"I'm Still In Debt, But Damn, My Rings Are Pretty!"

Regular customer comes in and wants to cash a $7000 check from the (state) Lottery. She won about $10k or so on a scratch off ticket and this is her share after taxes.

This woman has few teeth for perhaps various reasons. She's a heavy smoker. She rarely pays her loans with us on time. She is always complaining about how broke she is and how everyone makes life unfair for her or hard for her. It's always everyone against her. Anyone with a shred of responsibility in their being can see she just makes poor choices and that's just the way she lives her life, period.

Now, call me crazy, but if I was so poor that my utilities were always getting shut off (I've been there!) and I always felt the world was against me, lottery tickets would be the least of my expenses when, say, FOOD or heat or toothpaste would be necessary! She has a credit card with a balance in the several-thousand-dollar range that she only pays the minimum on, and even then she pays late. She is constantly telling us how she's gotten evicted from her latest home. However she apparently has not been evicted from the smoke shop as she seems to have a constant supply.

She cashes this check, and within a few days she's back! She has a brand new white gold wedding set that she proudly announces she paid $1900 for. I pull out it's identical twin (well, ours was yellow gold) that was priced $800. She sniffed and said, "This was from HELZBERGS!" (So was ours LOL) She then said she'd bought her husband a thousand dollar ring, they'd bought new furniture, clothes, some lamps, a new kitchen set, brand new television, what else... just a lot of junk. Then she said......many won't be shocked...."Too bad it's gone, I still have bills to pay, oh well they'll just have to wait!" My mouth wanted to fall open, here she had a chance to get out of debt and instead she just blew it all on CRAP! Hell.
I think this woman singlehandedly stimulated my city's economy, yet truly has nothing to show for it. (Ah wait, diamonds are forever!..and so is her debt!)