Check out this very long thread, if you like:
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.food.cooking/c/gGqU_PB0teo/m/yOOaGh2pAQAJ
It starts with a Foxtrot Sunday comic strip about a fictional math teacher who, apparently, thinks it's beneath her dignity to spend less than $500 a month on...food!
(But that's not the joke of the strip, believe it or not. I'm assuming that's what she spends on food, given the median salary for math teachers. You'll see what I mean.)
So anyway, down the thread, I had these exchanges:
On Friday, March 11, 2022 at 11:54:18 AM UTC-5, Mike Duffy wrote:
On Fri, 11 Mar 2022 07:22:53 -0800, Lenona wrote:
On Friday, March 11, 2022 at 10:06:57 AM UTC-5, Mike Duffy wrote:
But remember the story about the lady who had millions all her life and
did not realize she was broke until the day came when the bank machine
refused to dish out a wad of cash.
Sounds fascinating. Where can I read the news story, please?
It was quite a while ago, and despite that a cursory search does provide entertainment worthy of composing such a web search, I have been unable
to divine the exact combination of search parameters necessary to
retrieve the story I am referring to.
It reminds me of what the self-spoiled Bosie (played by Jude Law) says
in the 1997 movie "Wilde" (when he's whining about Oscar not giving him enough presents, I think):
"No gentleman ever has the slightest idea of what his bank balance is!"
(As in, it was BENEATH an upper-class man to take notice of such
things.)
That was pretty much her story. Also, all her bill payments had been set
up for auto-pay, including a firm engaged to pay her taxes, &c.
March 14th, 2022
Was it this story, from 24 years ago? (She's also known as Barbara Huson and has written at least five books on finance, according to Amazon.)
I found it by searching on "riches to rags," "atm," and "woman."
"No More Prince Charmings -- Barbara Stanny Hopes To Open Women's Eyes With Her Riches-To-Rags Past"
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19980223&slug=2736159
And here's an article she wrote a year after that one:
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/09/business/my-money-my-life-the-first-step-to-financial-independence.html
Excerpt:
"...Prince Charming isn't coming -- and please note that the prince need not be a man. Our prince could be an insurance settlement, the lottery or anything we fantasize will rescue us financially.
"To become genuinely savvy, we must be able to say with total conviction that we can do it ourselves. It doesn't matter if we are male or female, single, married or living with a partner. As long as even a tiny part of us is waiting for, hoping,
expecting someone or something to assume responsibility for us, we will never fully take charge of our finances -- and our future security..."
_______________________________________________________
March 11, 2022
(At any rate, comic strips are frequently good barometers of the behavior of average people, which is why i started off with one.)
I DO know that the average American isn't frugal. According to one source, the average American had well over $6,000 in credit card debt in early 2020. I find that shocking.
And, from consumerfinance.gov:
"From 2018 to 2020, the CFPB estimates that Americans paid roughly $120 billion per year in credit card interest and fees. That works out to about $1,000 per year for every American household. During the pandemic, credit card debt started to decline as
many households reduced their borrowing and paid down more."
So, that would suggest people are taking thrift more seriously. ________________________________________________________________
On 2022-03-12, Lenona > wrote:
On Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 10:22:55 AM UTC-5, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
On 2022-03-12, Lenona wrote:
On Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 5:19:39 AM UTC-5, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
I did so because we ALL know at least one
person who has no idea how to stay out of debt and who complains about
money problems - and it's far too easy to waste money on food, since we
eat daily.
No, we don't ALL know someone like that. I don't. Everybody I know is
an engineer, mathematician, or scientist who treats money as an exercise
in optimization.
So every 21-year-old you know already has one of those titles? Wow.
Cindy Hamilton:
I don't know any 21-year-olds. Everybody I know is over 40. When I was
still working, my co-workers were engineers of one sort or another. I
worked as a computer programmer, so we had an assortment of Computer
Science, Electrical Engineering, Control Systems Engineering, and
related disciplines. My husband worked with mathematicians and
physicists in addition to engineers.
Dave Smith:
Oh come on. You have to know at least one. I had a friend who owed so
much on credit cards that he had a hard time paying the monthly
minimums. I have a nephew who was up to his ears in credit card debt.
He had to get some help to get the debts consolidated and borrowed money
to pay them off so that he could finance a house purchase. The next
thing I knew he was out spending money. He moved into the house in late
fall and he picked up a patio set and a gas BBQ because they were on
sale. Of course they were on sale. It was way past patio and BBQing
season.
Jill:
We don't all know the same people Cindy does. I do know it's not just 20-somethings. I had a neighbor who was a divorced woman in her 70's.
(She died a couple of years ago.) She used to go on trips several times
a year and I'd cat-sit for her. She spent money like she had money (on
all sorts of frivolous things)... until she couldn't. When she admitted
she was struggling I'd take her to the grocery store.
She had a lazy-susan style corner kitchen cabinet. I mentioned I love
those kinds of cabinets. She swiveled it open - it was full of unpaid
bills! Could have knocked me over with a feather. The way to handle
debt is not to ignore it but that's what she did.
I don't know how, but right around this time she managed to buy a brand
new car. (There was nothing wrong with the one she had, it was only
about 5 years old.) She also somehow managed to rent an apartment in a
nearby town; she knew she was about to be evicted from her home. She
vamoosed two days ahead of the Sheriff's Department coming to forcibly
remove her from the house for non-payment of the mortgage.
I saw her a couple of times after that. She'd gotten a job at Publix Supermarket working in the floral department. She was 76 years old at
the time. :(
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