I Am Poor
My mom's one of those people who substitutes drugs or alcohol for shopping. A shopaholic I believe they're called. Any time she was troubled, sad, lonely, or just plain bored she'd deal with it buy shopping. She didn't care if she had the money or not, she'd just get in the car and go.
As a child I enjoyed it. What kid wouldn't like a toy shopping spree for no apparent reason? But I must have inherited some of her tendencies because I have absolutely no skills with money whatsoever. When I'm in my manic phase I'll buy anything that looks good simply because I'm so hyper and erratic that I just don't care. When I'm in my depressed phase I try to make myself feel better by shopping. When I'm in a balanced state I suck at math anyway so I still spend more then I should.
Three years ago I was the victim of identity fraud and some jerkhole leeched my checking account of 600 dollars. To a 21 year old who's surviving on canned pasta and tap water that's a small fortune. It was all the money I had saved for my apartment. I eventually got some of it back, but still my credit was trashed.
A year later Capital One sent me an application for a card that was supposed to help me "rebuild my credit". I applied for the card and was accepted just in time to incur a HUGE medical bill. I used the card to pay it. I kept making payments but the interest rate was insane. I got it paid down pretty good but then my car died. A thousand dollars later and I was right back where I started. I kept going and going like this, paying it down, then a stroke of bad luck right up until I had a particularly bad depressive spell where I pretty much gave up.
I've just been successfully sued for the sum balance on my credit card. I have a payment hearing in three months.
Pray for me.
