There's already been some great advice here, but to reiterate footpad's advice, I recommend setting yourself a lower limit for your bank account, say $150. When you hit that lower limit, stop spending, you are broke. There's always something unexpected that you absolutely have to pay for when you are already low on money. I learnt this the hard way, and lived off baked beans for a week.

As for hardware, leave off the expensive stuff for a while. A straight Pentium 166 with 64Mb RAM will run almost everything, just a bit slower than you'd like. Once you have your nice new machine, tinker your old ones to death. Take 'em apart, put 'em back together, and you won't have to worry if you break them, because you have your new one to use.

Make friends with computer people, and you will often find yourself being given hardware because old machines take too much room to be worth keeping. (This often applies to corporations and universities too).

Finally, don't hesitate to mention your situtation in job interviews, rent applications, etc. Many people have been in similar situtations to you, and are willing to give you a bit of help by lending you gear or finding a little bit of work for you to help tide you over.

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Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.