---
title: "estoy bruja"
translation: "I'm broke."
type: "word"
category: "expression"
url: "https://consalsa.app/words/estoy-bruja"
canonical: "https://consalsa.app/words/estoy-bruja"
published: "2026-09-01"
updated: "2026-09-01"
author: "Andrey the Nomad"
site: "ConSalsa.App"
license: "https://consalsa.app/about"
---

# estoy bruja
URL: https://consalsa.app/words/estoy-bruja
Translation: I'm broke.
Pronunciation: /esˈtoj ˈbɾu.xa/
Category: expression
Region: Mexico, and also Cuba and Puerto Rico
Register: casual, self-deprecating, carries no shame
Variants: ando bruja, andar bruja, estar bruja, ando bien bruja, quedarse bruja
Literal meaning: Bruja is a witch. The dictionaries record the money sense as a fixed phrase - estar or andar bruja - and between them mark it for Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Why a witch, nobody has established.
Tone & safety: Safe in both directions - saying it about a friend is normal too. The only trap is the verb: anda bruja is broke, es una bruja is an insult.
Published: 2026-09-01

Quick answer:
- Estoy bruja means I'm broke - out of money right now, not permanently.
- The form does not change for gender. Men say ando bruja too.
- It carries no shame. Being bruja is a situation; being codo, having money and refusing to spend it, is the one that stings.

What it means:
- You have run out of money, and you are saying so lightly. Estoy bruja is a status update, not a confession - it usually arrives attached to a plan you are turning down or an order you are keeping small.
- It is temporary by design. Nobody says ando bruja about their life; they say it about this week, this month, the stretch between now and payday. That is the difference between this and any of the serious words for poor.

Literal meaning:
- Bruja is a witch, and why that means broke is not established. One thing is documented though, and it points somewhere: this is not a Mexicanism. It takes three entries to see it: the Academia Mexicana carries estar bruja as Mexican, the pan-American dictionary marks the no-money sense for Cuba, and it gives bruja again as the Puerto Rican equivalent under arrollado. That is a Caribbean footprint rather than a Mexican one, so the phrase most likely arrived here rather than starting here.
- The one folk story with anything under it is the moth. In Cuba, bruja is also a name for the tatagua, the black death-omen moth, and the same dictionary carries both that and the money sense under the same country label. That is a coincidence worth noticing, not a proven origin - nobody has connected the two with evidence.
- If you search this in Spanish you will find a confident story about Yoruba buru or buruju, meaning in bad condition, carried to Cuba and then to Mexico. It has been repeated by several Mexican newspapers and no linguistic source supports it. Treat it as a press item that spread, not as an etymology.
- What is solid is the grammar. The form does not move: a man says ando bruja, not ando brujo, because this is a fixed phrase rather than an adjective agreeing with anybody. The dictionaries file it exactly that way, and the male form brujo has no money sense at all.

How Mexicans use it:
- Most often it explains a no. Ay, no puedo, ando bruja is a complete answer to an invitation, and it does not invite follow-up questions. Nobody asks how bruja.
- It also gets said pre-emptively, before anyone can suggest anything expensive. Somebody arrives at a bar, announces ando bruja, and the group adjusts what it orders without discussing it.
- Andar is at least as common as estar here. Ando bruja and estoy bruja mean the same thing, and andar leans a fraction more temporary - it frames the state as something you are moving through.
- In chat it is short and usually unpunctuated, and it lands as a shrug: ando bruja jaja, or just bruja with a crying emoji. It is not a request to be paid for, and treating it as one can be slightly awkward.
- Half the reason it is light is the calendar. Mexicans are paid on the fifteenth and the thirtieth, so being bruja is a predictable, twice-monthly, shared condition rather than a personal failure - everybody is bruja on the twenty-sixth, and ya cayó la quincena is a small national holiday. January has its own name for it: la cuesta de enero, the uphill month after the holidays when the whole country is broke together.
- The answer to being bruja has a word too. Cooperacha is everybody putting in a bit, and hacer una vaquita is the same idea - ando bruja, hacemos cooperacha is the complete loop, and it is how most plans survive the end of the month.

Common mistake:
- Saying ando brujo. The phrase does not agree with the speaker, so the masculine form marks you as somebody applying grammar rules to an expression that does not take them.
- Confusing it with codo. If you tell a Mexican friend they are bruja when what you mean is that they never pay, you have said the sympathetic thing by accident. Reverse it - calling somebody codo when they genuinely have nothing - and you have said something cruel by accident, which is worse.

Examples:
- Ay, no puedo ir, ando bruja. — Ah, I can't go, I'm broke.
- Estoy bruja hasta la quincena. — I'm broke until payday.
- Ando bien bruja, nada más traigo para el metro. — I'm completely broke, I've only got metro fare.
- Mejor vamos a un lugar barato, ando bruja. — Let's go somewhere cheap instead, I've got no money.

Mini dialogue:
A: ¿Vas el sábado a ese lugar nuevo de Roma?
B: Ay, me encantaría, pero ando bruja hasta la quincena.
A: Va, entonces hacemos algo en mi casa y cada quien lleva algo.
B: Eso sí me late. Yo llevo las chelas baratas.
A: Las mejores.

FAQ:
Q: What does estoy bruja mean?
A: I'm broke. Bruja means witch literally, but the expression has nothing to do with witches - it means you are out of money right now.

Q: Do men say estoy bruja too?
A: Yes, and the form does not change. A man says ando bruja or estoy bruja, not brujo. It behaves as a fixed expression rather than an adjective that agrees with the speaker.

Q: Why does bruja mean broke in Mexico?
A: Nobody has established it. The one clue that is documented is the distribution - between them the dictionaries mark the phrase for Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, so it looks Caribbean rather than Mexican in origin. The widely repeated Yoruba story has no linguistic source behind it.

Q: What is cooperacha?
A: Everybody putting in a bit so a plan still happens. Hacer una vaquita is the same idea. It is the standard answer when somebody in the group says they are bruja.

Q: What is la cuesta de enero?
A: The uphill month after the holidays, when the whole country is broke at the same time. It is the season the word bruja gets the most use.

Q: What is the difference between estar bruja and ser codo?
A: Bruja is having no money, which is a situation and gets sympathy. Codo is having money and refusing to spend it, which is a character flaw and gets teased. Mixing them up is the one real risk with this word.

Q: Is estoy bruja rude?
A: Not at all. It is light, self-deprecating, and carries no shame - people announce it at bars before anyone can suggest somewhere expensive.

Q: Is it ando bruja or estoy bruja?
A: Both, and they mean the same thing. Andar leans slightly more temporary, framing it as something you are passing through, which is usually the point.

Q: How do you say broke in Mexican Spanish?
A: Ando bruja is the everyday one. No traigo varo is the plain current version, and no traigo lana is its slightly older twin. Ando en ceros and ando en la chilla are heavier. Estar quebrado is heaviest, closer to ruined than to short this week.

Related words: lana, no-seas-codo, quincena, chela, chamba