Where does your money go? Do you really know? Do you have a nestegg hidden somewhere in case of some horrible accident? Are you out scraping the fountains at the mall to pay for lunch when out with friends? Do you have any clue at all how much you have in your bank account? Do you even have a bank account or do you keep a sock full of quarters under the bed? I am probably one of the worst people to talk about this. I never question whether or not I have cash in my account, or generally in my pocket. I have monthly payments for big things like heat and my car and mortgage, but besides that I owe nothing to nobody. The mortgage is unavoidable. The car payment is interest free. The alcoholism is basically a monthly payment, as is the $250 bar tabs. All these things have to be paid. Then I have to eat and buy gas. Out of all those things I can't give up the food and house and gas to get to work.

I got caught in line behind a woman at the grocery store the other day. She had approximately $300 worth of stuff. She had $120 in cash to pay for said groceries. First she had to send her husband to the Starbucks for coffees and cookies. Now it was time to start start calling various banks to figure out how much to the penny she could actually chisel out of her overdraft to cover her groceries. This was the first really bad warning sign. She had all the numbers in her cell phone. Her side of the conversation went something like this: "What do you mean I am already in overdraft? There is no way! What did I spend that money on? Tell me the last 5 transactions! Someone stole my card! Oh wait. Yes I bought all that shit. Okay. Can I have more money? Fine. My family is going to starve this week because of you! Bitch!" Hang up and call the next bank.

Around this time hubby came back with the coffee and cookies and she asked him for the change. That amounted to about three bucks. So she asked hubby what he spent all that $20 on. What the fuck do you think? So now she turns and looks at me like I am going to give her some money for her groceries. I give her and her husband the eye fucking of a lifetime. I am pretty sure she died a little inside. Now she turns to the cashier and asks if she can start taking things off the bill. "What can we survive without?" Oh I don't need those rice cakes I guess. Fuck me. So I start packing my shit back in the basket and turn to get the fuck out of this abortion. New line I checkout and this woman is still working her way down to where she can afford what she buys.

I thought that was as bad as it got. But no. At the bank now to pay the bills. A guy comes up to the machine next to me. Does your bank machines make noises? When you don't have any money left it actually laughs at you. Anyway. This guy goes ballistic. He wants some money to continue what I can only assume is a hooker and booze and meth binge. The machine refuses to give him money. He is jacked up and pissed now. The bank has made an error and he is going to raise hell. "The machine says I have no money in my account! Where is my money? I had money in there yesterday!" I assume the girl behind the counter told him that his car payment had come out. "They can just go into my account and TAKE MY MONEY? PUT IT BACK! I NEED IT! THEY HAVE NO RIGHT!" He is pissed now and that is when I left but I should have stayed because I figure I was about 2 seconds away from seeing a man tasered and shitting himself. Anybody else ever come across this?