Oh how i love me some reader mail! This one comes from a fellow budgets lover who just wanted to know that she’s not the only crazy out there.

Her email was too colorful to take a part, so i’ll just copy and paste it here and then give my response :) Plus, it’s hella fun to read! It’s not every day you get some animation out of people like this…Please to enjoy:

In early 2007 my fiance and I noticed that the market here in (edited) was dropping really fast, so our lease was up and we bought a new house, paid about $50k less then what they where asking, it is a 1500 sqft home, hardwood floors, built in 06, beautiful kitchen etc etc. We bought it for $180,000. Great Deal!!!! We do everything right, every month we have a budget, we always stick to it, we have a little over $11,000.00 in our savings, I have maxed out my 401k, and he invests in the states pension plan. We have nice cars that we can afford and both of us have one credit card that we keep a maximum of $1000.00 on just to keep our credit looking good.

My problems is now I couldn’t even sell my house for $120,000!!!!! I’m furious, and to top it all off, my cousin who is a complete snob (she is 18, got married has never worked a day in her life and never wants to) she and her husband have no savings, no 401k, nothing. Now she is pregnant and they just bought a semi decent house for $95,000!!!!!WTF, her mortgage is only $500.00, she doesn’t have to work and they blow their money away!!!!!! My point is, this really isn’t fair, I am seriously thinking of going out, buying a Mercedes, freeze my contributions to my 401k, and drain my savings at Macy’s!!!!!!!!!! Why is it that the smart, frugal, responsible ones are getting fisted up the (bleep!), while everyone else gets a free ride because of this economy!!!!!!!!!!! I want my break dammit!!!!!!!!!! Please give me the encouragement to not be bitter and jealous towards her and to keep being financially sexy!!!!!!!

Whew, that was a load full! But ya gotta appreciate the honesty :) And it really sparked my insides a bit. Not so much because her situation sucks so much, but because we really are all in this TOGETHER. Below is my attempt to help cheer her up…or at least back her up!

You know what i think about your little situation over there? $HITTY to the max! I’m with ya girl, life is just plain weird like that sometimes. I really don’t get it – we’re doing all that we can to better our financial situation (esp you, my damn you guys are onfire!) and yet others get things handed to them. I truly believe things come around in due time though, so maybe it’s just not our time?

And you know what? At least we’re all in it together :) We bought our place for $355k (instead of $360k which we thought was a steal at the time) 1 1/2 years ago right when things *looked* like they were about to get better and instead came crashing down. That, and 2 other places in our neighborhood has since filed for bankrupty and are reportedly going for $200-$250. So yeah -WTF indeed.

All that being said though, it’s 100% totally & completely out of our hands right now. That’s what you have to focus on. The only things we can do is KEEP saving our money, keep budgeting, keep maxing out our retirement funds, and stay away from all other debt out there. Yes it sucks, and yes people get lucky with timing (or NOT so lucky as in our case). But you know what? We are ROCKSTARS and we are killing this financial stuff :) Sure we can go out there and start blowing our money, but then we’ll turn into the big idiots!

I’d much rather be a financial bad a$$ than an immature possesion monger, so this side of the situation is just fine with me. We are learning about stuff, applying it, and it’ll all come around full circle – i can promise you that. So just keep doing your thing, and do your best to try and block out other people’s experiences….the only thing we can work on is our own.

Ya diggin’ me? You still wanna punch someone in the face? haha…I hope not. That’s all i really got for ya ;) Good luck with it all and be sure to keep us updated!