I’ve emailed you the link, Ilsa.
I must say after reading all of the LJ links I have changed my mind. I am not at all sure they would qualify for all of the programs people have suggested. After all they are for poor people. The Mavens don’t seem to be poor in any meaningful way.
Their expenditures are insane. My wife and I make a decent living and our cars are an '01 Civic and a '91 Volvo. We don’t have high speed internet and we certainly don’t spend $500 a month for furniture.
Government welfare programs are not meant to subsidize those who are unable to control their spending. They own a home and both work. Hubby could pick up some extra shifts and they could refinance the house. My last shreds of sympathy have blown away because I know what it is like to be young and poor.
This is a case of being young and stupid.
Brad darling, I would really like an LJ code if you still have it.
And ,sorry, I was completely slow on the up take with lezlers lovely post.
I also found it amusing that in the thread linked to, she refuses to go into debt for her education (student loans), but pays five hundred a month to pay off for fucking FURNITURE.
Can we say priorities?
shaking head
I’m just very sad by this person.
Okay, misunderstandings. I hope no one is pissed at me.
First, I meant the I was offending people with the -possibly-construed-as-sexist phrase “panties in a wad.”
Second, I misintepreted lezlers post. I was putting “chicken” and “dixie” into the “Interest” box. :o
Third, many thanks to artemis for the link.
Fourth, thanks to ‘punha for loggin’ on to give me directions.
I’ve been real frazzled to day and I wasn’t communicating well.
I know way too many people like IDBB. In a year, her posts will be complaining of her troubles with CPS, and that they’ve been kicked out of their third apartment.
Oh, and I don’t think she can be real.
She is way too cogent and eloquent in her posting to be real.
Kayce Swenson, anyone?
Kaycee Nicole/Debbie Swenson, that is.
Who’s that, Ilsa?
Here ya go Guin:
Agreed.
IDBB is faker than a three dollar bill. There are just waaaaaaaaaaaay too many things that don’t add up. Also, why does she keep bringing attention to her LJ (hell, look at the attention this thread has caused).
JFTR, she could easily make the journal private but that would defeat her purpose.
Ilsa,
No worries!
Magayuk
Shucks, you’re gonna make me blush…
And I’m so not kidding. My 1 year old nephew does get it, it’s been repeated so damn much! Don’t know why IDBB can’t.
I’m telling you, I would love to have a conversation with her husband!
Just wanted to reiterate…
I came from the hospital today and they had an article there in the parenting section that stated if you do not make at least $30,000 it is financially more advisable to stay home from work.
Oh and many hugs to those who are unable/having trouble concieving. Parallax and I went through tests and treatments and were told that unless we went with some of the more invasive stuff that we would never have kids. With my kidney condition there was no way I could handle the invasive stuff… so we gave up. We were doubly blessed though because we were surprised twice with babies but the 5 years before I got pregnant with our daughter were rough.
I am so sick of her whining about being poor. IDBB you want to know what poor is? Poor is a family of seven living a two room shack. Poor is having no running water, going to the outhouse in January and thawing the water bucket out before you could get a drink. Poor is owning two sets of clothes, and they’re both hand me downs. Poor having to hunt for your own meat or going hungry.Poor is taking your Saturday night bath in the same tub you used to wash clothes in Saturday morning.
That’s how I grew up. And I was lucky. At least my parents grew our food, and didn’t drink up what little money they had. We never had to go to bed hungry. Many people do.
There are several Dopers who have been homeless and hungry. So don’t give us anymore of your whining about being poor.
Awww, now look what you did folks. She went and made her journal friends-only. Dammit.
Considering she’s only got one friend listed, it’s going to get awfully lonely in there.
By the way. I don’t have a journal code so if you have something to say to me say it here.
…which makes me think that it’s not going to be friends-only for long.
I have to say the same thing. I got pregnant unintentionally, when we had only been married for a year. I’d been on birth control, though. At any rate, we had ONE B&W small screen TV. We would have vastly preferred a larger color TV, but we got the B&W free from a relative, so we made do with it. We also did NOT have cable of any sort, though we could have gotten a pretty good deal. My husband enjoys watching TV immensely. But cable was not a necessity, so we did without, and watched only broadcast TV*. Back in those days, of course, there WAS no internet. We kept long distance calls to a minimum, and kept in touch with friends and family with pen and paper. Most of the things that you talk about over long distance can be written about, as well. My husband DID call everyone when I went into labor, and again when I actually had our daughter.
