Living Thrifty: The Gold Star Goldmine

This is going to be another regular feature. I live at the Y – I’m obviously not made of money. Living Thrifty posts will feature special tricks for living on a highly limited budget.

Recently I went to a place called Gold Star. They serve burgers. I was there looking for a job (no such luck). I was also very hungry, and these burgers smelled amazing. So I bought one. And I made it a combo with fries and a soda because the cashier made it sound so good.

It was a moment of extreme weakness. Seriously, I do not need to be paying $7 for a burger and fries and a soda. But I hadn’t had breakfast that day. That’s a mini-tip for you: eat breakfast. It will save you money later when you go to a burger place for a job and end up with a cheeseburger combo.

But the trip to Gold Star did prove fruitful in the end, because Gold Star leaves plastic utensils and sugar packets out for anyone to come along and fill up their backpack.


And I did.

I needed the utensils a lot. The night before I had used my bare hand to scoop peanut butter out of the jar and smear it on bread. That’s gross.

I didn’t need the sugar. I don’t even have a use for it. I got greedy. :(