[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Your bill is confusing, but, crap, Blossom, you are paying more than 4x what we're paying. Per KWH. No matter how you do the math. Even more. I just don't understand how the HELL they can charge that, for such a cozy apartment.

It's Ameren. They have just notify us the rates will be going up again. Every summer they jack them up and now they are raising them up more permanently.

Well...somebody allowed her to be that way in her life. Her parents, her husband (?), or, something. I mean, if you go through life not knowing how to budget, only a few possible scenarios, there. Either you have more than you need to accommodate cavalier spending, or you go bankrupt. Y'know?

She knows how to work the system.

I don't want it if you're going to constantly tell me what to do with it, what I may do with it, what I can't, how I should use it, etc. That's not a gift. That's a contract with too many conditional clauses."

I agree and I'm sorry you had to deal with it too.

The really crap part is how it's taken out on YOU. This goes back to the guilt, appeasement, and so forth. Stop listening to both of them.

<Snip≥
You GOTTA put your foot down. And with bipolars, it's crucial. They'll push you and push you and push you, like children, until they find your limit. You need to make that limit line early-before you get upset. I happen to have two bipolars that have married into my family and my husband's BIL's family (so, one married to my side, one to his...), so we see an awful lot of that.

I strongly recommend the loving-but-firm approach. It's worked for me and I hope it will work for you. I see you here, with this sort of emotional duress, often enough to know that this must be very debilitating for you. Try the Puppy Approach. (That's our code for it, in the fam).

This last week was an eye opener. I can say he hadn't eaten which was probably the main cause for the family drama. He gets real loopy when he skips meals. Sometimes weird, sometimes mean. He started throwing around the big D word. I know it's an idle threat. It's all he has left to try and manipulate me. It's a tactic he learned from his mother. I am not rattled easily. I have my Alcoholic bat $$*# crazy father to thank for that. You rant, rave, break things As long as they are not mine I'll just sit there blink, maybe shake my head. It ticks him off even more. He'll go on a verbal tirade for awhile and then get bored. Ten minutes later it's like a switch been flip he'll be laughing at the TV or his game. Talk to me as if nothing crazy just happened.

Thanks for your advice on the training them. I might have to try it.

Good luck. Oh, and yeah--you need to call your State's Corporation Commission, (or the utilities commission, whoever oversees power and electric) and find out if you are being hosed. Those rates are CRAZY.

Hitch

Seeing the state just approved a rate hike. There likely nothing that can be done.

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