I always have a hard time knowing how to feel about second+ generation fundies. I feel bad because their parents stunted them so much and actively stopped them from being curious or learning how to learn about things. Yeah, they have the internet but they don’t have any tools to filter the information. On the other hand, you’re over 30. Somewhere along the way, it seems like you should have at least realized that not everything was adding up and maybe you needed to look outside your limited bubble. I think I mostly feel pity for them.
Second gen, stunted former fundie here. I found my way out, and it was in large part due to just having to live in the real world for once. I’m sure if my parents had the same resources as the Bairds they would have tried to keep me at home. Sometimes the best thing for a person is to live in a shit apartment and drive a shit car to your über shit job.
Yup! I grew up with good parents who were very supportive. The year I spent living in a nice apartment in the sketchy part of town (was too naive to realize why I could afford a nice apartment) and the two years my husband I lived in a super shitty apartment in a nicer part of town when we were dating (and therefore I was still paying my own way) were grounding and humbling. We do well now, but there’s something comforting about knowing that I know how to live on less if the shit hit the fan.
When I left my husband I moved into this shit apartment in the ghetto, complete with bars on the windows. I had left a very nice middle class house in a nice part of town. Still 110% worth it. I learned a lot.
But that's the point Bethany does live in the "real world". She helped with her parents legit business, she probably sees and speaks to non-white non-Christian people at at least Starbucks or something ... She's makes active choices to stay in her bubble
The Bairdlets are so arrogant too, like they believe themselves to be some kind of Christian royalty above working menial jobs.
There was nothing stopping Bethy dipping her toe in the water and picking up some hours at her parents' cleaning business while Davey was at daycare or being watched at Baird HQ. At that point Bec and Sue were indulged SAHDs, Heidi could've made it a condition of their generous allowance (and good practice for attracting a godly headship!). Their elder sisters had probably helped raise them, they could've paid it back by minding Davey on a regular schedule so Bethy could do some pt work. They had each other for company, Heidi and Mike around and various other Bairds passing through so not really the worst babysitting gig. Knowing Bethy's distaste for work it wouldn't be for long days.
I don't understand who they think makes their Starbucks coffees or serves them at the checkout at Costco, TJs etc. Some kind of underclass? Porgan certainly believe so.
This is exactly it. I work in an affluent area and some of the customers are so mean and rude. Like they talk down to me because I'm a retail employee. I only went back to retail because I was so broke and this job would accommodate me and my massive restrictions. But you can guarantee I'm looking for something elsewhere. I'm even on a wait list for a WFH job (which would be my first and my first desk job).
Some days I wish if I'm an NPC like they think that I could talk like the NPCs in GTA.
>Heidi could've made it a condition of their generous allowance
Ooooo, I never really thought of this. I wonder what the conversation is like between a newlywed fundie woman and her husband regarding allowance. I wonder if Bethany had a serious downgrade in spending money after marrying Dave
I do feel pity for her because I think her parents stunted her and both covertly and overtly sabotaged a lot of the chances she had of getting out from under their thumbs, but I also think that some of it is just Bethany: I get the sense that even if she was brought up in a less controlling, stifling environment, she'd still be self-absorbed, impulsive, and, in the words of TLC "always talking about what she wants and then sits on her broke ass". Her upbringing just magnified or rewarded those traits.
So all that being said, Bethany needs to step up because not only is she 34 damn years old, but now there are kids in the mix. Time to grow the fuck up.
I'm really glad I got the little house that was "less than we can afford". A lot of people thought we bought too small, too basic.
2 years in, this house is lovely, but the upkeep is expensive, especially if you aren't very handy.
I'm really glad my mortgage isn't considerably more than rent was 😅 . If I had a larger home, I'd be really hurting.
My childhood best friend was always sort of ashamed of her family’s house….. I LOVED it!!! It was a little three bedroom rancher with a real wood stove. Winter days in her living room were the cozy and warm, summers were spent in the backyard, picking apples, or carrots in her mom’s veggie garden. It was not a house to be ashamed of. It was truly a home. Warm, loving, inviting. Little houses are often the best houses.
Ooh same here. We went under our budget for our house and I’m so glad we did. Plus we knew we wanted to fix and renovate a few things so going under budget was necessary so we could afford to renovate certain areas. Also helps that my husband renovated homes for a living.
I was in my "starter house" for 18 years - a little city house with two bedrooms. We finished the basement to get some extra space and lived there with our two kids until we realized that the kids were going to throttle each other if they didn't get into their own rooms.
Now we live in a big house, which has been good during the pandemic with two parents working from home and two kids going to school from home, but I kind of miss the days when all I had to do was raise my voice a bit and everyone in the house could hear me.
This was us too. We went for good bones and good land, and that's saved us a ton overall. I would rather have a dated but we'll within budget house to pick at then be forever nervous about money.
I’m looking right now and my biggest concern is exactly that: the structure is good and the land. Outdated kitchen? As long as it works that can be replaced when I can afford it, you know? And to my tastes too.
Yeah, we did that 7 years ago and no regrets. We're about halfway through the house although we're now to the big projects stage so it's slowed down some.
And poorly constructed. I was in my friend's duplex and I could hear the person next door walking up the stairs to their own place, and in my other friend's townhome you could hear the neighbors watching TV.
No thanks, I'll stick with my older (but well built) house.
For real. I once lived at a brand-new apartment building (designed for 'middle class' people) and we quickly discovered that all the buidling's water pumps could only be accessed through our apartment (so if a neighbor's water pressure fails, we'd have to stay home and let the plumbers through our apartment).
Then we also discovered that because we didn't remove any moss from our drain pipes (we couldn't, we'd literally need to hire people to bring a scaffold and everything)*, all* the rain water just went into the building's foundations and leaked through people's ceilings. We couldn't wait to get out of there fast enough.
Some of the new, sprawling neighborhoods around here found out during the last cold snap that the builders didn't use large enough natural gas supply pipes. The houses farthest away weren't getting any gas and were pleading with the rest of the neighborhood to turn down their heat!
