Budgeting SUCKS

I am on a very fixed income. I am on disability and only get so much a month. It's so far under poverty level I have to look up to see it.

Today I get a call from the company I get magazines through. (By the way, if you get calls from Viking magazines hang up) I got sucked into buying subscriptions through them and last month because the third fell on a Sunday I got paid on Friday and spent the money that I should have saved for that payment. This month they took out last months payment plus this months payment and next month they are taking out the normal payment plus half a payment. That should have made me square with them but today I got a call from "Bobby" saying that the publisher is raising their rates and I did I want to lock in the rate I had. He told me that I would still be paying the $49.99 for another 20 months. I could handle that. He then said that someone else would be calling to confirm this and hung up.

Well a woman called me a few minutes later to go over what I'd be paying and informed me that on top of the $49.99 I'd be paying ANOTHER $49.99 for 8 months. Well I can't afford that and told her that wasn't what I had been told. She then said she was sending it back to whoever decided this stuff and hung up.

A few minutes after that I got another call from Bobby and when I said he didn't tell me about the extra payments he got upset and said he sure enough did but that's not what I heard. Then he tells me he can cut the subscription length and lower the price to $22.50 a month but it would have to start next month. Well I can afford that either. Anyone out there who only gets paid once a month will understand that if you know what your expenses are every month then you have to add in another payment for something then something in your budget has to take the money from somewhere else. In this case it's my food budget that it's coming out of and with a 17 year old eating like a pig (I think he has a hollow leg because he can PACK away the food) and I just can't take more out of what I have to spend on him. In fact this month I don't even have as much as I usually do because I got one check on Friday and spent money I should have used tomorrow on things I shouldn't have. He wanted to start the extra $22.50 next month but they are taking $80.00 already and there is no way I can afford the extra $22.50 on top of that. If it wasn't summer maybe I could but I have a lot of extra bills to pay with my 17 year old here and the extras that come along with that. (food and electric) No matter what I said to him he just wouldn't listen to me that he's taking food out of my kids mouths and finally I got him to agree to hold off on making any extra payments till September. He's going to call me back mid August to talk more about what I'm going to have to pay extra. I'd like to keep getting the magazines for the next 10 years like my contract says I will but I don't want to have to pay extra for what I'm getting. I can't cancel the contract at this point without still having to pay for it so if I have to pay for it I mine as well keep it and get the magazines. I actually enjoy them even if I don't get them when I should. (they usually come to me AFTER they have already hit the news stand and I could pay for them that way) One of them doesn't even come the same week as it should. It's the Star mag and I'm usually running a week behind. I have brought this up with Viking and they say that the publisher has control over when they go out to people who subscribe to the mag and there isn't anything they can do about it. I have subscribed to magazines in the past and always got them sent to me a week before they come out on the news stand. Plus one week I got the next weeks magazine before the current weeks mag so I know that is bull***t.

OK so this just turned into a bitch session. I had to get this off my chest and warn people not to get sucked into something like this. I knew in the back of my mind they would do something like this but I went ahead and re did my contract with them anyway so I only have myself to blame. It just came at the wrong time of the year to up the price I pay. Come September I can pay the extra they want (well maybe not in December) because my oldest won't be staying here full time like he's doing now so my expenses won't be as high. I'm still trying to pay off last summers electric bill and now I'll have the extra expense of this years electric on top of it as well. Suck.

Well let me calm down and cool off. I hope that things get better quickly.