"I swear I have a coupon in here somewhere," Beth said as she dug around hurriedly through her giant, messy purse. She felt really bad, but her paycheck wouldn’t come through until Monday. She was living off nickels and dimes, and it was only Friday night. The worst thing about being in college was not having any money, especially on a weekend. She was 19, and beautiful. She should've been having the time of her life, but, instead, she was struggling to find enough change to pay for her groceries. Beth, like your average college student, was broke. She hadn’t yet gotten the hang of managing her money and she liked going out with her friends too much to care. But now, it was catching up with her. She was shoulders deep in library fines, bills, and student loan debt, and had nowhere to run.
“Your total is $9.54, Miss.” The cashier was getting noticeably agitated as he gazed at the long line behind Beth. He’d probably had to deal with people like her all day, but that’s what he got for working so close to campus.
“Ahhh ha!” She yanked out the stack of coupons she’d cut from the newspaper and sorted through them until she found the buy one-get one free she’d been looking for. She triumphantly handed over the paper, along with a handful of change. “Sorry for the inconvenience,” she said with a smile. The gathered her plastic bags in both arms and strode quickly out the automatic doors, trying not to think about how she would open her car door with full hands. She could barely see over the mountain she was holding.
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