People (Family Strangers Relationships)

[-$24,200] Of Age and Fuses

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Of Age and Fuses

Look at this picture. Do you see a young woman or an old woman?

At work this week, I was talking on a conference call with teammates and the banter led to a conversation about people’s ages. They each said the year they were born. (I didn’t volunteer mine.) I found out that the people that I’ve been working with on this project are ALL younger than me! Even the two leads who are 2 levels above me who I thought were years older. My jaw silently hit my desk.    Read More

[-$35,638] Easing into the End of the Year and Happy Singles Day

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Easing into the End of the Year

In my Packing for Guilt Trips post, I wrote about my dread of dealing with family turmoil this year because I wouldn’t be going home for the holidays. So eventually the conversation came up. I let them know I wasn’t flying back and…

…they were ok with it. Holy Hell. I was not expecting that reaction based on our earlier conversations. I was braced for push back, as I have dealt with it from them for many years past. It seems I gave them too little credit this time. I guess they realized that I have already been traveling a lot this year to spend time with them. If they had problems with my not going back for the holidays, they haven’t voiced any to me, at least not yet anyway.

So far, so good, but we’ll see.    Read More

[-$38,300] Packing for Guilt Trips: Dealing with Debt and Family Expectations

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

 

It’s that time of year again, so yes, this post will be served extra ranty and with a large glass of whine.

This issue comes up for me every year, especially around the holiday season, but I’m also wondering how people deal year-round with having debt and pressure to meet family home-visit expectations.

When I was first starting out on my debt repayment journey, it was common for me to go home for the holidays once every other year. It was always a struggle to have that conversation and it came with guilt trips, of course, about my not visiting enough. Cross-country (coast to coast) plane tickets are expensive on a typical day. They become outrageously expensive ($1000+) around the holidays. My family never seems to care much about that.     Read More