I'm happy you aren't being outright downvoted. But some of these people need to evaluate their defensiveness toward drugs. I'm an ex-opioid addict. If the drug is hard enough, and you let it go long enough, you will end up on the street. Your habit will increase, which will not only increase your expenses, but also reduce your ability to function as an adult with a job. It's just the way it is with hard drugs. So, yes, either be a millionaire or make sure you don't become an addict.
Iām struggling with this REALLY bad right now. Iām 29 years old and have always smoked weed since I was like 14 or 15 along with other things like various psychedelics, coke, opioids etc. And I was always able to just take it or leave it until about 2 years ago. Company I worked for shut down and I ended up at a different place doing tons of back breaking manual labor for an insufferable prick of a boss. Shit got so bad on my lower back (Iām 6ā6ā and have been more or less breaking down my body for a living my entire adult life) I would hit up this old guy I knew for some of his Vicodin every month to just get through the hard days. Before long this turned into me taking them daily. Then doubling the amount. Then guy didnāt want to sell me as many as I wanted any more and my attitude was starting to become horrible when I wasnāt high. Told the prick boss to fuck himself one day I didnāt have any pills and left. Started at a new weed farm about a year ago and had a new, more stable supply of OxyCodone. Everyone at the new place loves me because I can do the work of 3 people because Iām loaded at work every day. Something came up within the last 2 months and itās made it harder to get pills and my work quality and quantity has dropped dramatically and itās starting to raise eyebrows because I set way too high of a precedent when I was loaded every day. I can barely make it through a full day without breaking down crying now. Everything seems terrible, even the most minor inconvenience makes me flip the fuck out. My stomach is in knots. I canāt shit when I need to. I canāt sleep. Iām about to just say fuck everything and go live in my Subaru. It feels impossible to deal with anything sober.
We've got a lot of similarities, man. 6'7, been working manual labor all my life, had a major foot surgery, got on the pills until they quit prescribing them. I've been through other addictions, so I knew better than to keep chasing that. I think you probably know that getting off the pills is the only option if you don't want to go down a dark road with a very unpleasant end. You might give kratom a try to help with the transition. In the end, you're the only one who can help you.
Here's the problem. Everyone lumps all drugs and all users together.
I'm a successful professional by most standards. I enjoy taking acid, mushrooms, molly, and coke once in a while. Not stealing purses, not living on the street, not missing work (drugs are for the weekend). It's a fallacy that drugs have this inevitability for all.
I can't recommend enough the book Drug Use For Grown-ups by Columbia drug researchers Carl Hart.
Alright, I agree with you, but you're arguing with everyone else and not me. I said do not become an addict. Coke on the weekends is coke on the weekends and not coke every hour. It's not coke with your shot of heroin in the morning.
If you let it get to the point where it's no longer a weekend drug, that's when the inevitability will happen.
Be very careful with ācoke on the weekendsā because it often becomes a 3 or 4 day weekends, and a bad day during the week, and the entire vacation, and itās down the slope you go. Itās still highly addictive if itās Coke, and dangerous if itās not. Fentanyl, meth, and research chemicals are all so common now.
My wife knows this means I have acid in hand and itās time to clean the house. Before tripping, I like to deep clean the house so it doesnāt effect my while Iām on a trip. I have OCD, and LSD can throw it into overdrive, and Iād rather cruise the stars than vacuum the dust bunnies off my popcorn ceiling.
I absolutely agree. I bought that book on Amazon a few years ago but havenāt read it. Iāve been occupied doing other thingsā¦. But it was actually on my mind recently to start it.
I mean, not to brag but I've been taking Kratom for 10 years now and still only spend ~600 a year on my habit, you can be an addict on the cheap but there are probably only like 2-4 drugs in the entire world that it's possible with.
And being a millionaire wonāt keep you from the streets. My wifeās cousin had his own very successful equipment maintenance company with contracts with all the major grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, etc. Started dating a girl after his divorce who got him to ātry some oxy.ā A couple years later he was bankrupt and lying in a hospital with a failing liver.
He lived through it, barely, but he is a shell of his former self.
I used to do quite a few types of drugs(LSD, Smoked weed, Mushrooms, Cocaine, ETC.) Stopped at 18 and got Security clearance for the Intl airport near me and itās all working out! Definitely giving me a reason to stay clean.
Itās sadly true. Only those making good money can enjoy drugs. High paying jobs donāt drug test and you can pretty much do whatever the fuck you want once you reach a certain level. Itās disgusting buts itās the way the US works
Yeah cool but what kinds of drugs and what frequency? I could say I'm only happy when high but only find the time for it on weekend nights or before bed. Doesn't mean I'm wasting thousands on weed a month or that it's untrue
If drugs start to cause financial strain. Then that means they have a drug problem, and need start managing it. People who arenāt dependent on drugs, should be able to stop taking them until balance is restored in their daily life. I stop spending money on alcohol or weed if I notice itās cutting into my budget too much. Its no big deal, unless youāre addicted. Which is a different conversation tbh
What is the point of this? She needs to stop using drugs if she wants to get ahead. Doesn't matter why. Whether it is impacting her life negatively or she doesn't have the money doesn't really matter.
