Save Karyn

by Karyn Bosnak

  Hello, Karyn,

  I am a newspaper reporter in Toronto, Canada, and we are considering doing a story about your site. However, we (my editor and I) are concerned that it is (a)a joke or (b)a front for some company or something else. Can you help us out? How can we know you’re legit? Would I be able to do a phone interview with you?

  Your site is hilarious, by the way.

  “Oh my!” I gasped.

  “What?” Randy said, turning around looking at me.

  “Nothing,” I said. I didn’t want to tell him.

  “No, what?” he asked again.

  “Okay,” I said. “I kind of created this website, as sort of a joke, and all these people are starting to go to it.”

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Okay,” I started. Once again, I was embarrassed about owing the money so I didn’t want to tell him. And after my death threat I really wanted to remain anonymous. But I didn’t think Randy would actually beat me up or anything if he knew, so I decided to tell him. “I owe twenty thousand dollars to credit card companies that I racked up by shopping, and I started a website asking people to help me pay it back.”

  “No way,” he said, not believing me.

  “Way,” I said. “Obviously I set it up because I wanted it to work, but I didn’t really think it would. And I got all these e-mails today, and I just got a request for an interview from a reporter.”

  “Are you going to do it?” he asked.

  “I’m kind of nervous. She said she thought my site was hilarious, but what if she’s just telling me that to get an interview? I’ve gotten a lot of really mean e-mails from people.”

  “Let me see your site,” he asked.

  I proceeded to go to savekaryn.com and show Randy all the pages. He laughed out loud at some of the Daily Bucks.

  “Hey,” he said, reading the one about the apple. “That’s my apple. I’m the ‘guy at work!’ You didn’t steal anything else from me, did you?” he asked jokingly.

  “No,” I said. “And I felt guilty so I fessed up! You know that!”

  “Do the interview,” he said. “You need to get traffic. How much money have you gotten?”

  “About a hundred and thirty dollars,” I said, laughing.

  “Do the interview,” he said. “You owe twenty thousand dollars. You need a lot more than a hundred and thirty.”

  With that, I e-mailed the reporter back and assured her that I was legitimate and we set up an interview for Sunday at noon. I decided that if she came across as mean, then I would just hang up on her. What did I have to lose? I wouldn’t give her my phone number, though, because I know how reporters can be, and I didn’t want my full name published.

  That night I worked until 9:30. When I got home, I answered as many e-mails as I could. I got an e-mail from a guy named Dan in Britain. As in London, England.

  News of your worrying plight has reached the shores of this scepter’d isle (Britain that is) and we would like to help (although I cannot genuinely say that I represent all 57 million of us). Good luck with it all. I will distribute the link to your site around Europe, to see if they can help.

  I also updated my Daily Buck.

  Tuesday, July 9, 2002

  Today I drank water from the Brita. I’m gonna be honest here. I’m afraid of tap water because of the whole anthrax and chemical warfare thing. Not because I’m too good for tap water—it wasn’t anything like that. And because I live in New York and everyone was freaked out after the 11th because of what it could have done to the water supply. I haven’t exactly gotten over that fear. It’s kind of like a phobia.

  So my roommate has one of those “clean your water” Brita things in the fridge, but I don’t really think it works. It always has crud in it. Even when you clean it, there is still stuff floating in the water. It’s kind of creepy.

  Anyway, I was really thirsty and I just came to the realization that I have to stop buying bottled water and I drank the Brita for the first time. And I’m okay. I really jumped over a hurdle today by doing that. I used to buy about 3 jugs per week, so that’s a savings of about $4 a week!

  Before I logged off, I checked the daily traffic and saw that I’d received over 4,000 hits in that day alone. The entire previous week I’d only received about 300. Wow! It was two in the morning and I was so exhausted. I fell fast asleep.

