When I left home this weekend, I grabbed 2 trashbags' worth of paperwork and misc. unopened bills. My mother is a pack rat and doesn't dispose of things, not even bills/empty envelopes that have been dealt with. Another bad habit of my mother is to write "important" stuff all over the place. Including on empty envelopes, post it notes, napkins, or bills. Then she will freak out, and I mean, severely freak out if you toss or misplace any of them. So yes, I am expecting a huge fight once she returns (she's on a 2-6 week trip back home doing I dont know what). If the darn stuff she writes is important, get a freaking notebook! But I digress.
I managed to sort the trash-bag of bills into 4 rather huge piles:
-Trash (dumped this morning)
-Trash that needs to be shredded due to personal/sensitive info (bagged, not sure what to do with it. I want to light it on fire, but unsure if that'd be considered arson)
-Bills (debts and bills alike)
-Misc stuff I am not sure what they are, or they have stuff written
I also found out some good news and some very bad news.
Good news: There were only 8 creditors, with super high interest (22.15-26.99%), but with a total balance of only $6,800. I calculated I can ditch that amount in about 18 months. Not bad. Not bad at all. Those are the ones that I know of, by the way. Or the ones I found through the trashbag of papers. If that's good, I'm sure you're wondering what's bad. Total in minimum payments is $390 a month, which is a heck of a lot less than I expected. So it should be easy to make snowball payments on this, right? Wrong.
Bad news: As I have always known... the actual bill budget (includes only utilities/rent/credit cards) is about $800 higher than the household income. So I am $800 short per month. Or they are.
Why? Because they live in a house too big for one income to support. My mother doesn't work, and my dad receives a moderate pay which he has to work crazy overtime hours to make ends sort of meet. He's the only income in that house (besides me, but I am not counting my contribution or the bills I take care of as part of the equation, and consider them my bills vs household's). And when he gets a check, he hands it over to my mother, who I've discovered over the years, has a horrible, painfully horrible sense of financial management.
There are 5 family members living in that house. Nobody under 18. Am I the only one seeing something wrong with this picture?
Dad- Main provider, doesnt have any savings, doesn't want to touch finances. Hands checks to mother to
Mother-
BrotherR- Has/had a full time job, didn't pay car insurance, bought a new car and wasn't paying for anything else. Uses most of the household resources without putting anything in a penny. Is rude, obnoxious and constantly yells at my parents. Can we say, abusive?
BrotherG- Goes to school (pretty bad grades) and works semi part time, buys expensive snacks, doesnt pay for phone as agreed, which was only $50
SisterP- Goes to school full time. Only decent one. Doesnt work, but keeps grades high up.
Too many internal problems in all of this... And this isnt the first time I've tried to fix it. But before, I never had a goal to achieve. Now I do, and I wont let them ruin it. It will be a live-or-die situation. We'll see how this whole thing goes. Tomorrow I will post Oct's goals/update bars/plan to fix spreadsheet with an as-planned plan and as-happened plan.
I hate to be a downer but it sounds like you are being taken advantage of. If you could I would dump the part-time job and move out to the house completely. Tell your mom to grow up and your dad to grow back bone. As for the rest of the 'kids' not your problem. But the best thing you could ever do for yourself is to wash your hands of the lot of them. I know this make me sound like a B**ch, but your being taken advantage of!! Also if the car isn't in your name, don't pay for it... your brother's the one responsible NOT YOU!!! You will find yourself in a much stronger position if you dump the dead weights in your life.
ReplyDeleteHaha, not a downer at all, Sarah. Thanks for the comments. I've been told what you're telling me a few hundred times. And I completely agree, I am not all that ignorant on the whole 'being taken advantage of' deal... I fought with myself for 2 years before I made the decision to move out. Most of my reasoning was because I knew that, financially, my parents couldn't make it if I just picked up and left. So I added them to my budget. I finally made the move because I had enough and wanted to take care of myself for once.
ReplyDeleteEven then, I went with the lesser alternative (renting a room, at the cheapest yet safe alternative) in order to maintain my support to the house. Thing is, if my parents sink, nobody else will do anything. A bit of a dilemma. And I... really can't let them sink. Hence I am moving out of state as soon as I am able. I think/hope that being 700 miles away will finally help me not care for them as much, or have to care for them as much.