Oh, Sophia - THANK GOODNESS.

I know-- It was my money for the week for food and stuff, and I didn't have very much more, because I was good and put my tax return and my theatre funds into paying down debt.

I am doing monetarily better without the car, not just because of the car, but because one of my favorite past-times is shopping and it is harder to carry things without the car. Now my minimum credit card payments are almost to an affordable level.

Yay, Sophia! Give your boss a hug! Or something.

As for anecdata, there are definitely more houses on the market, and they're staying there longer. Two houses across the street from us have had for sale signs for months. And when DH and I were poking around realtor websites, we found a house we liked that had originally been listed at $420K that's now around $350K.

Which one? (I may have seen it lately, and could thus give The Skinny.)

As someone who very recently was shopping for homes, I can say that the ones priced correct to start with moved quickly, but things like that disaster we looked at in Loyal Heights have been on the market for nearly a year for a reason.

Sophia, thank goodness. Losing $80 sucks.

I took cupcakes to a play date in hopes of offloading said sweets. We came back with only two less and I still have batter to make from the Guinness cupcakes.

My rescue hair attempt made it look better, but it's still not right. Even with Plei's great advice.

I want This dress so bad, but not $90 bad. I hate being responsible.

I am doing monetarily better without the car, not just because of the car

But also because you no longer come out to your car and find drunks sleeping in it?

I'm also standing in Allyson's corner. I'd love to own a home, but I would never consider it while I still have debt and I know I can't afford anything here on my own anyway. So, while I really sympathize with people that were flat-out defrauded, it bugs that somehow I'm supposed to feel sorry for people that bought something they couldn't afford.

Sure, but you're literally a PhD. You're going to have a better sense of knowing what you can and cannot afford than someone who is the target of predatory lending. In fact, I'd think a predator would be unlikely to target you -- you're just not good prey.

YAY, SOPHIA.

Lucky you! I wish I did too! Okay, maybe I don't wish to have the meth industry, but I can put most of the rest of it to use.

I meant to type 'hate' there. And the fact that I can't even accomplish that makes me hate everything even more.

But also because you no longer come out to your car and find drunks sleeping in it?

That is a plus!

My rescue hair attempt made it look better, but it's still not right. Even with Plei's great advice.

See how it looks after three days. That's my usual rule of thumb if home hair dye looks wonky. Most of my near disasters when I was still using chemical dyes settled down into something I could deal with after three days.

Regarding hot roots, you can still get them even when your chemical tint is a darker color than your own hair. If your scalp runs fairly warm, as mine does, a typical dye can overlift. Some dyes were worse for it than others on me, thus my love of the deposit-only colors.

Nutrisse has a good reputation for off-the-shelf color of the non-demi form.

you're literally a PhD

I'm not even figuratively a PhD, and I get that I can't afford a house. What I don't get is how people can do the subtraction and look at how much is left over at the end of the month and think "Sure! I can do that!" and sign in blood.

I would love to see examples of this predatory behaviour so I could see how misleading it is.