TL/DR: Ever since my mom “retired”, she’s leaned on me financially for every emergency expense (from new tires, to new brakes, to other emergencies). After paying $2K to fix a bunch of repairs on my mom’s car, she asked for another $1K to pay off her car loan.
My mom is killing me financially. She did not prepare for her “retirement”. She was basically forced to leave her job five years ago because they reduced her hours to part-time and told her she could either take that or take severance and quit. She took the severance. It was $25K to $30K IIRC. It’s gone now after a few years.
She’s not exactly destitute. She gets $1500 or so from SSI then another $1400 from her deceased husband’s military benefits but, she keeps blowing her money. I don’t understand how she has no money. Me, my mom, my sister and my niece share a 4br house and rent is $500 each + utilities. She should have money left over. I just don’t understand. The only explanation is I think she got herself deep into credit card debt because everytime I turn around she’s getting a new padded envelope in the mail.
Anyway, one month back, I forced her to take her car to the repair shop because she had not gotten her oil changed in 1.5 years. I told her that was unacceptable. You can’t do that. We went to the dealership service center and her car needed $2K in repairs (brakes, rotors, oil, transmission fluid, filters, etc.). My mom didn’t have it. So I begrudgingly dipped into my savings/401K to do it because her brakes were basically about to fail. Today, I paid the last $300, paying around 80% before and around 20% today. Not even five hours later, my mom asked me to give her ANOTHER $1,000.00 so she can pay off her car loan completely. She said that the $500.00 monthly payment is too much for her and rather than waiting for the next 3-4 months to finish it off, she wanted to know if I could pay it off now and “she’d pay me back”. Not even five hours after I just paid $300 for her. I am so irritated with her at this point. She’s a great parent in every other capacity but, when it comes to money/finances, I am past the point of frustration with her.