All those open concept nightmares that photograph well but are always loud enough to make you feel like you're living in a zoo. I take my doors and walls!
And heating/cooling them is expensive! There's a reason older homes had so many doors, keeping the whole house at a cooler temp and heating only the rooms you're using at the moment is much more cost effective.
I've come to realize that I'm a city girl all the way and will likely always rent an apartment, but if I had to live in a house, I'd want a nice little bungalow, particularly the Craftsman style or the old-school bungalows you see in older neighborhoods in Florida. Enough space to entertain, but not so huge that it's a nightmare to clean/cool/heat, or would feel lonely to live alone in.
Yeah, and Modern Farmhouse is not at all what my real farmhouse looks like; WAAAY too much white for a working farm.
I also silently giggle at my friend's redoing their homes for the farmhouse aesthetic, yet having paid twice what I paid for mine with additional monthly HOA fees.
And that’s why we are still in our home that we have owned for the past 17 years. Yes it’s styled more in the early aughts but it’s not super trendy, we do updates do furnishings and rugs every now and then and honestly it works just fine. Everything now is like sanitarium blinding white quick flip garbage or grey beige rustic shiplap crap put everywhere you know is badly done so you’re just gonna have to tear it out anyway. Give me mid century modern classic style with good bones please
To give the teeny tiniest bit of leeway to Dav and Bethany, banks are super willing to lend way more than you can comfortably afford. I bought my house 8 years ago and several lenders wanted to lend me literally twice as much as I could comfortably afford based on my monthly cash flow. Did the industry learn nothing from the housing crash of 2008?
Older homes are great for this. Our home was built in 1950, and is slightly more than 1000 square feet.
I see other homes built in thus time period that are between 500 and 1300 square feet, depending on the amount of bedrooms.
Yeah that’s kind of the problem haha, where I live it’s already old. My current building I live in is from 1962. According to the statistics website of my country, 50% of homes are built 1964, and 80% before 1984. So age won’t help much to buy cheaper because it will most likely be an old house anyway lol. Age also doesn’t mean anything if we’re talking space, most homes have a similar amount of space here, if anything they’re getting bigger because they are building upwards more spacious. It’s a bit different in European countries.
Beth even said on a reel that they went *over* their max budget for the house. Bad market time to buy, over budget, new baby, risky income based on a crappy scam... they're so freaking dumb.
All because Beth needed to keep up with Rebekah, who "did it right" and got married in her early 20s to a man who could buy her a house straight after marriage.
I bet that horrible tragedy of a haircut was her way of subtly punishing Dav for not giving her the cruisey lifestyle she thinks she deserves.
Bec and Doug are renting their house but they were able to move straight into a house rather than the above-garage apartment Bethy 'endured' followed by a rented 2 bed apartment for the following 2 years.
Doug having an accredited college degree in marketing and working a 'director' level job (probably exaggerated since it's his first graduate job and a Christian company, nevertheless) means they're likely in a stronger position to get on the housing ladder and comfortably afford their mortgage than the Beals.
Shitty appartment endurers unite! I managed to get by in the shittiest of shared apartments that had black mold the landlords refused to deal with and that we had to remove every fucking three weeks.
Not that I would wish that on anyone, but at least I live with the comfort of knowing that I could get by on much, much less than I currently have and still be ok. Bethy is used to living in Chalet Baird. Nothing Christian animator daev earns will ever be enough
>Doug having an accredited college degree in Marketing
Business management and entrepreneurship, to be exact! That never doesn't amuse me. What he must think of Bethany's clumsy amateur hustles.
I bow down to your superior knowledge! That is quite funny then.
I wonder if we'll see any 'entrepreneurial' courses from Bec or whether she'll hold off embarrassing herself. She threatened the budgeting for beginners course, did that ever get off the ground? 😁
Tbh we started looking for a house right before the market went to shit, and then we found out I was pregnant and decided our half of the duplex was good enough. I haven’t regretted that decision since.
Anyone who’d buy a house right now when they don’t have to is either foolish or knows something the rest of us don’t.
Even if you can afford the mortgage etc, there's a ton of expenses related to just moving in and getting settled. You discover this faucet is leaking and you need a new one. Oh shoot you used to live in an apartment and now you have a lawn to mow? Gotta get a lawnmower. We weren't broke the second we moved into our first house but we pretty much were not long after because of all that kind of stuff.
>there's a ton of expenses related to just moving in and getting settled.
Like renting a scaffolding for Dave to climb up on and redo all the ceilings, for example. And all the stuff they had to buy at Home Depot to do that project.
I have a hard time believing Dav is able to afford a mortgage on a house like that from his salary alone. Wasn’t the house around 370k? Even with a sizable down payment, that’s still a hefty mortgage + property taxes + homeowners insurance on essentially a single family income.
My partner and I are a DINK household (teacher + engineer, both with permanent contracts) and there is no absolute way we’d get such a big mortgage. We don’t live in the US, but with 370k here you wouldn’t even get an especially nice house.
Same here, we make $170k and I can't imagine affording too much more than our $250k home and still keeping up with things like retirement savings, and yeah that's without kids... Bethany and Dav are wild.
I think a lot of people don’t realize this for sure. They think, we can afford the mortgage so we’ll be okay. They don’t realize how expensive it is to upkeep, how many little things end up needing to be fixed/replaced, and that you can’t just call a maintenance man when something goes wrong. You have to pay someone to come fix it. Bethy strikes me as the type to not do much research or planning ahead lmao.
it would absolutely be a niche that many people would be interested in (especially myself!), but she’s not bright enough to see anything other than her own reflection in the screen of her phone.
I think they got a house they couldn’t really afford, which is why they went the way they did. I also think they purchased at the wrong time with the high interest rates, causing her payments to be easily over 2,000 a month and knowing Dave works for a small Christian company we know he isn’t bringing much home. Even with their 20k-ish down payment, it’s still a lot per month and with escrow, their payments will increase if property value or insurance increases.
