I am beyond my own comprehension of down right furious right now and I expect it will easily be reflected in my post.

We have 3 cell phones for this family – one for Charlie, one for myself, one for my mother in law. Up until recently, we had 700 minutes to share (I recently reduced it to 550 because we never use more than 200), free night and weekends, unlimited texting and unlimited mobile to mobile (meaning we could call anyone on the AT&T network for free).

Charlie gets an e-mail when the cell phone bill is ready and available to be paid. We usually get it about 2 weeks before it’s actually due. So I went to take a look at it and I was absolutely shocked to see a bill for $163.36. Oh yes… nearly double what it should be. I immediately looked to find out WHY!

My mother in law never uses her cell phone. She complains that it doesn’t work in the house and she uses maybe 2-3 minutes per month. So imagine my surprise when I saw that 785 minutes had been used on it that pay period. And if that isn’t bad enough… 5,629 kb of internet were used on it as well and we do NOT have a data plan on the phones. Internet is available on them, but it is pay as you go.

I’m not stupid. My mother in law doesn’t even know how to text much less use the internet on her phone. I know who did it and I’m pissed. I know damn well that Charlie’s niece was allowed to borrow the phone. I expressed concerns about it early on but because she was taking an out of state trip to Disney World with her church group, I let it go. I was okay with her having a way to get in touch with us and there was an emergency during the trip, so it was worth it then. But I told Ida then that she needed to remind Halie (Charlie’s niece) of how few minutes we have to split between the 3 phones and when she could use them and how. Texting is free! What the hell kind of teenager is she that she didn’t text people!?

I told Charlie that Halie WILL work this debt off. She will be in this house and she will do chores and whatever it is I ask her to do until I’m no longer pissed. Dishes, mopping my floors, dusting every piece of furniture in this house.. oh yes, it will be done.

And Charlie’s mom for whatever reason comes in and yells at Charlie.. like it’s his fault. She’s all pissed because she’ll have to pay for it and it’s her responsibility. We go thirds on the cell phones and hell yes, it’s her responsibility – she let Halie borrow the damn phone! I sure as hell ain’t paying for that. I was against her having it.

I just finally caught a break financially. We’ve been tightening our belts so much to squeeze out every nickle and dime. I finally got the money I need to make everything work and now this crap? Oh hell no. I am not paying for other people’s mistakes.

2 Responses to “So Angry.”