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Money and family (long post)
So it seems about that time that everyone is struggling with money (like it ever stops haha). Jared and I are sustaining ourselves until June, when he starts working. Until then, of course we are both in school and no income, but we will make it. We JUST finished paying off Jared's car (yay!). When Jared got it in 2008, the car loan was taken out in his dad's name, for a lower interest rate, but we had the control over the account, monthly payments, etc. His dad just recently signed the car over to us with, luckily, no drama. However, in 2009, Jared's car was "jumped" wrong and long story short, needed a new $5,000 battery. We didn't have the money to drop on it so his dad was willing to pay for it, and we would do monthly payments until it was paid off.
Jared's mom owns a food vender business and works weekends at a local flea market, where Jared used to work every weekend with her. The last weekend of every month, Jared's dad would show up, rubbing in the fact that we owed him money, and took the money that his mom had just paid him for his work that weekend. After about a year of this rudeness, we paid AT LEAST 12 months of payments of 200 dollars, totaling 2400. All payments were made in cash since that's how Jared's mom paid him at the flea market. After a year of his dad holding this money over our heads, we decided we wanted to pay him a lump sum of the remaining 2600 so we didn't have to hear about it anymore. His dad got extremely insulted that we didn't want to deal with his monthly rudeness, and wouldn't let us pay anymore, saying once Jared was out of school and got a job, we could pay it back. The past year or so this has been in the back of my mind, with his dad bringing it up every so often still.
Of course it came up again, when his dad realized the car was paid off. We got a letter with the car title from his dad basically saying "here's the title. we need to talk about how you're going to pay me back for the battery". So I had Jared call his dad yesterday, saying that within the first few months of Jared working at Amazon, we will pay back the 2600. His dad is now saying that we never made any big payments, may a hundred or two, so we still owe him the 5,000.
Looking back, I wish we had kept record. But I was new in the family, and not trusting family members wasn't something I grew up with. It's so frustrating that his dad doesn't even remember coming every single month for over a year to take that money directly from Jared. I swear he was high, drunk, or both. There is no way we're paying more than the 2600 that we owe him. I wish we had the money to pay him right now. But I guess July will come soon enough. It's bad, but I am tired of dealing with his family... I hate guilt trips, I hate owing people anything, and I hate how Jared's mom doesn't have our back, even though she remembers all of the payments.
Wow, that turned out longer than expected. I hope that all makes sense. I know it sounds bad, but I can't wait until we have no more legal ties to Jared's parents. We have our own car insurance, pay for our own schooling, housing, etc. They don't pay anything.
OH! And his dad, in the same conversation, said he was going to "claim" Jared as a dependent on taxes, even though he didn't pay for anything last year. His dad got quite offended and mad when I insisted that, no, he was not going to claim Jared. Then we got the whole "I guess I won't be supporting Jared anymore...". He doesn't and never did. Jared has put himself through school, especially the last couple of years. Ugh, so frustrating.
His family makes me need to take antacids haha
Re: Money and family (long post)
I am so sorry you guys are going through this. My advice is to pay him the $2600in July and that's it. Also, do not let him claim Jared as a dependent. That's not fair. My DH's parents did that a few years ago and it really screwed him. He filed his own and then ended up having to pay back the IRS thousands over the course of a few years.
I must say that money sucks. It causes such problems. My parents help DH and I out from time to time but his parents rarley ever. My mom doesn't want to see us get behind on our bills, especially rent, so she will give us $200-300 at a time, if needed. His mom makes a big deal if we ask her for $50. We don't want to have to take money from either sets of parents, it's just been a really rough time with DH and I. Hopefully by Septemeber one of us will be hired for a full time teaching job.
Married the love of my life on 1-21-12. Our princess arrived on 5-28-13.
We are going to pay him 2600 in July and that's it. Because honestly, that's what we owe him. We had to tell him specifically "we're married. You can't claim Jared. You won't claim Jared". So he better not haha