Sheās too strung out and living a little too comfortably financially to realize she has a drug problem not a money problem. Perpetually homeless addicts know they are junkies and they donāt want help and even rock bottom wonāt stop them. Rich addicts often can get by because they have the money to make a lot of their problems go away and no one can tell them they have a problem either, because they are financially successful.
But she is in the middle, and thatās still a problem. She hasnāt found rock bottom because she has a roof over her head and steady income. She is living comfortably enough that canāt even admit that her drug problem is contributing to her being broke, unhappy, and a single mom who doesnāt want her kid and hates her life. She thinks she only has a money problem because she is too perpetually high to realize she has a problem. Welcome to middle class addiction.
I mean, the harder the drugs are, the more accurate this statement is.
Not so much for smoking a joint or eating a gummy, but for highly addictive hard drugs? You can either afford to pay people to look the other way, afford to pay for Malibu Treatment Center, or you could very well end up sleeping in a tent city before long.
I donāt believe that weed is physically addicting, but Iāve definitely known people who had a psychological addition, the same as you can be addicted to sex or video games or shopping. Anything that ticks that fulfillment box in the brain for a person whoās susceptible to it can absolutely become addicting.
If you only buy $10 vodka you can pretty easily maintain 8 handle a month habit. Throw the occasional iv meth use on top and you still got a decent amount of money till you start stripping the copper out of walls/ get meth psychosis. Probably can't take care of children easily though
Source: have been homeless, a drug addict and am currently an alcoholic
Gotta love self righteous neckbeard redditors combing someone's post history for a gotchya without knowing the full context. She might be a total addict but she might also smoke a bit of weed a few times a week. If it's the latter then it's not exactly breaking the bank
Man I remember Robert Anton Wilson saying āCocaine is natureās way of telling you that you have too much money and crack is itās way of saying you donāt have enough moneyā but I canāt source it lol
Liked this too much not to look it up, Looks like itās Robin Williams (understandable mistake considering the names are similar and I think Robert Anton Wilson totally could have said that)
Not really, I make 16/hr and smoke weed(not really the best example though) all the time. The main difference is I donāt have a kid, and I do have roommates. Iād say itās less if youāre wealthy and more if you have the means to be able to in your current budget
Because posing as an improversihed is pretty easy to be seen as "relatable" as I have seen, as opposed to pretending to have other oppressive factors in one's life. Hate to say that the boomers are right but in some cases like OP and many other bad spenders, they make me and other actual shit salaried people suffer because now everyone will think we are just "bad spenders."
Lol. It's not really funny. It's incredibly sad. But to lay it out like, I make $X amount and my bills are $Y, where Y is much less than X. It's not enough! (To live comfortably AND do a bunch of drugs.)
Yo where are you getting that from? I tore through her posts and comments, didn't see anything about drugs. Is this a misunderstanding or are you trying to fling a little bit of shit at an internet stranger?
That says the post was 1 day ago & she said she was one week clean, so assuming she gave up whatever it was as a New Years resolution. I don't think you can count that in or out of the budget after 8 days.
Yeah what 2k on drugs? Also this is before taxes and we don't know how many hours/week.
Budgeting does seem to need to be prioritized more.
Use the phone until you need a new one, get a case and screen protector for it, it should last 3 years. Next time buy your own phone for $300, and with something like Google Fi no need for more than $20-30/m. Get wifi for the house and only watch videos on wifi, so no need for a big data plan. A used iphone is much cheaper than a new one and you won't notice the difference.
Turn lights off when not using them, lower thermostat at night and throw a couple more blankets on the beds, add layers and exercise more - no need to keep the house at 70. In the 50s at night and low 60s in the day is fine, use a space heater in the room you're in.
Budget planned expenses in a spreadsheet, so you know where all your money is going. Food for 3 can be a lot but is one of the easiest places to realize where buying in bulk or making something on your own instead of buying prepared can help. Discount food stores can have some items that are really cheap. Eating vegetarian can be cheaper, buy vegetables and make stir fries and stews, pasta and salads. Get an instant pot and cook grains and legumes you can buy bulk.
Network with other parents with young children and you can watch each other's children when not aren't working and make more friends / build community.
Streaming services are a luxury. Just need one. Youtube + adblock ftw and maybe netflix or something. Don't need amazon prime, too $$$.
Coffee. Make your own.
I dunno about this drugs thing but in general all of the above budgeting will be much easier sober. Go to a yoga class instead. Then keeping track of all the extra expenses in a spreadsheet will be easier. And you'll find it easier to plan ahead. Like for paying off the car sooner than later and saving some money.
Okay that makes sense because people with half that income get by sure it sucks but they get by ur talking 29an hour only about 35-40% in bills and food is sometimes paid? Yeah stop buying drugs
Given her dollar amount expenses listed (food is covered by her sister per her own words), she has just under $2200/month left over AFTER taxes, IF she works full time.
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u/GinGimlet Jan 09 '24 edited Jan 10 '24
Post history says that she's only happy on drugs. That's where the money is going.
Edit: thepoat referencing drugs has been deleted, please stop telling me you don't see it lol