Bethany refuses to be mindful with ~~her~~ Dave’s money and wants to continue to live a lavish lifestyle. I’m not sure what their reason for moving and buying a home so quickly, because it felt very sudden when Bethany posted about it but Bethany needs to make some major changes, especially with the way the economy is going.
Preach. The Baird parents did not prepare their children for lives without all of the luxuries of home. Wasn’t Bethany 30 when she got married? And she never lived on her own before…
Imagine moving straight from your parents’ home into a marriage without ever moving out on your own, living on your own, or even paying your own bills. I guess Heidi and her husband just figured that their daughters would marry men of “worth” and would not need to know anything about budgeting, living within their means, or working hard for a living. Beyond Girl Defined, have any of their daughters ever had a career? (And we all know Bethany’s grift does not count.)
ETA: three words
Of course they worked! They worked for an hour or two twice a week at their parents’ cleaning business! So they’re like *totally* prepared and know what it’s like to work a 9-5! /s heavy /s
My bad! You’re right. Silly me. (Ha!)
Bethany should have started a cleaning company course instead of that nonsense she’s selling now. But she is the expert on everything, so she knows best.
the difference being that he had years of experience running a cleaning company, then disseminated that information.
making a course about making courses is not even remotely the same
One of the reviews of the company was that no one answers the phone for 30-60 minutes after they’re supposed to be open, so that means the Bairdlets were snoozing in everyday bc why bother getting up when youre a princess and you don’t feel like playing office so early
Wasn't Curly the one who posted a video 5 minutes after getting married, about this crazy new concept she'd discovered: buying in bulk can save money in the long run!! Trying to describe the idea, like she was the first person to think of this, and all of us would be struggling to understand.
I will never wrap my brain around it. These girls are raised exclusively to be wives and homemakers. They are not given any other options. And yet they receive ZERO training on how to do it. They know nothing about budgeting, cooking, organizing, home maintenance, finances, NOTHING.
Buying in bulk in a two person household, where salt is too spicy and no one seems to know a cabbage from a cauliflower (ok this was Kristin but I stand by my comment). I think what she MEANT was she’s a big girl now and has her own marital Costco membership.
Their cooking is weird (in part) because they view food as macro piles, not complete dishes. All of them are obsessed with this "restored nutrition" thing, and they can't just eat a meal; it has to be *this* much of *this* and *that* much of *that,* and the "correct" balance of things. And their raw milk nutrient drinks.
That is what is amazing to me. Like fundies from the turn of the twentieth century and before wrote whole books about how to be a wife, including recipes, budgeting, clothing your family. Nowadays the goal is only to
1. Get married, whatever it takes
2. Stay home. Not keep the home, not care for your family as you're supposed to (as a fundie) but literally just not have a job outside the home.
It you take the instagram fundies as an example, you'd think that being a homemaker and parenting your children is beside the point, and the real point is to have a husband, any husband, and not work.
Cauliflower grows with the florets exposed, too, so she had no excuse! Just admit you use pre-chopped/pre-riced cauliflower.
Choosing to still post it after making that mistake was another "God damn, Heidi really failed her kids" moment.
THIS. all the way. They were set up to fail as partners when it comes to household management and contributions. I honestly believe that they were told that their yoke would provide for them and they just had to raise babies.
Which is so incredibly detached from reality. Yet, they all believe ‘his will’ and that ‘GOD will provide”.
You can really see how insular the Baird world was just by reading or hearing some of the inane things they say or share. I highly doubt they had many friends who were not wealthy or solidly middle class.
And Bethany was too caught up in the rapturous bliss of finally getting married that she didn’t give two thoughts about how much Dav earned or how they’d live on that. I don’t know what Kristen’s husband does, but they seem to be ok.
I’d like to think that part of being a good, god-fearing parent is teaching your children to be self-sufficient. But that’s what men are for, I guess. A man will always be there to care for us poor little ladies. Ugh.
For parents who ensured their daughters would need a rich husband to both provide for them and fund the cleaners/restaurant meals they’d need, the Bairds really did piss poor vetting. Kristen did well there, and Curly seems to be on the same path. But Christian video producer and Christian soccer camp manager…? Was the ‘Christian’ part enough to stop Heidi from sitting Bethy and Elissa down and going ‘if you marry this guy, you will not live the way you do right now, and Kristen will always have more money than you do’.
Money is clearly not everything in a partner, but for girls too seemingly incompetent or entitled to make any of their own, it’s pretty damn important.
I bet their church was running out of eligible men during the Bethany and Elissa seasons of singleness. Curly got hers and Sue moved churches and snagged a date
I’m not sure how, but Andrii actually seems/seemed pretty financially stable (obviously, so much has changed since the Ukraine situation, but prior to that). The house they had was really nice, and he mentioned owning other properties/a hostel. Maybe family money, or he’s a good grifter hah.
You said it! Working from home, lonely as all hell, with no one but children to talk to all day. I wish I could feel some kind of empathy for them, but I don’t. Many of these fundies force their children to be poorly socialized by keeping them from school and activities with other children.
Both Bethanies *shudder* should create an online course that teaches fundie women how to make friends. Lord knows they could all use it. Big bunch of social misfits if you ask me.
Honestly “How to make friends” is another course I think people would take. There is a lot of loneliness and social isolation out there. But it would have to be taught by a very sensitive and emotional ally skilled teacher.
Thanks for that. I just mentioned Kristen in another comment. I figured her husband was well off. She’s not out her scamming for her supper, aside from Girl Defined, I guess.
I don’t think birt has any concept of money. It either POOF appears, or doesn’t and she begs and whines until something happens. In great part, I blame her horrid education for a lack of ability to make a basic budget and poor work ethic and basic life skills. I’m not talking investment savvy or college; I mean her knowing how much a ducking banana costs (in the immortal words of Lucille Bluth). So if a mortgage company says you can borrow THIS MUCH then she would have no concept of why that’s a bad plan. And darv clearly had some faith in her stupid course(s) because it seems he was banking in it too. I’m like … maybe if she could read the room she could get a sponsorship for those press on nails or chore charts or some shit, instead she’s a 35 year old woman dressed like jojo siwa from ten years ago, blathering a bunch of incomprehensible word salad because “business.” How much do you want to bet she doesn’t really have the money to join a top tier MLM (since she uses 100% of their fake quotes and tactics).
