Pinch a nickel til it slaps a restraining order on you

I am going to be making the transition from broke county employee to UNEMPLOYED nursing student shortly, so I'm hoping I'll have a lot more to say.  About being broke, that is.  Not that I'll have time to say anything if the dire warnings from everyone are true.  I personally can't imagine that being a full time nursing student will be harder than working full time and going to school part time, but we will see!

There is a certain skill set associated with poverty.  I see the undomiciled at work and, man!  Are they connected!  Their networking skills are truly enviable.  They know of every handout, every government source of income, and of every community resource available for them.  I am a total newbie, and certainly have a place to sleep (the less said about THAT the better), but I'm hoping I will learn more about living cheaply and can pass on information to you.  Yes, ALL of you ;)

I'm currently trying to get all the basics in place.  Current crisis: getting my kid to school.  I have some days with very early classes and prefer to ask Mom to take the wee one to school as little as possible because believe me, I know I'll be hearing about it over.  And over.  Again.  There's no help for it on the days I have 7am class; Mom has to take him.  But on the days I have 8am class...I checked at his school's office to see if they have a before school care I could pay for, just one day a week.  The kind school marm informed me that I can bring the kid to breakfast that starts at 7:30am.

Great!  So, I can just pay for one day of breakfast a week?

No, it's free.

Free to EVERYONE?

Yes, absolutely free.

FREEEEEEE....my hands clasped at my heart, my eyes grew heart-shaped, I trilled sweetly, FREEEEEEE...(I have a whole host of inner Looney Tunes voices-try it, there's a voice for anything in that line up)

How terrific is that?  My tax dollars at work!  I think.  So that solves THAT crisis.  I have other crisises looming, like, health insurance, student loans, and, you know, eating, but that's for another day.