the ultimate latte factor

[frugalfarmwife]

Most of myy income goes into investing and paying additional on the mortgage so I just diverted from that for my "latte" account, which grew quite quickly.

As for the electric bill, I'm sure she's a few months behind as they can't shut you off in the winter if it's your main source of heat.

Honestly the way I origionally dealt with her attitude and work ethics was to just keep reminding myself that I'm old enough to be her mother so THANK GOODNESS she's not my child, I'd KILL HER

ff

[Mr Nice Guy]

Ever tried to help her instead of talk s*** about her?

[frugalfarmwife]

Ever tried to help her instead of talk s*** about her?

Really? Talk #? I'm just telling things how they are.

I DID try to help out a bit when I first started working with her about 5 years ago, but was basically told where to go and what to do when I got there She's that lovable.

The truth is she's a very insecure "kid" and sadly her parents never taught her to be responsible, but that's not my fault and TRUST me she doesn't want my help.

ff

[disneysteve]

Ever tried to help her instead of talk s*** about her?

Have you ever tried to talk to someone like that? Unless the person comes to you looking for help, it is highly unlikely that they are going to care what you have to say. And even if they do come looking for help, it is highly unlikely that they are going to care what you have to say. People are usually their own worst enemies whether you are talking about finances or physical well being.

So no, unless I had a good close personal relationship with this person, which it sounds like the OP does not, I would not suggest she try to offer helpful advice. Even if you do have that close relationship, offering unsolicited advice usually doesn't go well, or it simply gets ignored.

[MonkeyMama]

Having known many many many people like that over the years, I think frugalfarmwife did the best she could do in that situation. I think it's genius - if this worked so this person is no longer getting on her nerves.

Talk to them? Sounds like a person who is beyond talking to - I know the type. That's the part that is so frustrating in these situations. They want to complain complain complain, but lord forbid you ever get to chime in. If you appear to be doing better financially, you aren't aloud to have any say in the conversation. You are just expected to stay quiet and say, "poor baby." If I had to listen to that every day, it would drive me nuts.

That's when you go vent elsewhere, because it is an impossible situation.

[phantom]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have an idea what you would need to do to run up an $800 electric bill in a month? Seriously. What does it take? I live in the South (requiring lots of AC) and have had a couple houses in the ~3000 sqft range, have the usual array of HDTVs, video games, and electronics, and have never had an electric bill over maybe $250 or so. Maybe $275 one summer month. How does a person quadruple that?!

I had a brief stint working for an outsourcing company that handled billing related calls for electric companies with customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and some other state that I can't remember. The laws varied from state to state, but in general people had to be several months late before they would get a shut off notice.

There were two main things that really got people into trouble. One was that people who missed payments and couldn't catch up could go on payment plans to avoid shut off. But, most people who were having trouble with their normal payments, didn't do much better when they were expected to make their normal payments plus $20 extra. So, they would start missing payments again, get another shut off notice, and have to go on a new payment plan, this time their extra payments might be $50. Eventually, they would be ineligible for another payment plan and have to pay a percentage of the total they owed to avoid shut off.

The other problem was that there were several ways in which a person could be billed for less than what was owed for long periods of time. Anyone could choose to go on a fixed payment plan for a year at a time, where the power company would ask for the same amount every month based on estimated usage. If the estimate turned out to be too low, the payment would jump at the end of the year. Most people watched this and made angry calls to get it fixed before they got too far into the year, but it did catch some people people off guard. But, state laws got people into even more trouble. All of the states had laws that stopped the power companies from turning off power for people who needed power for devices that were helping to keep them alive (like ventilators), and Ohio had a law that reduced the bills of low income for a period of time. Like the estimated payments, these laws only changed the amount due on the bill, not the total amount owed. So, if you lived with a person who needed a ventilator and that person died or you just forgot to renew some paperwork, the power company might suddenly want several years worth of payments to avoid shut off. And, if you were on the Ohio reduced payment plan and improved your income so that you no longer qualified, you would have to deal with all the money that was owed. Of course, there were always payment plans, but I've already outlined how well those worked.

I don't think I saw many people who owed as much as $800. But, I was usually only concerned with the minimum that they had to pay to avoid shut off and that was usually between $100 and $300, if I recall correctly.

[bjl584]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have an idea what you would need to do to run up an $800 electric bill in a month?

You don't all at once. She is obviously several months delinquent. And, in the winter months, they can't shut it off, so the bill just keeps racking up.

[disneysteve]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have an idea what you would need to do to run up an $800 electric bill in a month?

You don't all at once. She is obviously several months delinquent. And, in the winter months, they can't shut it off, so the bill just keeps racking up.

I'm sure it is possible. If you live in an energy-inefficient home, drafty windows, ancient furnace and AC units, lousy insulation and if you use everything inefficiently as well. I know folks who run their heat super high all winter long. I can't even stand to be in their homes because it's like a sauna but they like it that way. Keep lights on all throughout the house all the time, run the TVs non-stop and use various other appliances, I could see someone racking up a big bill.

[Nika]

It is not hard to watch somebody you don't care about do this. When it is someone you love, that is though.

People seem to think that you want to rip what little joy they have left out of their lives and have them be miserable if you suggest they just spend what they can afford and save for retirement.

[disneysteve]

People seem to think that you want to rip what little joy they have left out of their lives and have them be miserable if you suggest they just spend what they can afford and save for retirement.

I know exactly what you mean. When you suggest to someone that they cut back their cable package, they act like you're asking them to sell their first born.

[riverwed070707]

I know exactly what you mean. When you suggest to someone that they cut back their cable package, they act like you're asking them to sell their first born.

[dawnwes]

Good for you.

I too have tried to talk to people about finances and even when they ASK for advice, they won't give up X and Y to make it happen.

[PetMom]

Love this idea and all from a $6.50 latte. I don't indulge but sure would love those. Just way expensive and would rather save or spend on my other 'latte factor' wants.

What does a person have to show from a latte they technically might make themselves - even purchasing an quality espresso machine and making at home would pay off eventually at that rate.

BTW: if a person has an electric bill and it jumps high quickly have an electrician check it out, heard of this happening to a person whose bill did go to $800.00 (but was not the norm) and the electrical wiring was getting dangerously faulty.

That is quite a lot if her electrical wiring is ok - especially with the mild winter.

[woodie96]

800 a month is possible.....DW and I were on the budget plan last summer, paying 260 a month

3500sf house, pool, hot tub, etc....

Well with the heat last year, we ran the pool constantly for almost 3 weeks straight to keep the algae and green out of it.....

Long story short, when they refigured my budget plan in November, it jumped up to 568 a month for the next 6 months.....

OUCH.....that hurts.....I can imagine how much that bill would have been running the pool pump that month......

Anybody want to buy a Pool???????