Is shopaholism a big contributor to BK?

[mountanddo]

Ok people...I actually OWN this and let me tell you why. My Boyfriend had wanted this convinced that it was the ultimate "rag". So I went all out and bought it for him for Christmas one year. For some reason we got into a huge fight around Xmas and never exchanged gifts. This is actually 2 huge yellow rags and 4 smaller blue ones. $1.99 roll of Bounty picks up more liquid then these things do. Trust me!

[AngelinaCatHub]

Ok people...I actually OWN this and let me tell you why. My Boyfriend had wanted this convinced that it was the ultimate "rag". So I went all out and bought it for him for Christmas one year. For some reason we got into a huge fight around Xmas and never exchanged gifts. This is actually 2 huge yellow rags and 4 smaller blue ones. $1.99 roll of Bounty picks up more liquid then these things do. Trust me!

Oh no! I've been stockpiling this in our emergency kits. All seriousness aside, I've seen these adds all my life. K-tell, in the 50s. Ronco in 60s, etc. Now understand "If you order in the next ten minutes we'll send two for just the shipping and handling to increase our profit 7 fold.

I agree Ms. Mount, it's all junk. I admit I enjoyed the bearded guy who sold everything from OxyClean to Japanese knives. I tried to look him up on Google and all I got is this guy who died of and overdose.............................of Viagra. The undertaker did not have to put the smile on his face. 'Hub

[mountanddo]

Oh my...Billy Mays died of an overdoes of Viagra? I can't tell if you are joking or not. I read it was heart disease.

[JackBondLove]

It's a rag. A $19.95 super-duper, whiz-bang, 'miracle' rag made of space-age fibers developed specially for NASA and sold on the TV by a guy who looks like he has a rooster comb on top of his head:




Spill red wine on your snow-white carpet? Just throw a shamwow! down on top of it and go to bed. In the morning, all the wine will be gone and your carpet will look better than new. Honest! Wash your car with it, bath your dog with it, use it as a shower mat, and it never gets dirty. Just wring it out and start all over.

It's probably too late for you to get one though. Supplies were limited. Available only through the special TV offer. Not sold in stores. (Because like most of that $**t they sell on TV, if they sold them in stores, their customer service line would be backed up out the door with people demanding their money back.)

Really: It's a $19.95 rag.

I've always thought that any product that stores won't touch has to have something wrong with it - else it would be sold in stores! One exception was a closet hangar multiplier (i.e., hang 5 hangers on this thing, which itself hangs on the hanger pole. It was a decent product, but wasn't carried in any store like Wal-Mart.

[lotsahats]

Oh my...Billy Mays died of an overdoes of Viagra? I can't tell if you are joking or not. I read it was heart disease.

He's kidding.

[mountanddo]

Walgreens now carries all the "as seen on Tv" products. Also, at the Mall of America there is a "as seen on Tv" store.

[Resigned2BK]

We have an 1100 sq ft house.
I drive an ancient beater.
I shop exclusively at thrift shops and garage sales.
I extravagantly get my hair cut once a year.
We got into debt over health insurance. Couldn't afford it, dh refused to be without it because we'd be bk if something happened. Kept (and keep) hoping a job would turn up that included it.
Thankfully nothing happened but we are now bk due to it costing such a ridiculously huge chunk of our income. Wound up using the home equity and cc's to pay for either that or the basics we coudn't buy due to paying for it.
Yeah, backwards I know. Life is funny like that.
Such extravagance.

Thank you for that! The entire concept of trying to profile what is typical in this thread is very absurd IMO.

There's somewhere on this site, like a description under the Unemployment forum maybe, that says unemployment is the number 1 cause of people ending up filing BK. That's not called being a shopaholic. If you go from only making, say, $40K a year and that covers the home loan for a regular family house (not talking McMansion here) and the health insurance of $500+ a month and reasonable food mostly cooked at home and gas for the car and maybe a couple hundred into a savings account... then lose your job, $40K drops down to about $19K in unemployment comp ONLY if you get that for 12 months straight which no one ever does these days, and no one is hiring for years due to a crap economy except McDonalds which will not give you full time work btw, why in the heck would anyone think that such a person in question is filing because they spend too much?