  On Wednesday, money from my paycheck was finally available for me to withdraw, so I deposited the Save Karyn checks into my checking account. I then turned around and wrote a check for the exact amount and mailed it to Jennifer Convertibles. That day, I proceeded to get more e-mails from people, and found out that the site was being talked about in another blog called Livejournal.com. And the money started coming in. Not a lot, but more. The people that were giving me money were saying things like, “Your site is funny. It’s worth a buck,” and “You are brilliant and courageous.” It felt really good to make people laugh. I loved it!

  Wednesday, July 10, 2002

  Today I bought my cat Friskies. If you don’t already know about my cat, he has a problem digesting his food and frequently barfs on my sheets (See Wednesday July 3rd’s Daily Buck). Like, we’re talking daily here…So anyway, I have been buying him “Science Diet for the Sensitive Stomach” and he seems to have improved a bit. Recently he’s been only barfing once a week or so. But it’s really pricey. And he’s just as happy when he eats Friskies. I’ve taken him to the vet and they always tell me he’s fine—he just likes to barf. So, oh well. Back to Friskies we go. He eats it back up anyway after he regurgitates it, so it’s not like I have to buy twice the amount.

  Later that night, determined to get more chuckles, I decided to add a section called the Daily Me-MAIL. On it, I would share some of the wacky e-mails that I started receiving from people—and my responses, of course.

  THE DAILY Me-MAIL

  E-MAILS TO ME ABOUT ME—UPDATED DAILY!

  DATE: July 10, 2002

  FROM: scarlett_munchkin

  TO: Karyn

  SUBJECT: money to help you out

  Hi, Karyn,

  A friend sent me your website and I read your story. It sounds like you’re a nice person in a bad situation. It’s soooo easy to let credit cards get the best of you. So, I’d like to send you $100 in exchange for sex. That’s right SEX. If you have enough balls to ask for money, then I guess I have enough to ask for this. I know that $100 is kind of low, so I don’t want to be insulting, but you didn’t have a picture on your site, so I can’t tell if you’re cute or not. If you send a picture and you’re really cute, I may be willing to go as high as $1000. Let me know.

  FROM: Karyn

  TO: scarlett_munchkin

  SUBJECT: Re: money to help you out

  First of all, I’m cute—let’s get that out of the way. I’ve also been referred to as HOT on countless occasions.

  You see, I am hard up for cash. So I started a website called “Save Karyn” in which I ask people who can feel my pain to give me a buck—because bucks are what I need. In return they really get nothing.

  But you seem to be hard up for some good sex, because you just offered to pay me for some. You didn’t even ask me if I’d do it for free. I told people straight out that they weren’t going to get anything in return for giving mea dollar. The most exciting thing they can do is watch my debt shrink, read some Daily Bucks, or perhaps this e-mail from you.

  So my advice to you is this: start a website. It’s helped me, maybe one can help you too. Call it, “Save the Scarlett Munchkin” and just straight out ask people for sex. I’ve gotten some bucks—you just might as well get yourself a nice piece of ass!

  Anyway, gotta run and pay a bill. Take care! Good luck! Tell all your friends about my website! Maybe we can put links from mine to yours and vice versa!

  XOXO,

  Karyn

  Oh, I forgot…PS—Send a buck if you can!

  After adding that page, I asked Scott to take more pictures. He took one of me leaning into
the empty fridge pouring water from the Brita into a glass. I put that one on the the Daily Buck page. He also took one of me from the back updating my website. It was supposed to look like I was answering e-mails. My big Gucci purse was in the background and Elvis was perched on my shoulder. That one would go on my Daily Me-MAIL page. But before I put it up, I decided to put a big black bar across Elvis’s eyes. If I felt it was important for me to remain anonymous, then I had to give him the same courtesy. He looked like a big “Glamour Don’t.”

  On Thursday, the responses to the Me-MAIL section were great! Before I knew it, I had another interview request. But this time it was from a Canadian radio station asking me to call in to their morning show the following day. I obliged, and again not wanting to give out my number, I took their number to call.

  That night after work, I went out with Randy to hear a band play. When I got to the bar, I was delighted to find out that he had a lot of cute guy friends. He introduced me to some. I had lost a little over five pounds and was starting to get some of my confidence back.

