mixxalot – want an example of misplaced sense of priorities? Read this tragic story below. This woman can’t cremate her mother, but has money for toys.
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Comment by walt526
2007-09-03 13:16:54
Last week, a co-worker’s mother passed away. The co-worker is a single mom (13 year-old daughter and 4 year-old son) who had been living in a two-bedroom apartment with her mother (until she died). Her mother’s social security disability check basically covered their rent, while her paycheck covered everything else. So now she doesn’t know how she’s going to cover her September rent and can’t even come up with $600 to cremate her mother. She was overwhelmed with not only losing her mother, but was completely screwed financially.
This woman is a good friend at work, so I talked about it with my wife and we decided to give her a check for $300. So on Friday night, we headed over there to meet her at her apartment. We go inside and sit down and the 4 year-old starts showing us how to work the Comcast digital box. Then my co-worker asks me if we’d like to watch last week’s episode of Big Love on HBO On-Demand. She knows that my wife and I really like the show but only get to watch it when we’re over at my parents. We just subscribe basic cable because of the cost, even though we’re DINKs who gross a combined $90k.
I didn’t say anything, but that really pissed me off. The woman makes ~$35k with two kids, and she’s spending $100/month on Comcast? I also know that she has DSL plus a cell-phone for both herself and her 13 year-old daughter. So she’s probably spending around $200/month on telecommunications.
As I said to my wife once we were inside our car, that $300 isn’t paying to cremate her mother, but is paying for 3 months worth of cable. This country is doomed because nearly EVERYBODY confuses luxuries with necessities.
$600 is not that much money. Granted, it was an unexpected expense, but shit happens. You’ve got to be prepared. Next month it could be the timing belt on her van or something with her kid, etc. That’s why prudent people don’t spend everything they earn. Now I’m glad that we were able to help her out, but I just feel that she needs a serious reality check about how she spends her money.
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