Speaking of my pregnancy, I was doing fine up until my fourth or fifth month. Then I developed toxemia (sp?). My legs became quite swollen. I was put on partial bed rest for a couple of months, and then I was put on complete bed rest for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy. By complete bed rest, I mean that I was allowed to stand up to go to the bathroom and take a shower, and allowed to sit up for meals. Other than that, I was supposed to be lying in bed. Even if I’d had a job, I would not have been able to work. This wasn’t a luxury for me. My health and life depended on it. So did the health and life of my daughter.
I’m a reading fiend. For years and years, I rationed myself to 6 paperbacks a year, and used the library for the rest of my reading desires. I didn’t get to read everything I wanted to, and I do wish that I’d made different choices about which 6 books I’d picked up (I still have most of them), but it was about choices. Most of those paperbacks, incidentally, were bought used.
I was a college dropout…dropped out to get married. Yeah, that was a mistake. However, I’ve picked up a few courses now and then at the community college. I happen to know that our local community colleges offer groups of courses which can all be taken in one semester’s time for various jobs…for instance, one group teaches touchtyping, 10 key by touch, and other office skills. While these programs don’t offer a diploma, they DO count towards college credit, and just by taking ONE semester’s worth of these courses one can vastly improve one’s skill set and hirability. I didn’t do this when I was a new mom, though. I took on a few paper routes (I could throw the papers while pushing my daughter in a stroller) and I did other odd jobs from home. I only took jobs that would allow me or my husband to be home with our daughter. However, one can pick up housecleaning jobs, babysitting jobs, etc. on an irregular basis. IF I had completed college and had a degree and was making decent money, then it might have paid off for me to keep on the executive track. However, childcare costs would have eaten up all of my salary and then some if I’d tried to work at a full time job. (Does that sound familiar at all?)
Speaking of child care, we just recently had ANOTHER child care center close here in this area. The driver didn’t check to see that all the kids got out of the van when he delivered them to the center, and a toddler died. We’ve got some very good daycare centers here, but they are VERY pricy, and they are pretty much all ONLY open during the day, no night or afternoon workers can use them.
What else? We made do with ONE car for a long, long time. It was hell, and now I hate to be without my own car, but we just could not afford to have two cars, with all the expenses of two cars. It’s not just two car payments, it’s the license fees, insurance (mandatory in Texas), maintenance, etc.
We very rarely went out to eat. We didn’t take vacations or trips of any kind, not even on special deals, because we simply couldn’t afford it. We did save up for vacations, but mostly spent the time and money on trips to see family for weddings, funerals, whatever. And we went on those trips fewer than once a year. Trips and excursions are LUXURIES, not necessities by any means.
We lived in apartments/multifamily dwellings for YEARS. That’s just what you do when you’re young and are not really well established yet. Owning a house and building equity is all very nice, IF one is in a position to afford it. Owning a house and starving, or letting one’s child starve, is penny wise and pound foolish.
Most of our furniture has always been obtained used. A couple of years ago, we bought some NEW bookshelves for my room. We’ve bought new beds and mattresses. Other than that, just about everything else has been obtained used, over 26 years.
I’m sorry about the length of this post, but I had to give up a LOT in order to have a child. Just about ANY parent will have to sacrifice a great deal, in time, effort, and money.
*I live in the same general area as MetalMaven does, and we have PLENTY of broadcast stations, even if some of them ARE in Spanish or are religious, we have LOTS of general interest stations too.
I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her here either.
YOu guys are all crazy.
You make these big long posts like she can READ and stuff, you post numbers and figures like she can add and subtract.
IF SHE IS REAL - which i doubt to my core - she is a complete and total moron, incapable of understanding the most basic of concepts, she probably burns her fingers every day on the deep fryer.
If ‘she’ ISNT real, ‘she’ is laughing ‘her’ ASS off as ‘she’ sits in ‘her’ lazy boy, smoking a stogie, jerking off under ‘her’ beer belly as ‘she’ brags to ‘her’ wife about the internet jerks ‘she’ is fooling.
Either way, for gods sake, quit FEEDING HER.
The thing is, she hasn’t made it friends-only…she’s just turned off comments except to those on her friends list. Her entries are still completely public. If she were honestly interested in just keeping the journal for herself and her friend (as she only has one single friend defined in her LJ), then she would make the entries themselves only readable by friends only, not just non-commentable. Hence, she still wants everyone to read her bullshit, she just doesn’t want the consequences of people commenting on it.
Which, as The Wrong Girl points out, probably won’t last long, because the fact is, she posts solely for reaction.