  “This is Karyn,” he said.

  “Hi, Karyn,” a guy said. “Oh, wait, you’re Save Karyn!”

  “Randy!” I said, turning to him. “You weren’t supposed to tell anybody!”

  “Sorry,” he said. “It was funny though.”

  All of a sudden, all of his friends wanted to know what Save Karyn meant. So I explained my whole website idea. And they all told me that it was very refreshing to hear someone be so honest.

  I sort of adopted the theory that every time I didn’t spend money it meant that I was saving it. It made me feel better. So that night, Randy bought me a beer for $5, but I also didn’t eat dinner. Thinking dinner would have run me about $4, I decided that I came out $9 ahead. And I wrote about it in my Daily Buck.

  Friday morning I woke up a bit groggy because I’d stayed up late. Not just because I went out, but because I tried to answer as many e-mails as I could. When I got to work, I checked my e-mail and was shocked to see that my inbox was almost full. There were tons! I clicked on a few and realized that people were starting to respond to everything I wrote. I got all sorts of e-mails from people saying how backward my way of thinking was in regards to me “saving $9.” In response to my cat barfing, I got e-mails telling me that he may be diabetic. In response to my Brita experience I got e-mails telling me that the black crap floating inside was carbon. I got another e-mail from an occupational safety guy assuring me that New York City water was safe to drink. I got more advice from accountants and attorneys telling me that I didn’t have to claim the money on my income tax. Someone else told me that a Baltimore radio station was talking about my site. It was so exciting!

  Around 10:40 A.M. I told Randy that I was going out for coffee, and armed with my cell phone I went downstairs to a park next door to call in for my first radio interview with the Canadian station. I dialed the number that I’d scribbled on a Post-it note, and someone answered.

  “Hi,” I said. “I’m Karyn and I’m calling in for an interview.”

  “Hi, Karyn,” the person said. “Hang on and we’ll be on the air in a second.”

  I sat down and waited on hold. I was nervous. I was shaking. I didn’t know what to expect. Would the host be nice or mean? All of a sudden I heard a bunch of radio commercials and then the host introduced me and I was on the air….

  “Hi, Karyn, how’s it going so far?”

  “It’s going okay!” I said in a really high pitched voice. My voice tended to get higher when I became nervous.

  “How much have you collected so far?”

  “I’ve collected about a hundred and eighty dollars,” I said.

  “How long has the website been up?” he asked.

  “About three weeks,” I replied.

  “For people just tuning in, tell us about your website,” he asked.

  “It’s called savekaryn.com—that’s Karyn with a y,” I said, clarifying it for people. “And basically, I racked up twenty thousand dollars in credit card bills while buying really stupid things like Starbucks, shoes and purses, getting my hair done, and manicures and pedicures—stuff like that. And now I’m asking people that if you feel my pain, if you’ve been in my situation, if you could give me a dollar to help pay it off, then that would be great! You can help me pay my debt!” The host laughed.

  “Karyn, why should people give you money because you went nuts with a credit card?”

  “You don’t have to,” I said. “If you don’t want to, then don’t go to the website and don’t give me a dollar. But you know what? I know I spent too much money, and I know that all you out there at one time or another in your life bought something that you couldn’t afford before.”

  “I’ve done it, I’ve done it,” the host piped in agreeing with me.

  “Yeah,” I said, “one too many power tools! So if you feel my pain and have been in my situation and want to give me a buck, then great! I’ll accept it.”

  “And you’re selling stuff on eBay?” he said.

  “Yeah, I have a nice pair of Prada shoes up this week, and in the coming weeks I’ll list some other things like some purses. And I have a pair of Gucci sunglasses that will make you look like a superstar!”

  “I’ll tell you what,” he said, still laughing, “I’ll go ahead and put it out there for you. It’s www.savekaryn.com—that’s Karyn with a Y, and maybe some of our listeners will help you out. I have to say that you have a lot of gumption, girl!”

