People who spend their money on stupid shit, then cry poverty:

I call them 'spendaholics'. I've known a couple in my time. They're not that interested in the crap they buy, but rather it's the hunt for the junk they're addicted to. They constantly have Amazon orders on the way, and once the orders arrive and they open the boxes the products are usually shoved into a closet and rarely seen again and they anxiously await their next delivery.

Why do the stupidest people create threads late at night?

Because we're not all living in the same time zone, dickhead.

R2 does not have a very good grasp of the obvious.

There's something about OP's idiotic "welfare queen" post that feels very American. He could live on the other side of the world but I doubt it. There's a clear trend of really vacuous posts appearing on DL between 11 PM and 2 AM PST.

Actually, r5, I'm not talking about people on benefits, but those who sponge off the people around them.

R4 like you?

Also, r5: I'm in Western Australia, genius.

Predict and project away.

My "poor" friends always have nicer phones and/or iPads than me. I always find that interesting.

Cry me a river

"Everything's sooo expensive, I can barely pay my bills!" said the financial dumbass buying more shit to clutter their house, crap they don't need, or things to spoil themselves

If their cars are less than 15 years old before they buy another, then they're wasting money.

[quote] My "poor" friends always have nicer phones and/or iPads than me. I always find that interesting.

That's because you live responsibly, and they don't. And that's because you were raised right, and they weren't.

I have to say, while I don’t condone irresponsible spending, why are we so surprised? We live in a capitalist, consumerist culture, where we are pounding people with the message that their value as human beings comes down to image, money, status, prestige, and power. We don’t encourage people to not worry about how they dress, driving an old car, not having every gadget replaced the second a new version comes out.

In short, we do not reward healthy behavior, we reward unhealthy behavior. We need to start taking responsibility for the bad values we’ve fostered and start sending people a more positive message. Your self-worth is not determined by your ability to buy Botox and fillers and EV’s. Who you are inside is what counts, and how you treat yourself and others is what gives your life purpose and meaning.

Reject hype — don’t be a slave to the messages of social media.

[quote]People who spend their money on stupid shit, then cry poverty

IOW, 90% of Americans.

A few weeks ago, I watched some of the stories on Chris Watts and the murder of his wife and children.

Mention was made of the debt that the family was in.

While watching the cop's body cam footage inside the Watts home and reading about their house, I couldn't help but wonder why they needed or decided to sign up for a 5 bedroom house. There was just the husband and wife and 2 little girls. And yes, they were expecting another child. But a much smaller house with 3 bedrooms would have cost a lot less. The camera footage showed that the basement was huge.

No wonder they were in debt.

People buy things beyond their means and then (shock, amazement) they owe a lot of money. He was only making $60K a year and how much money could his wife be making?

Stupid behavior.

Three years before the murders, they had already filed for bankruptcy.

R16 Blue collar losers.

I work in the beauty industry and a lot of hair dressers are married to trade job men and pump out kids while trying their best to live beyond their means.

I’m also a photographer and I’m driven by career over lifestyle.

I don’t know what it’s like when your ambition is to get married, have kids, and maintain a upper middle or wealthy looking lifestyle to show off to your family and friends or join your family and friends. Building a status or hierarchy amongst your world / circle, etc. I’d rather present my photography and be looked at for my work than my life.

So I understand Shannon and Chris among the many other people I meet who do it but I don’t connect with it enough to relate.

I’m gay, people have always been disappointed in me and whatever my future was going to hold so I had no interest in building this facade I see so many straights do, and now with social media, gay men are doing today.

And it seems miserable.

And I’ll also add on to my R17, people with money usually don’t flaunt it.

I’m outside of Boston and the people I know who are wealthy are typically living below their means.

Like sorry to the golddiggers but you can’t spot a rich guy in Boston. They’re invisible.

If I see guys walking around looking flashy, they’re probably car dealers or real estate guys. Not bad jobs but those guys are more likely to flaunt their money than a millionaire in Boston.

I know a millionaire who won’t buy a fancy car or a big house because he doesn’t want his co-workers to know how much money he’s making. He doesn’t want a plumber overcharging him cause he’s in a fancy house, etc. He wants to blend in.

