relief medicine for my toddler at Medplus but when I heard the price, I had to bring down my brand choice to a much more affordable one. All na paracetamol. S**t happens jare.  

You also find yourself noticing N50, N100, N150, and N200 price change in some products and begin to haggle prices of things that ordinarily, you just picked up without any care in the world; agbalumo, tatase, watermelon, crayfish, Pampers and hoping the seller removes at least N100 or more. One funny time, Hubby saw a hairstyle he wanted me to adorn on Instagram but by the time I was ready to get the hair done, he was already short of cash but had to still pay for it as per his promise. The hair was so pricey that when he saw the total, he didn’t know when he blurted “jekin mo koto tu irun yen o”. Lmaoo. May God help us all jare.

YOU BECOME MORE EMPATHETIC TOWARDS THE PLIGHT OF PEOPLE WHO PRACTICALLY LIVE LIKE THIS ALL THROUGH THE YEAR:

Being broke makes you literally understand the plight of other people who are lesser than you in terms of financial strength. In Nigeria, our average level of empathy isn’t so enormous. So long as it’s not happening to us or those around us, we rarely bother. So if you had never been broke, there’s no way you would have known what the other side of the fence looked like. But when you now experience brokenness on a medium or large scale, forgerrit, you automatically become more empathetic. Your listening skills also double during this time and you become less judgmental. Sometimes, you channel this boredom to social media. Lool. You may also attend church services more. You automatically become more religious especially if you attributed your brokenness to the woman you saw when you travelled last to the village and who prayed for you longer than usual. It will conveniently fly from your brain that you attended too much Hard Rock café or Quilox events in the last few months or the various people you bought Vals gift for, or all the hair wigs you bought and Uber trips you took were responsible. During this time, you will rather faint than acknowledge that you acquired more liabilities than assets hence your brokenness. So the more suspicious you are of your sudden brokenness, the higher your church or mosque activities.

YOU BECOME VERY HELPFUL AT HOME: 

Well, we are all guilty of this sha especially if the person we are living with is now left to help our broke status. Once you are broke, you become very available to help around the home and may even offer to run some errands and even attend the family events you hadn’t attended in years. (Lol yeah guys, we know that when you stay more at home especially when you are not ill, your wallets aren’t smiling)

All in all, while being broke should be a time that calls for some deep retrospect and change in attitude on what was not so good in the buoyant days, most times, the feeling is more temporary than a sore throat because many people simply go back to their spendthrift state once some small change comes back to them. We simply forget everything we picked up while being broke. It’s one of the many reasons some ladies are wary of sticking it out with a struggling man because based on past logistics, the humility that was shown during these days were temporary and their real colors come out once the money starts to flood in. 

Money changes people basically because there is the inherent notion that power should automatically follow whoever has the money.