Being a grown-up sucks

I'm sure it's been pointed out elsewhere, but along the lines of looking for clothing sales, if you coupon clip, hang on to them for a few weeks until those items go on sale (10 for $10 Campbells soup, for instance) you can make a killing. It's not too hard, but you have to pay attention and stock up when the right items is on sale. Over a few months you can save a ton on grocery stuff this way.

 

Speaking only for me, I went to college in 1993 and applied for every card I could get my hands on.

I finished paying them off in January 2009.

 

And teach yourself to cook from scratch.

I can make a pizza that feeds four for about $5-7 in ingredients.

 

Parasitic credit card companies giving $5,000 credit limits to 18 year old high school graduates working 20 hrs a week making $7.00/hr.

 

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned before. Even if you are financially solvent enough to do this, NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER! sign up for automatic deductions out of your checking/savings to pay for bills. NEVER! One missed payment where you go into the red for one payment, they will fucking SCREW you for it. And I don't want anyone's grubby fucking hands other than mine dipping into my funds. Student loans, cable, phone, credit cards, gas bill, water bill, electricity, car payment, none of that shit. Especially rent. Are you fucking kidding? Banks also don't like being told to stop automatic payments, "IT'S SO FUCKING HARD!!!"

Point being, you think the returned check fees can be bad, just wait until they try to screw you for NSF, and the higher the bill you have scheduled for automatic payment, the more you are fucked. I'm not being judgemental here, I used to not be the best with finances in the past, but if you feel you have too many bills coming in where you feel the need for automatic payments or not being able to put them all out per month, then you need to simplify your life and take your finances and have a long look in the mirror. Even if it is putting out 10 stamps a month or having the electronic payments through your bank (which I still don't trust, supposedly that equivalent is my bank putting out a check for me, which still has a 5-10 business day window. I'll pass, thanks), DO IT YOURSELF.

The day I start making $60k before kids and while single, I MIGHT, MIGHT do the automatic student loan payment. But that is IT.

Don't go green with bills. While I appreciate Verizon and Comcrap telling me the bill is on the way, I want that fucking envelope arriving in my fucking mailbox so I can put my bill out right away. If I don't get those bills with in the first 12 days of the month (for example) I can call those pieces of shit and tell them to get their fucking shit together if they want me to pay on time. The DC Water people love to only send bills every other month, and then they wonder when I get pissed the fuck off when I don't get a bill every month. Don't be busting my balls because you jank ass motherfuckers can't send me a bill every month like your supposed to.

End rant. No automatic payments.

 

Speaking for me, too.

 

when i was single, saving money was a snap and i also paid my credit-card bills off monthly. in fact, i only had an amex card, which requires monthly pay-in-full amounts.

21 years later, with a wife, three boys and an admittedly too-high- mortgage, i make no apologies for being in credit-card debt. also no apologies for where we live; the mortgage was under control until we were forced to move for my disability reasons four years ago -- and voila! welcome to the world of credit-card debt.

i know, we could've sucked it up and moved to a less expensive town when we had to move, but with three kids between 10 and 15 at the time i refused to turn their lives upside down by relocating away from their schools and friends. and also mrs. shockey and my own friends, who we treasure and lean on beyond anything you can possibly imagine.

at the time, i was still getting an annual raise of 3,000 bucks a year. that ceased the year after we moved. so that's 9,000 bucks out the window. add in the eldest in college now and that furloughs, pay reductions and health-benefit charges are cutting my salary by 19 grand in '09 and you get 28,000 buckaroos less than we imagined i'd be making when we moved.

easy for "suck it up" folks to chirp about how we didn't live within our means, but for the most part we did. you can only put your fingers in the dikes to stop the leakage for so long.

all's i'm saying is that credit-card debt can hit any of us when circumstances are beyond our control. sure, where we chose to move was within our control, but the debt didn't start piling up until the biz started failing me.

and that's how i keep myself and other friends in the biz who are battling depression and high anxiety over our middle-aged plights. one bud, who writes for probably the most respected daily in the land, in particular has been in a funk of late, feeling like a failure.

my pep talk is that we didn't suddenly "fail" anything. the biz has failed us.

guess i've entered threadjack territory. it's my rambling hour. sorry. what was the topic again?

 

No offense, shockey, but my parents didn't pay a dime for my college -- and couldn't afford to even if I had wanted them to. If you guys are struggling that much, tell the kid to fill out a FAFSA form. He's an adult; he can be responsible for his own education.

Never understood why parents feel obligated to pay for their kids' education, or why kids feel entitled to have their education paid for by the 'rents. If you can afford it, great. But if you can't ... you can't. And there's no shame in that.

Not judging here; I just feel sincerely about that particular situation.

 

Could not agree with this more. When I got my car they offered me $20 less a month to have it deducted from my account. No freaking way was I going to do that and to this day the only automatic withdrawal I have is my insurance, due only to the fact that Esurance (fuck 'em) offers no other way to pay.

 

oh, i agree, buck. we won't hesitate to do that -- although it's far from ideal. i mean, taking out college loans in my day could be paid off pretty quickly post-graduation. having my kids start out so deep in debt after college/grad school isn't ideal, but it is the reality of our times.

that said, i must admit our credit-card debt sitch isn't because of college costs. it's what has crept up on us due to the ever-rising cost of living over the years and the sudden plummeting of my income.

 

What's wrong with Esurance, Ross? I've had them for four years, never had a problem. (Of course, never filed a claim, either -- knock on wood. Almost had to last weekend.)

 

You are by no means a failure. Listen to the advice on this thread, and you'll be fine in the long run.