His wife has what she wants. She doesn’t have to work, they have a boat, a summer house next state up, nice life but she’s not buying bags on Newburyport Street in Boston with the hairdressers and strippers who want to appear opulent.

I remember when I first came out and was going to a gay bar, there was always some fag hag there, a sad fat girl who had a small toddler, and she was always there with a drink, yet she'd walk around and ask the guys there for money for diapers.

Like, why are you here drinking Long Island Iced Teas if your baby is at home, bitch?

Not so stealth boomer thread

When you’re poor, little things mean a lot. Like ciggies. I don’t indulge much in those other things.

The Watts home was pure Big Lots decor.

I came here to post what r21 posted.

If you're barely getting by and living hand to mouth, you tend to seek immediate gratification to distract you from your financial problems. Booze, cigarettes, pot, eating out in restaurants, clothes, cosmetics -- all things within your reach. You might know it's not responsible, but it's very hard to plan long-term when you're just trying to get through the day or week. And in addition, saving money is not immediately gratifying for many people. It requires forethought and restraint, things that take mental energy and planning.

You're poor and you have twenty bucks on you. You can save it, or you can buy a pack of cigs and some beer. For many in this position, the choice is clear.

I'd say your calculus is wrong, OP. It's the poverty (or financial distress) that usually comes before the frivolous spending.

It's easy to chide people worse off than you for their apparent irresponsible spending, especially if you yourself are financially stable. It might be a little harder to empathize.

OP = Judith Sheindlin

OP you seem envious and depressed. You've embellished this stupid story. I hope things improve for you before you further embarrass yourself.

[quote]People who spend their money on stupid shit, then cry poverty: Are they all addicts of some kind? Especially when they buy themselves all the drugs, booze, smokes, designer clothing, junk food, whatever the fuck, but need to live off other people to survive? They never say that they spent their way into trouble, and will save their way out of it. No, I have never expressed these thoughts to people like this. I am avoiding the ones I know so that nothing shows on my face or in my voice. Someone who spoils themselves rotten but can't afford proper medical care for their pets or children belongs in hell. Maybe they're already there.

Do your tits hurt from your spraying the milk of human kindness around here like a fire hose, cunt?

This is some tired avocado toast bullshit.

Give me your $1.99 and shut the fuck up

Cunts at r23 and r26, I spent most of my 20s on the disability pension before my multiple chronic neurological conditions were finally diagnosed. Doctors and meds including antibiotics took up a fair whack of my income, as did following a special diet so the medications I was on didn't destroy my liver. They certainly gave me migraines and fucked with me in other ways.

Prior to that, I had been a full time student with multiple jobs on the go for three years.

I knew something was very wrong with me physically (although I would never have guessed the problems were neurological), took a lot of shit from expensive, skeptical doctors (my family were even worse to me) and I still managed to make sure I never needed to ask anyone for money.

That's why I asked if they were addicts (addiction is a disease) and if they were already experiencing a kind of hell.

Why do you feel compelled to stop by and post on a thread where not only do you take offence to the opening post, you conjure up scenarios justifying your criticism?

Absolute fucking idiots.

R29, after all that up there you had better be pretty with serious tube steak and low hangers.

How does OP land himself lost in the midst of such a jungle of trashy drama? Not only does the post speak poorly of these sorts, but it rather clearly speaks no less poorly of himself.

To be so often and so badly burned by these misadventures doesn't speak so well of our OP's qualities either.

A lot of those things are addictions, OP. That doesn't make it right, but there you go.

Wealthy shits can blow millions for their wants, pleasures, addictions, whims and disorders.

And they can pay what it takes to get treatment, therapy and care in a hundred expensive ways.

So the poor, disordered, depressed, uneducated bottom rung of society is obliged to have greater wisdom, greater ethical strength and self-reliance than the avaricious cunts who squander resources like locusts?

Fuck Trumpian/MAGA/GOP fascist propaganda.

And to hell with DL trolls.

And r33 closes the thread.

Related thread.

R35, wrong generation.

Who is booking multiple trips a year, eating out always, constant Uber eats, buying a new thousand dollar phone every year, but then moans about houses being “impossible to buy?”

