A humbling change in bankroll strategy

In my previous post, I said,

"One of the problems I've been having with poker is that I'm doing it on a shoestring. I haven't had some things that would help me a lot. I started with a $50 deposit to America's Cardroom (which is very inferior to the site on which I played post-Black Friday.) Since I should have a minimum of 100 buy-ins to play MTTs, and most of them have an entry fee of at least $5.50, that's a big problem. I know that I should just play poker and not worry about the size of my bankroll, but it's hard not to factor it in when I'm making decisions about how much risk to take in a tournament, or which one I should enter. I'm careful and tentative, and as much as I try to fight against that, I guess it's natural in my situation. More about that in the near future."

I have considered grinding my way up with SNGs with an entry fee as low as $1.65, and I have played a few, but that wasn't a real option, because there were so few SNGs running that I might wait half an hour, or longer, for one to fill up.  Two important things have changed since then, and one has changed a little.

First my bankroll is getting really low.  Currently it is $31.40.  To play $5.50 tournaments with that bankroll is absolutey ridiculous.  If I get a run of bad cards (or any other kind of negative variance) I will be broke in a few days.

Second, I have a monitor that actually works.

Third, SNG traffic has picked up a little, but there are still times, for example, around 5 A.M. weekdays, when nothing is running.

It's time to bite the bullet.  I need to play nothing but $1 SNGs for at least a week while I grind my bankroll up a bit. Once I have some wiggle room, I might move up to $3 SNGs and mix in an occasional $3 or $5 MTT if the structure and prize pool are especially attractive. It's humbling to have to drop back down to $1 SNGs--on PokerStars I had a 14% ROI (return on investment) playing $10 SNGs. I'm frustrated and embarrased that it's come to this. But it's my only option now.