My neighborhood is broke-ass to a tee. Around here, we live for Free-Detergent-Tuesdays and $2 pizza. Walk down Knickerbocker with twenty one-dollar bills, and you can find a different 99c store to spend each one of them. But if you think austerity measures mean no grand displays of frivolous, transitory fun, then

Christmas and the surrounding holidays are a tough time to be a broke-ass. There are parties, drinks, gifts, cookies and stockings and Secret Santas and White Elephants and egg nog and bells, oh my! It is, after all, called the season of giving not the season of thoughtful free hugs