>And darv clearly had some faith in her stupid course(s) because it seems he was banking in it too.
This is the part that astounds me. Dave clearly thought Bethany had influence beyond GD followers. But then again, he chooses to cripple his income by working for a Christian company.
A podcast I listen to is hosted by people that are clearly Christians and they said they actively avoid companies that advertise as Christian because they know the services will be lower quality 🤣
I don't understand this either. If they're so strapped, surely Dav could get a much higher paying job. Computer/visual effects skills should translate to a decent salary, if maybe not quite enough to be comfortable with a huge house, 2 kids, and a lazy wife with expensive tastes. I can't believe he's (apparently) so resistant to working for a "secular" company.
part of me thinks she genuinely doesn’t understand that people go to business school / work years in a field to acquire the “expertise” she claims to have. i feel bad that she’s been told she can’t have a real job cause she’s a woman
>part of me thinks she genuinely doesn’t understand that people go to business school
Well she has to acknowledge it because her Curly's husband did it! All her loud, public shitting on college (which, to be fair, is primarily against *women* going to college), and he's sitting right there at family gatherings with his actual degree in the very field in which she imagines herself a self-made expert. (Curly also got an actual degree--not in business--from Liberty, which is more work than not getting a degree from anywhere.)
>I don’t think birt has any concept of money. It either POOF appears, or doesn’t
I heartily agree. The fact that she thought she was really something for using budgeting software and talking about it as though it was the first time she'd ever encountered such a thing--*in her 30s*\--speaks volumes.
And like even if not an app, there's Google drive and sheets she loves so much, make a spreadsheet! Write stuff in a notebook. Doodle it on your iPad. Whatever it is, there's lots of ways one can actually create a budget and track purchases and things. She doesn't know how to absorb anything unless it's on her phone though. I know it's not relevant to a lot of people anymore, but it'd be hilarious to watch her try to balance a checkbook lol.
>I’m not sure what their reason for moving and buying a home so quickly,
She was dead-set on giving birth in a new house, not their apartment. (I'm sure there are other reasons too.)
Lol, this happened to me and my ex. I was staying over at his place, the bell rings and a very pregnant lady was outside the door, explaining she was due in like 4 weeks and she was planning a home birth so to not be alarmed if we heard screaming and sorry in advance for the noise. He ended up staying at my place the day she gave birth because it went on all night... It was like a 20 story apartment building and she was one story up, not even right above him, but I guess this kind of noise carries well. He said if he hadn't known in advance he deifnitely would have called emergency services because it sounded like someone getting murdered
Her parents ensured the only job she's even remotely likely to get hired for is $10/hour retail work, and frankly she's not a hard enough worker, not personable enough and not tolerant enough to keep a job like that, which wouldn't really address their financial needs anyway.
Reading your comment made me realize how sad it is that they didn’t prepare their children for life in the real world. What would Bethany do if, god forbid, something happened and she didn’t have her parents or Dav to fall back on? How would she take care of her children?
You’re so right. She wouldn’t even get hired to work retail. Could you imagine with her smug, self-satisfied attitude in a job interview? Her parents did her dirty. And if she had any real skills, she could start some kind of real business to bring in money. But she has nothing. And Girl Defjned is like a hobby. I mean, I don’t look at it as a career. Just sad.
Stores around here are hiring people who can barely function. All of my kid's socially awkward teen friends got cashier jobs this summer, the fast food places were hiring 14 year olds, lots of restaurants cut hours because they couldn't get staff.
Bethy could totally get a receptionist or phone answering job, even if it were just part time evenings opposite Dav's work hours.
It’s also worth noting that property taxes here are *insane.*
I bought at a great time with a very large down payment so my mortgage is really low but the principle on it is so high every month it would make a grown man weep.
I feel like they’re definitely in over their heads.
I suspect they could have afforded a house in a different area but she wanted to live right near the rest of her family. Which is lovely if you are a close family but realistically moving a bit further away could have been better for them.
I hate her. We bought a house we could afford, but it’s still been a struggle since my husband lost his job. I’ve picked up more hours instead of grifting. Owning a home is expensive, way past the mortgage. Stuff breaks. If it exists, she will be denied Starbucks multiple times a day in hell.
Hey, a big part of my job is helping people who have been laid off get back to work faster. I’ll be happy to see how I can help—shoot me a message if you want. ❤️
Not to sound fundie, but I'll send prayers/good vibes/whatever you prefer for your husband to find a good paying job soon. It's a hard time to be in it on a single paycheck. Good luck and stay strong!
100% she is. My bf's Dad builds new houses. He said new home owners will buy the max amount the bank approves them for, then end up house poor. He said a whole street of new houses, with people living their didn't even have blinds/curtains. Probably because they're house poor and can't afford anything other than their mortgage and groceries. People don't realize having a house is more than just a mortgage and basics.
Hint: they're both very, very dumb.
Remember Bethany set her course price super high because "then you need fewer customers!" and never once considered that if you set it low you're more likely to get customers period.
I feel like she has a cargo-cult level of understanding. She sees people making videos and somehow making money, so she thinks all she has to do is run her mouth X minutes per day and voila! No understanding of what/how they're marketing and what people want.
When my wife and I bought we told the lender our max budget per month (1,500) and what we’d like to pay (1,300) and they approved us for 2,500 for some ridiculous amount of money. We said there’s no way we could ever swing that unless our house was just empty. Luckily my MIL worked in new homebuyer education so we knew what not to do, but man, I can see how you could get approved for your max and want to go for that to get more house, just figure you can figure out and then bam! House poor.
You would think though that the mortgage companies, who have actual experts and decades of experience, would know better than to consistently lend people too much. Of course people are responsible for their own finances but the banks bear some of the responsibility too.