I recently left a non-profit that helped get the homeless into homes. We had a storeroom of donations of various kinds from hygiene to food to clothing. On a daily basis, we'd have mothers coming in for diapers, wipes, and formula that had their hair and nails did, the newest phone, and a shitload of real gold jewelry.

zzzzz r37

My place needs a refresh. So lately I have been going to high end estate sales looking specifically for lamps and wall art. Well, I've come across some interesting people, let me tell you. Hoarders. Mostly middle aged, and elderly, but just buying shit to be buying shit. One lady was clearly a regular because the staff knew her, and there was a Gay man there buying all kinds of odds and ends. Not even things you'd want to decorate with! The kind of stuff you ask, "Who'd buy that?" and the stuff wasn't cheap either.

I became a food hoarder during the pandemic. I was afraid of running out of stuff. I'm still finding expired canned goods, things that expired in 2022, and throwing them away.

r39 and r40 Fascinating stories

I knew a couple of guys who declared bankruptcy and, after the bankruptcy was finalized, immediately went on a month-long European vacation. They laughed about. And this was their second bankruptcy. People like that piss me off.

Instant gratification to distract them from their desperate living situation.

sounds about right. we all want to be rewarded for getting through this thing called life.

I sometimes overspend on business class airfare . I pay a premium for direct flights and things like that. I will pay more to avoid very early morning departures and things like that.

I can be impulsive and overpay for “discounted” fancier work clothes, but honestly I know the 50% or 70% discount is based on a wildly overpriced item, so I pay probably the actual market value. In these past few years, I have cut way back on this type of spending. I try to buy really good quality but simple items, never trendy things because I’d feel silly in them.

I add fairly large tip to my weekly online grocery order because it feels like paying a stranger to go and get my groceries. Sometimes the delivery person is a guy my own age, and I feel as though that could have been me.

I know I could be more careful and abstemious but I work pretty hard and make a lot of hard decisions in work and life. A few indulgences and treats soften the edges. I probably overspend on media subscriptions, but not fancy electronics. My cars are nice but older models bought second hand. I may overpay to have them serviced by the dealer, but I do it to ensure that the work is guaranteed and the parts are OEM (original equipment manufacturer).

R45, you sound prudent in how you spend. Traveling by air can be so uncomfortable. If you can afford to upgrade on a long flight, that's probably worth the money.

Not sure what you mean by "fancier" work clothes.

Tipping some guy who is your age who is delivering groceries seems like a kind thing to do.

Softening the edges is a good use of money. Life can be really harsh, sometimes.

I prefer to save my scorn and contempt for people who are outrageously wealthy, rarely having worked as hard as a great many people who live hand to mouth, and yet lavish their money on far more "stupid shit" and do little to nothing to benefit society.

Let’s pick on the poor and just ignore the kind of people who buy Supreme Court justices. It’s the American way. 🇺🇸

I had a friend (hetero frau, married w/3 children). She often complained to me about her financial situation. She asked me for advice on a family vacation - where should they go, how many dayS (3, 4, or 5) should they spend in __X__ Disney park, etc. She told me (without my asking) that they were borrowing money to take this vacation. I just said you shouldn't go on the vacation if you have to borrow money. She said that not going was not an option.

What social class are you in? Well, how do you spend it?

I assume that most vacations involve credit? Conspicuous consumption!

Everybody spends money on stupid shit. It's patriotic to consume. But the consequences are real.

I know few Americans who don't spend money on "stupid shit," by someone else's definition, of course

Strip mall shopping splurges, buying bags of things they can barely be bothered to open but couldn't resist because it was cheap or cute or, for s few minutes, it filled some hole inside or aspired to some change that would never happen.

Vacations to places they know or care fuck allí about but keep hearing the exotic name of a destination.

Bigger houses, bigger cars, more land around their houses. Insulate, insulate insulate! Or is it numb, numb, numb oneself? Bigger jobs to spend bigger money on more and bigger things: the real estate, the commute, the more expensive vacations, the bigger list of jobs on LinkedIn, the bigger order at the more expensive coffee shop because, well, that fucking commute. But rarely is a bigger sense of happiness or contentment involved, or even simple pleasure at some accomplishment or improvement; instead it's a hunger that's never filled, an empty aspiration without fulfilment. They don't like their few friends, their relationships with family are prickly.

