Reply #2: almost everywhere I've lived

[TorchTheWitch]

I really lucked out the place that I lived before where I am now. I had just one neighbor and he was great. Every other place I lived I had whackadoodle neighbors, a nutjob landlord or both.

I live in a rowhouse now, and the crazies next door drive me up the wall. I'm so done with the nice neighbor lady thing with these people, too. Their kids are out of control, their dog (though thankfully a fat lazy lump) barks his brains out at NOTHING in the yard for hours on end and the couple are just plain nuts. They CONSTANTLY ask to borrow this or that, and I'm far more broke than they are and they know it! They NEVER do anything to make up for all the stuff I've given them including letting them stick an extension cord into my outside outlet so they could run the cord into their house for a couple of days because they decided they didn't need to pay the electric bill. All the past 4 years they've been living next door I thought it was because they really were broke, but it's really that they're moochers and have zero priority when it comes to finances.

The first year they lived there, hubby went to jail 3 times for domestic violence. Wife cried and whined and swore by all that's holy to dump him yet he's always back the day he gets out of jail and is still there. The police have to come to their house for a domestic call roughly once a month, and that doesn't include all the fights they've had that no one got pissed off enough to call the cops. They've already had their kids taken away once, so you'd think they learned their lesson, but noooooo. Right back to the drugs and the drinking and the fighting. Quite frankly, the domestic violence they're both at fault for and pretty evenly matched. At this point, I don't even care if they end up killing each other. It's the kids that worry me, though. They had another absolute blowout last week, and I'm still toying with the idea of calling the cops or CPS or whoever.

They're friendly people and really nice on the surface. It's the perpetual mooching, the domestic crap and the out of control kids and wildly barking dog that drive me nuts. Ok, I don't like the drinking or the drugs but at least they're pretty much just weekend warriors since they had the kids taken away before and tend to do it in the house rather than in the yard with their obnoxious boozing and drugging friends but it's not THAT bad.

What really annoys me about the mooching in particular is that I always thought that they had bad money troubles. Ok, they do have some of that, but wife works full time and hubby works piece meal when he can find work and they do have two kids to raise, but I found out recently that wife has a trust fund and they think it's more important to buy the youngest kid a $600 plastic outdoor play house than pay the electric bill or to go to a really nice hotel for a weekend get-away trip instead of paying the mortgage. Here I am all this time thinking I've been helping out broke people in need even though I'm worse broke myself because I sure as hell know what it's like to not have enough money to buy a roll of toilet paper, but now I recently find out they aren't really so broke at all despite all their boo-hooing about it, and just think that frivolous stuff is more important to spend money on then keeping the lights on or the toilet flushing.

Somewhere around mid September they were crying the blues to me that they were about to get their water shut off when they had just come back from one of their fancy hotel weekends. And I know from personal experience that the water company lets you go about five or six months without paying a dime before they send out a shut off notice. And they have the gall to ask me if they can use my garden hose hooked up to my outside spigot to run through their house in case their water gets turned off after just telling me about their fun fancy hotel get-a-way weekend. And for something like that I hate to refuse because it's not fair to the kids that they have no water wash with or drink or flush the toilet. But DAMMIT, they KNOW I'm way worse off financially then they are, but I use the small bit of funds I have to pay the damn BILLS. I can't even remember the last time I bought something nice for myself like a DVD movie on half price sale while they're buying their kids expensive toys, drugs and booze for themselves, mini expensive vacations, etc. but don't pay their bills and expect that broke as I am that I'll help them.

NO MORE! I wouldn't mind so much if just once in awhile they did something nice for me like picked up a loaf of bread for me at the market or bought me a few packs of smokes for all the cartons worth they've bummed off me or SOMETHING for all I've done for them when they know I'm in a far worse financial position than they are. It's almost become a daily thing anymore where they need to bum something off of me, and especially after finding out that they really aren't so broke at all, and I'm DONE with this crap.

Well. That felt good to get that out.