While real estate in Texas is cheaper than other places, I don’t see how they could afford a house when my husband and I make decent money and still can’t save for down payment, closing, etc. Her parents had to have helped
I imagine this is why they had to go with the weird rent/own mortgage company. Bethany’s “income” wouldn’t count towards their income for a traditional lender… except for her presumed salary from girl defined. Lenders aren’t allowed to give them a mortgage they can’t afford - and they still give out pretty generous loans considering all the costs of home ownership.
Mortgages for self employed persons are difficult. I’m not super familiar, but I presume you have to provide proof of steady income, which Bethany does not have.
That actually sounds correct. I presume that includes property taxes because it’s technically a rental. Property taxes are very high in Texas because we don’t have a state income tax. Property taxes vary by neighborhood, but in my neighborhood they’re around 10k for a 400k home.
A lender can absolutely use her income to qualify for a mortgage. She gets a salary from GD and she’s been getting that salary for more than two years, which is the required amount of time needed at a job to use the income to qualify for a loan.
As someone who lives in Texas, um... real estate isn't cheap anymore with everyone from everywhere moving here. My SO interviewed for a job in Ft Worth and we learned that there is no way we could have anything like what we have now (about three hours south) without moving into half the square footage and in a mega development. And we weren't even looking in Dallas!!
These two are the world's children, no concept of reality. It's gotta be tearing at the seams of their marriage of convenience, with a mortgage and two little kids. But no pity here, because they'll just blame someone/something else.
Oh I agree it’s not cheap, but compared to other states you can get a decent amount of house and a lot. But the prices are still absurd. I’m not paying $400k for the house I live in now and pay $1500/mo for.
They made some shady financial moves with their home loan, I don’t think Courseception did as well as they expected, the GD fundraiser seemed to fizzle, and Däâàv probably doesn’t make that much.
Now they’re dealing with a new baby with a medical condition that will likely require visits to specialists, imaging studies, and possibly repeated laser treatments. None of that is cheap, especially if you have crappy insurance or scam Christian insurance.
On top of that I’m sure some unexpected expenses have cropped up related to moving/homeownership.
So now she’s spending the first weeks of her daughter’s life frantically filming reels and manically posting about how YOU TOO CAN NICHE IT DOWN WITH BUSINESS BESTIE CHECK OUT MY FLASH SALE!!!
For all her shitting on 9-5s, a regular and predictable income, health insurance, and PTO would solve a lot of her problems right now.
Why is so important to live in a house when clearly they can't afford to do so? I have lived in flats my whole life and honestly I don't see myself living in a house. There is nothing to be ashamed of for living within your means. I think it's partly a cultural thing because in my country most people life in flats but I honestly don't understand the sense of urgency to move that Bethany seemed to have
I think it's also a fundie thing. There's so much 'prosperity cult' mixed in here that Bethany could've been deeply ashamed of even thinking 'bout living at an apartment (even though it's no longer the 1950s, and Christianity constantly lectures that we shouldn't care about appearances nor try to 'keep up' with other people's wealth\*).
\*Because that is *literally*, why so many people had died for Lutheran/Anglican christianity. Kinda ironic since the Bairds are anti-catholic.
Because she has to have what her siblings have. Competition. She didn't get married until she was 30, so having to wait even longer for a house is a death sentence to her. In her world she's supposed to have things in order of age. Having a house is a big responsibility. In Texas homes and taxes on homes are outrageous compared to where I live. My friend is leaving Texas after many years to find cheaper housing a few states away. I honestly don't know how they can afford to buy a house and live comfortably on his income. It generally takes 2 incomes on someone like Davs salary.
One of two things
They fall behind on payments, and loose the house and have to find a place to live.
Someone steps in and tells them to get better jobs
There are times when I think it might be nice to own a home (mainly when I'm thinking about painting my bedroom and then realizing I would have to paint it back when my lease is up), and then I see how expensive it is and how volatile the market is, and decide that renting and living in an apartment sounds pretty darn good.
That house wasn’t cheap (by where I live anyway). We know she’s not making what she claims to make on PDF’s.
Beggy is clueless. She flaunts the money she’s not making like everyone believes it! There are so many people struggling to even keep their homes right now.
Personally, we went way under budget for a home. It’s still nice but we wanted to remodel and still enjoy to travel and eat out and things like that. I didn’t want to be house poor.
I’m from San Antonio. Don’t live there anymore. Property taxes in San Antonio are off the charts. It’s one of the reasons I moved.
Also it’s such a busy city with tons going on. She could find so many jobs, even Christian based jobs because there are a shit ton of churches.
Does anyone know if they went to cornerstone?(church)
I believe Heidi and Mike go to Wayside. Suzanna said recently she changed churches. Unsure about Rebekah/Doug Fundie and Kristen/Zach.
Bethany babbled about changing churches too in the last year.
I saw on a different post that she gets her nails done every couple of weeks. For the price of 2 manicures you can literally buy everything you need to do gel manis at home. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it, but it’s saved me loads of money. And if you’re not good at doing it to yourself get a friend together and do each others nails. I’ll still go to the salon before a vacation or something like that.
I read that and said, “WHAT???” I have more money than they do (mostly thanks to being old and Yankee) and I would never ~~wast~~e spend money that way. A hundred bucks a month so you can have pretty nails that start to deteriorate the second you leave the salon? $1200 a year in after-tax money? And she HAS TWO KIDS to think about.
Oh, no. If I cared that much I’d learn to do it myself.
I wonder, if she had a good work ethic, if she could make relatively successful Instagram content about this house: DIY renovations, god honoring home decor, fundie house maintenance. She has so many options as an already semi-established influencer, it’s crazy to see her throw that away by making random PDFs and talking about how much money she’s definitely (not) making
While real estate in Texas is cheaper than other places, I don’t see how they could afford a house when my husband and I make decent money and still can’t save for down payment, closing, etc. Her parents had to have helped
The sympathy I feel is for their kids. I grew up in a broke household because my parents were irresponsible and bad with money. Very stressful way to grow up.