  “Thank you!” I said. And with that I was disconnected.

  It went well! I was so excited! With a huge smile across my face, I went back to my desk. I immediately checked my e-mail to see if any Canadians gave me money. And by God, the whole inbox was filled up again! I then checked the traffic of my website and was shocked to see that almost three thousand people had already visited it, and it wasn’t even 11 A.M. Surely one Canadian radio station couldn’t be the cause for this. I started going through my e-mails to find the explanation. While scanning through the subject lines I saw one that said “You’ve hit the big-time now…” and clicked on it to see what that meant.

  As I’m sure you’re now aware, your site was linked on USAToday.com’s Web guide “Hot Sites.” Could be the start of something interesting, for sure.

  I wasn’t aware! I clicked on the link that he provided and was brought to USA Today’s website. There at the bottom of a page called Hot Sites, under Kermit the Frog and Muppets.com, was one of the pictures from my website of me leaning over my checkbook. Next to it, it said:

  Save Karyn

  There’s something touchingly human about Karyn. The 26-year-old New Yorker ran up a $20,000 credit card debt, and is now asking the online community to help her pay it off. What’s in it for you? “I’ll be honest,” she admits. “Nothing is really in it for you.” Yes, there’s something touchingly human about Karyn.

  “Oh my gosh!” I gasped. Randy turned around.

  “What?” Randy asked.

  “Oh my gosh, I’m on USA Today’s website!” I said, freaking out.

  “No!” he said. “Why are you freaking? It’s what you wanted, right?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t expect it! I’m not ready for this. I’m freaked! I didn’t expect for this many people to see my website. I don’t even know if it’s legal. Is it legal?! I don’t even know what I’m doing! I didn’t even tell my family! What if someone finds out it’s me?!”

  “Okay, just chill out,” he said. “You’ll be fine. Do you not owe the money or something?”

  “No, I owe the money!” I said. “But I am lying about my age. I’m not twenty-six. I’m twenty-nine. I did that just to throw off anyone that knew me.”

  “You’re twenty-nine?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “You don’t look twenty-nine,” he said.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I don’t lie in the sun.”

  “Niiice,” he said. “All right, so just change it to say you are twenty-nine and
I don’t see how it could be illegal if you are telling the truth.”

  Randy made me feel better momentarily, but the more I thought about it, the more freaked I got. I truly was frightened. I didn’t think many people would go to my website. I wasn’t ready for this. It was a hot mess. There were spelling errors on it, mistakes—things that I needed to fix.

  As the day went on I continued to get more e-mails from people. So for $20 a year, I upgraded my hotmail account to accommodate the volume. People told me I was in more blogs. Someone told me that I was being featured as the “Cruel Site of the Day” on another popular website called Cruel.com. When I clicked on it I noticed that they had over 15 million visitors to their website. It was very popular. “My Yahoo!,” which was the opening page for yahoo.com, also had a blurb about my website on it. I didn’t even know these websites existed. In addition to those e-mails, other people gave me advice, told me to read books, and yes, some people did point out my spelling mistakes.

  And the money started rolling in. Attached to PayPal payments were notes that said things like “It’s so simple it’s funny,” and “You should write a column,” and “Please be real and don’t make me a sucker.” They sent me five bucks, ten bucks—I even got twenty from someone. People sent me the balances of their PayPal accounts, so I started getting odd amounts too like $1.48 or $1.79.

  By about one o’clock, I got five more requests for interviews from radio stations. One was in Austin, another was in Denver, another in Atlanta, one in Wichita—and the last one was even in the Virgin Islands. I e-mailed all of them back and set up interviews for the following week.

  After that I got an interview request from Business Week magazine. Business Week! The editor who e-mailed me said that she wrote about credit cards and debt, and thought my site was hysterical. She wanted to interview me for a possible story. Me! In Business Week! I’m the biggest financial screwup in the world, and someone from Business Week wanted to talk to me about it! I set up an interview with her for the following day.