Oh, and while the economy has been crap, meanwhile you can't sell your house because the real estate market went poop at the same time. So try downsizing when you can't sell your home? Ain't working in that case, folks.

And this is just the reason of lack of work/extended unemployment leading to BK. We're not even getting into those folks who still have/had a job and got a cancer diagnosis or a really bad accident or fill-in-the-blank and racked up medical bills.

I had to finally just tell my parents that we were going to have to file back in November. I told them I really wished it was because we bought things like fishing boats and jet skis and luxury cars because at least we could still sell them even at a big loss to pay some of it back. Instead, I'm telling them to their growing horror about how after the 2nd year of straight unemployment I had to just suck it up and get on food stamps and WIC and start going to the food bank to get mystery meat and rotting produce. And it's not like I or my husband drive Cadillac Escalades or recently purchased vehicles, whatever.

I realize this thread is probably mostly all meant for fun idle chit chat, but personally I find the entire idea very insulting to those of us who have been frugal, continue to be frugal, and find ourselves having to suck in our pride further, lose our modest value homes eventually, and file BK. I think about how many people I know who I just consider to be completely clueless -- people who haven't been truly affected adversely by a years long economic depression, people who haven't ever been laid off through no fault of their own and had to squirm in interviews hoping the interviewer isn't an a-hole who can't understand mergers and downsizes and such not being a reflection of how good an employee you can be if they'd take the experience seriously and not keep hiring the wet-behind-the-ears recent college grad. I'm related to people like that and boy is it ever frustrating when they start saying things like how all the people losing their homes right now are irresponsible etc.. I can only imagine what they honestly think of my husband's and my situation and other people making choices for similar reasons.

[keepsmiling]

$500/month won't buy much insurance in NJ if you are middle aged and have a spouse or kids. That might cover ONE person with an enormous deductible and hefty copay.
People just have NO idea.

[Pandora]

It's a rag. A $19.95 super-duper, whiz-bang, 'miracle' rag made of space-age fibers developed specially for NASA and sold on the TV by a guy who looks like he has a rooster comb on top of his head:



Spill red wine on your snow-white carpet?.....

OMG can.not.breathe. ROFL!!!

MSBK - you sure you arent Vince in disguise? You pitched it extremely well *bawhahahahaha*

[lotsahats]

OMG can.not.breathe. ROFL!!!

MSBK - you sure you arent Vince in disguise? You pitched it extremely well *bawhahahahaha*

Pandora!!! Where have you been? We missed you!

[Resigned2BK]

$500/month won't buy much insurance in NJ if you are middle aged and have a spouse or kids. That might cover ONE person with an enormous deductible and hefty copay.
People just have NO idea.

I think we were at $450ish a month with really high deductible plan when we still tried to insure ourselves. Basically not much better than having no insurance which is our current status.

[mountanddo]

The funny thing is that if you have no insurance you get the "non-insured" discount which in some cases is cheaper than meeting your deductible along with the premiums you have to pay. With that in mind sometimes people with no insurance get cheapter services. Not in all cases that for sure but in some.

[shark66]

The funny thing is that if you have no insurance you get the "non-insured" discount which in some cases is cheaper than meeting your deductible along with the premiums you have to pay. With that in mind sometimes people with no insurance get cheapter services. Not in all cases that for sure but in some.

Very, very true.

Several years ago, due to a glitch in the system we ended up being uninsured for a full year...I've negotiated/haggled all of the visits, kids' vaccinations and what not (no major illnesses thank God) and paid everything in cash.

The total cost was something along the lines of $6K which was not bad at all...I couldn't have bought insurance for that amount...

My $0.02 only...

Good luck to us all.