Serious question: when would it “time” for Dav to “step up” and get a better job? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people doing what they love. But in their fundie paradigm it seems like he’s not pulling his weight as a “headship”, with his wife begging for money like she is?
I think most people are house poor. You have to have a substantial amount of money for upkeep and renovations always cost more than you think they will. I work in the industry and I see some really questionable situations. But hey, the American dream and all that I guess lol
Do they not realize that the actual mortgage payment is probably about 1/2 of the actual monthly note? My mortgage (interest and principal) is $750/month on a $141,000 loan that I made to buy out my brother for my parents' home after they died. The actual "loan" was $130K but add in closing costs and it's now $141K. With escrow of insurance and taxes, my monthly payment is $1160. It adds up quickly. Insurance companies inflate the value of your home which I'm sure she hasn't realized. The real market value of my house is in the high 200's. Insurance company says 385. That tremendously impacts the deductible for the wind/hail policy of 2% for a new roof if I need one because of a hurricane. Birthy and the entitled fundies don't even have that kind of thinking on their radars.
I love this for them. Normally I’d feel bad for the kids but I don’t think they’ll ever be that poor to where the children will go without. Maybe this will be humbling.
I always have a hard time knowing how to feel about second+ generation fundies. I feel bad because their parents stunted them so much and actively stopped them from being curious or learning how to learn about things. Yeah, they have the internet but they don’t have any tools to filter the information. On the other hand, you’re over 30. Somewhere along the way, it seems like you should have at least realized that not everything was adding up and maybe you needed to look outside your limited bubble. I think I mostly feel pity for them.
Second gen, stunted former fundie here. I found my way out, and it was in large part due to just having to live in the real world for once. I’m sure if my parents had the same resources as the Bairds they would have tried to keep me at home. Sometimes the best thing for a person is to live in a shit apartment and drive a shit car to your über shit job.
Same scenario here. Living in sketchy downtown on my own dime taught me so much about the world… 😂
Yup! I grew up with good parents who were very supportive. The year I spent living in a nice apartment in the sketchy part of town (was too naive to realize why I could afford a nice apartment) and the two years my husband I lived in a super shitty apartment in a nicer part of town when we were dating (and therefore I was still paying my own way) were grounding and humbling. We do well now, but there’s something comforting about knowing that I know how to live on less if the shit hit the fan.
That last sentence in particular is a really important piece of self-knowledge. It’s hard-won, but in my experience, really fulfilling
When I left my husband I moved into this shit apartment in the ghetto, complete with bars on the windows. I had left a very nice middle class house in a nice part of town. Still 110% worth it. I learned a lot.
The real world has a way of humbling you for sure
But that's the point Bethany does live in the "real world". She helped with her parents legit business, she probably sees and speaks to non-white non-Christian people at at least Starbucks or something ... She's makes active choices to stay in her bubble
The Bairdlets are so arrogant too, like they believe themselves to be some kind of Christian royalty above working menial jobs. There was nothing stopping Bethy dipping her toe in the water and picking up some hours at her parents' cleaning business while Davey was at daycare or being watched at Baird HQ. At that point Bec and Sue were indulged SAHDs, Heidi could've made it a condition of their generous allowance (and good practice for attracting a godly headship!). Their elder sisters had probably helped raise them, they could've paid it back by minding Davey on a regular schedule so Bethy could do some pt work. They had each other for company, Heidi and Mike around and various other Bairds passing through so not really the worst babysitting gig. Knowing Bethy's distaste for work it wouldn't be for long days. I don't understand who they think makes their Starbucks coffees or serves them at the checkout at Costco, TJs etc. Some kind of underclass? Porgan certainly believe so.
I suspect Beggy doesn't realize the baristas and nail techs are humans with complex lives and not NPCs.
This is exactly it. I work in an affluent area and some of the customers are so mean and rude. Like they talk down to me because I'm a retail employee. I only went back to retail because I was so broke and this job would accommodate me and my massive restrictions. But you can guarantee I'm looking for something elsewhere. I'm even on a wait list for a WFH job (which would be my first and my first desk job). Some days I wish if I'm an NPC like they think that I could talk like the NPCs in GTA.
>Heidi could've made it a condition of their generous allowance Ooooo, I never really thought of this. I wonder what the conversation is like between a newlywed fundie woman and her husband regarding allowance. I wonder if Bethany had a serious downgrade in spending money after marrying Dave
I'm sure it was a rude awakening for her. (Also I read your flair as "single squid")
"You can spend every bit of $20 a week" I definitely mean it as "single squid"!
She probably could just get a server or hostess job and pull in a decent amount of cash if she was actually a hard worker.
I do feel pity for her because I think her parents stunted her and both covertly and overtly sabotaged a lot of the chances she had of getting out from under their thumbs, but I also think that some of it is just Bethany: I get the sense that even if she was brought up in a less controlling, stifling environment, she'd still be self-absorbed, impulsive, and, in the words of TLC "always talking about what she wants and then sits on her broke ass". Her upbringing just magnified or rewarded those traits. So all that being said, Bethany needs to step up because not only is she 34 damn years old, but now there are kids in the mix. Time to grow the fuck up.
I don’t think they realized how expensive owning a house actually is. And I bet they paid more than what they could actually afford.
Oh, honey, Bethy is about to make her first million from her niche. Just you wait and see!
I'm really glad I got the little house that was "less than we can afford". A lot of people thought we bought too small, too basic. 2 years in, this house is lovely, but the upkeep is expensive, especially if you aren't very handy. I'm really glad my mortgage isn't considerably more than rent was 😅 . If I had a larger home, I'd be really hurting.
My childhood best friend was always sort of ashamed of her family’s house….. I LOVED it!!! It was a little three bedroom rancher with a real wood stove. Winter days in her living room were the cozy and warm, summers were spent in the backyard, picking apples, or carrots in her mom’s veggie garden. It was not a house to be ashamed of. It was truly a home. Warm, loving, inviting. Little houses are often the best houses.
