Okay remember the $50 lunch bag? Well I now have a conversation about the $50 North Face Fleece. A friend (Mrs A) says to me I got a great deal on the fleece my daughter is wearing from Macy's. I got it for $50! My eyes bugged out and I said "$50?" I said "I didn't spend $50 on my columbia fleece I've had for over 5 years and your kid will outgrow it in 1 season." Mrs A "but for things they are going to use I believe in buying quality."
Now before you think I'm being a bit harsh Mrs A is BROKE. Big fat BROKE. I am not kidding. I mean IRS is garnishing her bank accounts. She talks about using a weekly paycheck to pay for this credit card and that car payment so it doesn't bounce. Thankfully she rents her apartment from her mom so she can't always afford $1500/month rent and complains about it for a 4 bedroom apartment. Going rate is between $4-5k where we live!
And in case you wondered I loaned her money $20 because she had no money in her checking account to get her kids into the indoor playspace (3 kids). I felt bad they drove there and she realized she had no money.
But she shops for high end clothes, she only buys food at Whole Foods, and she drives a $75k diesel SUV Mercedes (it's the large one). I have pointed out in the past that she needs to talk to the lawyer about the garnishments, her answer is well "D my husband said he'd take care of it."
She's super lucky her parents are loaded and can bail her out (ie living for basically free and expecting an inheritance, yes she's said as much). But still she's spiraling financially out of control and another friend said you can go to jail if they are garnishing your wages. I have no idea if that's true but said friend watches Real Housewives of NJ and said that Theresa Guidace is going to jail for tax stuff. I mean who screws with the IRS?
I don't know but it's like waiting for an accident to happen. And I may never see my money again (consider it a donation) but I figure it's the nature of the beast. She's a nice person and I do feel sad when I see her.
In a weird note I realized my food budget is way off. I used to say $400/month which according to my old tracking in excel it was around $400/month. Now it's between $500-600/month which I suspected because I spend around $125-$150/week. I can't believe how expensive food is getting or my kids are eating more. Granted two kids drinking organic milk a gallon a week each is running me around $50-60/month alone! But Geez.
$50 Jacket
October 2nd, 2014 at 06:03 pm
October 2nd, 2014 at 06:16 pm 1412273799
October 2nd, 2014 at 11:33 pm 1412292821
I also have groceries like that - I spend almost exactly what you do - $500 to $600 per month (our average last year was $586). Some things I buy organic, some I don't (I don't buy milk because of my stomach, but I do buy almond milk which isn't cheap). I have to buy gluten free pasta and cereal (more expensive). I shop at Trader Joe's and Sprouts.
The thing is: I want to have people over! And I want to host soccer coaches (we did two separate weeks this year). It increases the grocery budget definitely!
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:52 am 1412297562
October 4th, 2014 at 02:16 am 1412388974
October 6th, 2014 at 04:45 pm 1412613935
Buendia, I too buy almond milk for myself. I don't have sprouts and TJ isn't good for produce where I am. It's so expensive to host people now. And just paying attention to groceries I can get it cheaper but I am not super spendy to begin with and I want to cry thinking that it's a struggle now when I cook a lot from scratch, make leftovers, and I still can't cut the costs a lot.
First I'm not sure honestly.
Snafu, I do feel bad about Mrs A. I don't know I'd like to think that she honestly doesn't try to have people pay.