As I get ready to celebrate my 44th birthday, I have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful that I can now afford something other than spaghetti for dinner. I am thankful I have a really cute husband who gets better looking with age. And I am lucky to have two awesome kids who keep me on my toes and inspire me almost every day of the week. But there was a time when I wasn’t that content. And maybe the reason for my uneasiness was because I was broke.
Back in the 1990’s — yes a very long time ago — I had just moved to Manhattan with a girlfriend of mine and despite the fact I was making a measly $25,000 per year, we found an apartment on the upper west side that was a few feet away from Central Park. Sure, the rent wasn’t out of the stratosphere- it was $1400 per month and my friend and I split the bill. But here was the problem. I was making $1500 per month after taxes. Which meant that half of my money every month was going toward rent, leaving me with another $800 to survive in New York City. While my mom thought I was making the biggest mistake of my life, little did she know that taking a chance on a pricey Manhattan sublet would ultimately lead me to my future husband.
Needless to say, I wasn’t able to spend much back then, but some how I made ends meet. I took the subway to and from work. I walked a lot. I lived for sales. And, I found a lot of free things to do on the weekends — including rollerblading through Central Park and free Ladies Night happy hours. I ate a lot of spaghetti. I paid cash at the supermarket — before they actually accepted credit cards…imagine that! And best of all, I found a boyfriend the first month I moved into the city (that would be the cute husband I mentioned earlier) and fortunately for me, he treated a lot of the times we were out. But despite my bank account hovering near a zero balance every month, I managed to survive and thrive during those first few years out of college.
And I think that’s why I love the show 2 BROKE GIRLS — no matter how old you are, I’m sure everyone has a story about the time they survived on Ramen noodles so they could pay the utility bill. If you haven’t been watching this hilarious comedy yet, then honestly what are you waiting for? 2 BROKE GIRLS is a comedy about the unlikely friendship that develops between two very different young women who meet waitressing at a diner in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and form a bond over their dream of one day owning their own successful cupcake business. Only one thing stands in their way – they’re broke.
Sarcastic, street-smart Max Black met the sophisticated, school-smart Caroline Channing when the uptown trust fund princess was having a run of bad luck due to her father’s Wall Street scandal, which caused her to lose all her money and forced her to give waitressing a shot. At first, Max sees Caroline as an entitled rich girl, but she’s surprised to find that Caroline has as much substance as she does style. When Caroline discovers Max’s knack for baking amazing cupcakes, she visualizes a lucrative future for them and they begin to save money to reach their start-up money goal of $250,000. As the girls’ cupcake tally expands week-to-week, they become closer to their goal and to each other. At the diner they are surrounded by their offbeat, colorful “work family”: Oleg, an overly flirtatious cook; Earl, a hip 75-year-old cashier; Han, the eager-to-please owner of the diner; and Sophie, the girls’ outrageous upstairs neighbor. As Max and Caroline climb toward their goal, we see that their “smarts” plus their “hearts” might just be the recipe for success.
2 BROKE GIRLS recently moved to Monday nights at 8:30 pm/7:30 c. Check out a sneak peak of tonight’s episode:
To find out more about 2 BROKE GIRLS, visit them on Facebook for updates on the latest episodes and if you’re like me and like to tweet along with the show, then use the hashtag #2BrokeGirls and you’ll be good to go!
This post was sponsored by the Role Mommy Writer’s Network.
Role Mommy 3.0