*sigh* seriously, some people annoy me. I don't understand how they can justify some things that they do, and then act shocked when someone points out how silly they are being.

A friend of a friend & her partner are in serious financial doo-doo. They owe more on their house than it's worth (it's not like it is in America - in our area that's kind of a hard thing to pull off, but somehow they managed). Even better, they don't owe that money to a bank, they owe it a business partner. They pay $750 a WEEK on their 'mortgage' (in comparison, DF and I pay $460 a week for a bigger house and land twice the size, and could probably get an equal, if not more, amount as them if we were to sell right now, even though they are closer to the beach which is typically more valuable).

Not only do they owe a huge amount to some random guy, they also borrowed the inital deposit of 30k from the partners father, and then decided to get a 40k loan from the bank to buy two new cars.

Then they decided it wasn't working, and split up. They rent the house out for $350 a week (which is all they could get, and personally I wouldn't pay that much to rent it), and the partner lives on friends couches while the woman and their two young boys now live back with her mother.

It's 'sale' time now at the shops, being the end of the financial year, and also the end of winter. Out of some stroke of 'luck', the woman gets a $4000 payment from government assistance (which she doesn't actually check to see if she is supposed to get it, or if it were a mistake). She goes and spends ALL the money on clothes, jewellery, toys for the kids and christmas presents. Yep, totally what I would do as well. Not.

I also found out the other day (via facebook, gotta love it) that she has a CLEANER. I might be ok with it if she actually WORKED, but she doesn't. She does uni part time and she lives with her mother (read: full time babysitter on hand).

She was amazed that DF and I don't owe any money other than our mortgage. It was like it was a concept that has never occurred to her. "Not even on your credit card?". Before I could think, I blurted out that I thought it was stupid to rack up credit card debt on frivolous items. 'If I want something, I'd rather pay for it with money that I have. If I don't have the money, then I obviously don't need it and that would be a stupid financial decision'. Well, that earned me some REALLY sour looks!
And when I was talking about how we were wanting to buy a new TV, she didn't understand why, when I found a good deal, why I didn't just buy it then. (Um, because we already agreed that, seeing as the one we have decided to buy is more expensive than what we previously planned, we will wait a month or two so that our 'buffer' creeps up, instead of raiding all of our saved money.) We have a small tv that works, it's not that big of a deal. Sheesh!

I just get so annoyed at people like this. And then she has the gall to whinge about being in debt. Oh, just shutup!

TBH though, I think that we really approach things in a different way, in every aspect of our lives, so I can't really say I'm surprised about her financial decisions. Parenting, shopping, food, exercise & diet, even with relationships. I'm a 'Let it Be' type of gal. DF and I are very cruisy and always have been, we don't get in each others way and don't try to control each other, and neither of us are 'over-thinkers'. We talk and are frank with each other, whereas this girl constantly has bitching sessions about her partner (while they were together, when they were thinking about getting back together, and now that they aren't together). Sometimes I would point out 'um... hate to point out the obvious here, but why don't you tell HIM that/talk to HIM about it/ask HIM that question???'. To which I am greeted by a very very vacant stare and am then waved away with a flick of her hand. Aaaah well. We're all different I guess! :S