I hate the whole Trump thing. He's like a 10 year old running for President and not even a bright one. He declares himself smarter than anyone else about... everything, his "policy positions" are just simplistic statements that he'll fix everything, he makes completely untrue statements that are easily disproved, he has a brilliant plan to defeat ISIS but he can't tell us what it is, etc... It's all so fucking stupid and the press is so cowed about coming across as biased that they won't really go after all this crap.

Evident ally hos secret amazing ISIS plan is pretty much everyone elses.

Well, nearly every Republican in the primary had the same statement. [Obama isn't doing anything to take on ISIS, and if I'm elected I'm going to do what Obama is currently doing.]

Car repairs $860. I am transferring $$ from my new car/emergency fund to pay it and cover some of my out of control shopping expenses I have been racking up. Time to severely tighten the budget belt and pay off the cards again.

Ugh, car repairs. Sorry about that.

We're going to have to tighten our budget belt too as we will get wiped out by medical expenses. Again.

I'm sorry, msbelle.

I am also tightening the money belt. I need to sit down and figure out which recurring expenses are necessary and which I can get rid of. Finding time to do that is hard, partially because it sounds do very unfun.

I just have to stop buying clothes and eatting out.

Just remember Gud, hospitals and doctor's offices are fine with establishing a payment plan you can afford, you don't have to pay all the bills immediately.

msbelle, I just had to drop $500 to get my car's a/c fixed. I feel your pain.

I am also in the budget belt-tightening crowd. Moving/unpaid vacation/etc has wiped out my emergency savings. I'm waiting on one paycheck that seems to have gotten stuck in the change of address shuffle. My other paycheck I can't pick up until Sunday. So the $100 I had put into savings to start building it back up goes back into checking so I can renew my license.

And here comes Halloween and the holidays and my Hamilton trip... it's always something. Always several things, actually.

Gud, I agree with you about the bad press coverage of Trump. I've been wondering--how long has stuff like that been going on?

I remember how credulous the media was about Bush's claims about Iraq before the we invaded them..

Also, i wonder--how credulous was the media back in 1980 when Reagan claimed that cutting taxes would increase tax revenue? (I don't remember much media skepticism about that, but I was only 15 then.)