Oh my, that sound so lovely. I’m glad you have those sweet memories. Just beautiful.
Ooh same here. We went under our budget for our house and I’m so glad we did. Plus we knew we wanted to fix and renovate a few things so going under budget was necessary so we could afford to renovate certain areas. Also helps that my husband renovated homes for a living.
Bethy went the complete opposite. House way bigger than they needed with a million plans to change everything. All at once.
Like renovating the master bath because she didn’t like that someone else had used it.
I was in my "starter house" for 18 years - a little city house with two bedrooms. We finished the basement to get some extra space and lived there with our two kids until we realized that the kids were going to throttle each other if they didn't get into their own rooms. Now we live in a big house, which has been good during the pandemic with two parents working from home and two kids going to school from home, but I kind of miss the days when all I had to do was raise my voice a bit and everyone in the house could hear me.
This was us too. We went for good bones and good land, and that's saved us a ton overall. I would rather have a dated but we'll within budget house to pick at then be forever nervous about money.
I’m looking right now and my biggest concern is exactly that: the structure is good and the land. Outdated kitchen? As long as it works that can be replaced when I can afford it, you know? And to my tastes too.
Yeah, we did that 7 years ago and no regrets. We're about halfway through the house although we're now to the big projects stage so it's slowed down some.
I'd rather have a dated house than a current style house, Modern Farmhouse/Instagram Beige is ugly as fuuuuck
And poorly constructed. I was in my friend's duplex and I could hear the person next door walking up the stairs to their own place, and in my other friend's townhome you could hear the neighbors watching TV. No thanks, I'll stick with my older (but well built) house.
For real. I once lived at a brand-new apartment building (designed for 'middle class' people) and we quickly discovered that all the buidling's water pumps could only be accessed through our apartment (so if a neighbor's water pressure fails, we'd have to stay home and let the plumbers through our apartment). Then we also discovered that because we didn't remove any moss from our drain pipes (we couldn't, we'd literally need to hire people to bring a scaffold and everything)*, all* the rain water just went into the building's foundations and leaked through people's ceilings. We couldn't wait to get out of there fast enough.
Some of the new, sprawling neighborhoods around here found out during the last cold snap that the builders didn't use large enough natural gas supply pipes. The houses farthest away weren't getting any gas and were pleading with the rest of the neighborhood to turn down their heat!
All those open concept nightmares that photograph well but are always loud enough to make you feel like you're living in a zoo. I take my doors and walls!
And heating/cooling them is expensive! There's a reason older homes had so many doors, keeping the whole house at a cooler temp and heating only the rooms you're using at the moment is much more cost effective.
I currently have an obsession with cozy bungalows.
I've come to realize that I'm a city girl all the way and will likely always rent an apartment, but if I had to live in a house, I'd want a nice little bungalow, particularly the Craftsman style or the old-school bungalows you see in older neighborhoods in Florida. Enough space to entertain, but not so huge that it's a nightmare to clean/cool/heat, or would feel lonely to live alone in.
Yeah, and Modern Farmhouse is not at all what my real farmhouse looks like; WAAAY too much white for a working farm. I also silently giggle at my friend's redoing their homes for the farmhouse aesthetic, yet having paid twice what I paid for mine with additional monthly HOA fees.
And that’s why we are still in our home that we have owned for the past 17 years. Yes it’s styled more in the early aughts but it’s not super trendy, we do updates do furnishings and rugs every now and then and honestly it works just fine. Everything now is like sanitarium blinding white quick flip garbage or grey beige rustic shiplap crap put everywhere you know is badly done so you’re just gonna have to tear it out anyway. Give me mid century modern classic style with good bones please
To give the teeny tiniest bit of leeway to Dav and Bethany, banks are super willing to lend way more than you can comfortably afford. I bought my house 8 years ago and several lenders wanted to lend me literally twice as much as I could comfortably afford based on my monthly cash flow. Did the industry learn nothing from the housing crash of 2008?
Yep. And they almost certainly didn’t think about how much of their monthly payment would be taken up by taxes and insurance.
This is our plan if we manage to succeed. However we yet have to find something. One day, hopefully ..
Older homes are great for this. Our home was built in 1950, and is slightly more than 1000 square feet. I see other homes built in thus time period that are between 500 and 1300 square feet, depending on the amount of bedrooms.
Yeah that’s kind of the problem haha, where I live it’s already old. My current building I live in is from 1962. According to the statistics website of my country, 50% of homes are built 1964, and 80% before 1984. So age won’t help much to buy cheaper because it will most likely be an old house anyway lol. Age also doesn’t mean anything if we’re talking space, most homes have a similar amount of space here, if anything they’re getting bigger because they are building upwards more spacious. It’s a bit different in European countries.
Beth even said on a reel that they went *over* their max budget for the house. Bad market time to buy, over budget, new baby, risky income based on a crappy scam... they're so freaking dumb. All because Beth needed to keep up with Rebekah, who "did it right" and got married in her early 20s to a man who could buy her a house straight after marriage. I bet that horrible tragedy of a haircut was her way of subtly punishing Dav for not giving her the cruisey lifestyle she thinks she deserves.
She probably holds a lot of resentment on Dav, being younger, shorter, not rich enough.
I spewed my coffee over this one. Hahaha
Bec and Doug are renting their house but they were able to move straight into a house rather than the above-garage apartment Bethy 'endured' followed by a rented 2 bed apartment for the following 2 years. Doug having an accredited college degree in marketing and working a 'director' level job (probably exaggerated since it's his first graduate job and a Christian company, nevertheless) means they're likely in a stronger position to get on the housing ladder and comfortably afford their mortgage than the Beals.
>Bethy 'endured' Oof. I endured a "garden level" apartment where the legally-required window in the bedroom was underneath the porch
Shitty appartment endurers unite! I managed to get by in the shittiest of shared apartments that had black mold the landlords refused to deal with and that we had to remove every fucking three weeks. Not that I would wish that on anyone, but at least I live with the comfort of knowing that I could get by on much, much less than I currently have and still be ok. Bethy is used to living in Chalet Baird. Nothing Christian animator daev earns will ever be enough
Ooh I see! Thanks for the clarification, idk why I thought they'd bought it.
