I have to agree with you that people here consume themselves into poverty. I live in “affordable” housing and we got here while my husband was still in college. It is a very nice apartment in a very nice are. Today I went in to the manager’s office to ask her a question. She explained to me that 131 people paid rent today – LATE!!! She was frantically writing out reciepts. As we spoke, one more person came in and paid his rent late. She remarked to me that the majority of people pay the rent late (there are only 170 something apartments and not all are occupied right now) but of course they won’t pay the fancy car payment late! Some of the rents are as low as $300 and they can’t pay it on time!!!! You should see our dumpsters the day after Christmas!!!!! Some of these families spare no expense and buy the kids some very pricey items. Does a kid in elementary school need an IPOD? I’m talking real IPOD – not generic.

For us, this is just a stepping stone. We now have the chance to pay off our debts from my husband going to college. We don’t have cable T.V. because we don’t really need it and my parents pay for our cell phones because they think its important for us to have one. We are paying for the internet as it is something that he needs for his job.

Now that it is tax season – I’m sure that soon there will be adds on T.V. saying ,”Come to ____________ and spend your tax return here!” Similar to an ad campaign that Home Depot or Lowes had a couple of years ago. Since I don’t have T.V. I won’t be seeing these adds but others that do just get it in their heads to go spend, spend, spend!
We got our tax return and plunked most of it into paying off one of our larger balance credit cards. We are planning to do the same next year and we should have all of our debt paid off within 16 months. In this case, affordable housing is doing something to help us out and then when we are ready to move on – WE WILL!!!!! Some of my neighbors will be here forever. Those are the same neighbors that are shocked that we go without the finer things in life.
It takes a sacrifice to get ahead and many people just have not had that taught to them by their own parents or they just don’t care. Its very sad for me to see that a lot of these kids that are my neighbors will wind up in the same situation that their parents are in. Maybe schools should teach kids more about how to get the most out of money. Every time I get a credit card bill, I cringe at the interest I have to pay! To some people it is just a fact of life and they don’t even realize that it works the other way – that we can save and earn interest ourselves. I’m looking forward to the time when our money works for us and every time I pay something else off – I’m delighted!