It's not an unusual thing to see in some form among Americans who earn any money at all.

Of course, r27, it is all on me. All of it is my own fault.

R33, and r34: If I'm a troll, why are you on this thread?

You are trolling a troll, no?

So that makes you trolls, yes?

Btw, I fucking hate Trump, most Republicans and Putin, before you accuse me of being a Russian troll.

A MAGAt? I wouldn't be alive if I was born in the US. I am grateful for living in a welfare state. I always will be. It is better than any other alternative and I happily pay my shitload of tax, as do so many people close to me. Disappointment in two people does not mean I am campaigning for a ruthless "survival of the the fittest" regime, which sees so many slide under.

Fuck you, though. Thanks to the paranoia and assumptions displayed on this thread alone, I now understand how the word Libtard came to coined. All your madly incorrect proselytising...know this: You are not liberals. True liberals don't rush to chime in as you cunts did. You're not very smart, either.

Addiction is everywhere. I just never thought I'd see the day where someone I thought had a kind heart would be so ruled by his need for drugs, cigarettes and alcohol, that he'd not get his badly injured dog operated on after being hit by a car. He does have a job.

I also never thought that a retired business mover and shaker would piss away all of their considerable money and resort to overt manipulation trying to get us to let them move in with us, and so many other people.

I don't want to hear "I told you so", so I can't discuss it with anyone. I was warned in a very clear way about the second person, my former mentor - and I didn't listen. I thought they both were...different to how they are.

I'm also exhausted from constantly working remotely while having Covid.

Posting on a thread that offends you = you are a troll.

OP = racist

Thank you for the laugh, r55.

I resemble this thread!

I spend too much on food, and it doesn't keep well in this climate.

What's the market price for tsetse flies, r58?

I think we as Americans are terrible with money, but it really is an issue at all levels of society.

People don't know how to save and live well beyond their means. Our economy and society has pushed consumption since the 1950s as a social status and a personal right for most of us.

Poor people make bad choices, but the choices they make on that level are no more foolish or heinous than the couple that makes $250K a year and yet has a double mortgage on their home and still goes out and buys a new car and a boat.

As Suze Orman would say, someone should have told them "You are DENIED, girlfriend!"

Miss R54 reallllllllllyyyyyy didn't like being called out on her shit, did she?

R61, bitch please. You/they made staggeringly incorrect assumptions.

Try to increase your brain power and use it to keep Trump from getting back in.

Hint: Trolling on DL won't achieve that.

Don't make me choose between my Fiestaware and healthcare!

Many, many wealthy people use bankruptcy as a way to avoid having to pay their debts.

Do you all hear yourselves? Poor people don't deserve to have nice things likes phones (probably got them for free with a plan), nails done (I mean, that's a whopping $15 or maybe, just maybe they do their nails themselves. Some people are really good at doing their own nails). Poor people don't deserve to have the love of a pet if they cannot afford it!

You all type stupid. And fat.

I went to the casino this weekend. I go for the free pop and to watch Deplorables lose their money.

sure, Jan @ R65

I wish I knew more about how that stuff works. I pay my bills on time and have a great credit rating and I try to live within my means but it burns my ass to know people live like kings and never pay their bills and just walk away from their debts, and let their homes get foreclosed, and they can just get a new home and keep doing that shit. They don't even pay their income tax. I hate them.

Who do you know who does that, r67? I know of two people who walked away from their homes during the housing crisis of 2008. Both were able to buy houses later but needed co signers.

My dad lived by racking up debt, then filing for BK about 3 times in his life. He never got anything fancy...just used his credit cards to pay for groceries, dinners out (to places like Dennys), etc. He drove used cars and lived in a house that was falling apart. We grew up poor. He recently asked my sister for money and she told him to go to hell. None of his kids have money and are barely scraping by. Don't have kids if you cannot afford them. My life has been a constant struggle when it comes to money. It sucks.

Yeah, fuck all the MANY people (middle class and up) who get free money from mommy and daddy and then act like little geniuses.

When you’re poor spending money gives you a boost. When I was unemployed I spent money on an extremely expensive haircut. Now that I have money, I would never go near the place.