A Winner

My son was waiting out on the front porch yesterday when my daughter and I returned home at 4 pm from a girls' day out.   He had been sitting there since 12:30.  He was ticked off because his phone was cut off.

We had an agreement.  I bought him  a CricKet phone in August and paid his first month's usage because-the official reason- he was getting set up in his own place. (The more accurate reason is that I'm an idiot.)  He was going to get his ducks in a row and then pay his own phone bill: $45 dollars monthly for unlimited text and talk.

Yesterday was October 12.  The bill is due on the 7th of each month.  He wanted to know why his phone was cut off and why his bill said he owed a hundred and seven dollars.  Let me say that he came to dinner three or four times in late August and played the good son and I paid his phone bill in September.  I looked up his bill on line and explained how this was OCTOBER and I had paid his bill in SEPTEMBER which was LAST month and he needed to pay for OCTOBER to get his phone turned back on and they were also indicating that he would owe money for NOVEMBER.  I said that I would pay over the phone FOR him and he would have phone service within thirty minutes.  He said "Ok!  I get paid on Friday".

HAHAHAHA!

Lest I sound cold hearted I must explain that 2 weeks ago, S came around and whined about how hard it is to make ends meet working at Target.  He just doesn't make enough money.  He left his bills here, lying on the floor instead of taking them with him and they indicate that the bank has closed his account and he owes them 96 dollars for an overdraft.  He owes Progressive for car insurance, the last installment, and so he is driving around without car insurance.  He also owes his landlord 500 dollars for the month's rent.  I'm not a math genius but his pay stubs indicate he makes roughly 1200 dollars a month-if he bothers to work all the available hours.

A day after these financial revelations, he texted me to tell me he had stuff stolen out of his car.  The driver's side window wouldn't roll up.  He chose not to put it up and leave it up because he has to be able to smoke, doesn't he?  So he left his car in the parking lot at work with the window rolled down. 

Texting is a tricky thing.  Sometimes you text someone something not intended for them and poor old S texted his mom something intended for his friend:  All my pot and my grinder bowl and my gun got stolen.

Come on, Ma.  How many times are you going to let him convince you that this time he's figured it out and he's really trying hard to get it together and by the way could you help me out? 

One less time, anyway.   He wanted me to pay to have his phone turned back on and he would pay me back on Friday.  And I said  "No."   I need 45 dollars.  Now.   Turns out he had 46, but paying by phone has a two dollar charge.  I told him he should go to the CricKet store and pay.  They only take cash and there's no fee and they return your service within 30 minutes.  He snatched up his money, huffed out and slammed the door.

While I was away for the weekend last week, S came to the house and hung around with his dad.  S showed him a budget that said he made about 600 dollars a month.  So his dad payed to fix his window and told him that he'd pay his car insurance.  I gave my husband my information:  I've seen his pay stubs and he makes more than that.  My husband said not to worry that he had left the assistance up to S.  He has to contact the bank and get his fine paid so he has a way to pay his bills when he can't use cash and he has to contact Progressive and find out how much it'll cost to get his car insurance reinstated.  Then he has to come to his dad and let him know that he's taken care of it and how much it's going to be.   And guess what:  He hasn't done it. 

The boy's a real winner.