Much about my mother can be understood from one fact: she grew up poor and hungry, the child of Eastern European immigrants, during the Great Depression. To this I attribute her hatred of school, for who can concentrate on the pleasures of the mind when the body is hungry?… Read full post »

Having just written out checks for the radiologist, anesthesiologist, urologist, and dermatologist, on top of new tires and insurance payment for my car, I’m pretty sure my holiday shopping will have to wait. That’s okay.

I don’t get Black Friday, but then again, I’m… Read full post »

I’d like to propose we start protesting in front of health insurance company headquarters.

      I’m grateful that last June’s CATscan should be the last one. I don’t like all that radiation rolling around in me—between my X-rays as a kid bein… Read full post »

The latest and last-for-now hospital bill had finally arrived, so I could file for bankruptcy. I knew the full extent of my indebtedness to all three hospitals where my seven surgeries had taken place. The last one wasn’t awful, in and of itself—under two thousand dollars for the half day… Read full post »

      Most of my bright ideas for making money haven’t panned out, for one reason or another. Last fall, I got excited about a whole new career move. But the training would have cost me $3,000, which I would have had to pull from my retirement savings, plus the cost of… Read full post »

I got into deep credit card trouble almost as soon as I graduated from college. I took a teaching job—the only one I was offered—a thousand miles away from my parents. With my shiny new Montgomery Ward credit card, I bought some furniture for a partially furnished apartment. That was the… Read full post »

         Last spring I quit using credit cards to finance my life. I had to; the

rules for filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy mandate a stop date two months

before filing. After decades of being able to afford pricey salons, upscale

dining, and vacations, not to… Read full post »