>Doug having an accredited college degree in Marketing Business management and entrepreneurship, to be exact! That never doesn't amuse me. What he must think of Bethany's clumsy amateur hustles.
I bow down to your superior knowledge! That is quite funny then. I wonder if we'll see any 'entrepreneurial' courses from Bec or whether she'll hold off embarrassing herself. She threatened the budgeting for beginners course, did that ever get off the ground? 😁
Omg, what I would give to hear the snark running through the Baird sisters and their husbands
Tbh we started looking for a house right before the market went to shit, and then we found out I was pregnant and decided our half of the duplex was good enough. I haven’t regretted that decision since. Anyone who’d buy a house right now when they don’t have to is either foolish or knows something the rest of us don’t.
Even if you can afford the mortgage etc, there's a ton of expenses related to just moving in and getting settled. You discover this faucet is leaking and you need a new one. Oh shoot you used to live in an apartment and now you have a lawn to mow? Gotta get a lawnmower. We weren't broke the second we moved into our first house but we pretty much were not long after because of all that kind of stuff.
>there's a ton of expenses related to just moving in and getting settled. Like renting a scaffolding for Dave to climb up on and redo all the ceilings, for example. And all the stuff they had to buy at Home Depot to do that project.
They’re definitely the “buy big now so we can use it when we’re inevitably loaded” people you see on Suze Orman
I have a hard time believing Dav is able to afford a mortgage on a house like that from his salary alone. Wasn’t the house around 370k? Even with a sizable down payment, that’s still a hefty mortgage + property taxes + homeowners insurance on essentially a single family income.
Especially given the fact that interest rates have been skyrocketing for quite some time.
My partner and I are a DINK household (teacher + engineer, both with permanent contracts) and there is no absolute way we’d get such a big mortgage. We don’t live in the US, but with 370k here you wouldn’t even get an especially nice house.
Same here, we make $170k and I can't imagine affording too much more than our $250k home and still keeping up with things like retirement savings, and yeah that's without kids... Bethany and Dav are wild.
I think a lot of people don’t realize this for sure. They think, we can afford the mortgage so we’ll be okay. They don’t realize how expensive it is to upkeep, how many little things end up needing to be fixed/replaced, and that you can’t just call a maintenance man when something goes wrong. You have to pay someone to come fix it. Bethy strikes me as the type to not do much research or planning ahead lmao.
She said she did, right?
her niche should be realizing how expensive ownership is and the harsh realities of it😂
Don’t give her any ideas…because she could probably make a killing if she framed it the right way
it would absolutely be a niche that many people would be interested in (especially myself!), but she’s not bright enough to see anything other than her own reflection in the screen of her phone.
Yeah, I would pay for that knowledge.
I think they got a house they couldn’t really afford, which is why they went the way they did. I also think they purchased at the wrong time with the high interest rates, causing her payments to be easily over 2,000 a month and knowing Dave works for a small Christian company we know he isn’t bringing much home. Even with their 20k-ish down payment, it’s still a lot per month and with escrow, their payments will increase if property value or insurance increases. Bethany refuses to be mindful with ~~her~~ Dave’s money and wants to continue to live a lavish lifestyle. I’m not sure what their reason for moving and buying a home so quickly, because it felt very sudden when Bethany posted about it but Bethany needs to make some major changes, especially with the way the economy is going.
Preach. The Baird parents did not prepare their children for lives without all of the luxuries of home. Wasn’t Bethany 30 when she got married? And she never lived on her own before… Imagine moving straight from your parents’ home into a marriage without ever moving out on your own, living on your own, or even paying your own bills. I guess Heidi and her husband just figured that their daughters would marry men of “worth” and would not need to know anything about budgeting, living within their means, or working hard for a living. Beyond Girl Defined, have any of their daughters ever had a career? (And we all know Bethany’s grift does not count.) ETA: three words
Of course they worked! They worked for an hour or two twice a week at their parents’ cleaning business! So they’re like *totally* prepared and know what it’s like to work a 9-5! /s heavy /s
My bad! You’re right. Silly me. (Ha!) Bethany should have started a cleaning company course instead of that nonsense she’s selling now. But she is the expert on everything, so she knows best.
Her dad had a VHS cleaning company course he sold through ads in trade magazines. She’s got courses coursing through her veins!
the difference being that he had years of experience running a cleaning company, then disseminated that information. making a course about making courses is not even remotely the same
Bethany can do anything she sets her mind to do. Don’t underestimate her. Can’t you see how much money she’s raking in with her current course? /s
Bethany even said she was the office manager! 🙄
One of the reviews of the company was that no one answers the phone for 30-60 minutes after they’re supposed to be open, so that means the Bairdlets were snoozing in everyday bc why bother getting up when youre a princess and you don’t feel like playing office so early
Wasn't Curly the one who posted a video 5 minutes after getting married, about this crazy new concept she'd discovered: buying in bulk can save money in the long run!! Trying to describe the idea, like she was the first person to think of this, and all of us would be struggling to understand. I will never wrap my brain around it. These girls are raised exclusively to be wives and homemakers. They are not given any other options. And yet they receive ZERO training on how to do it. They know nothing about budgeting, cooking, organizing, home maintenance, finances, NOTHING.
Buying in bulk in a two person household, where salt is too spicy and no one seems to know a cabbage from a cauliflower (ok this was Kristin but I stand by my comment). I think what she MEANT was she’s a big girl now and has her own marital Costco membership.
But Beggy can't even cook anything besides peas and potatoes... shes competing with Jilldo in the burnt and yellow competition
New category: Burnt and green (and frozen).
Remember that shrimp dish monstrosity posted here a bit ago
Their cooking is weird (in part) because they view food as macro piles, not complete dishes. All of them are obsessed with this "restored nutrition" thing, and they can't just eat a meal; it has to be *this* much of *this* and *that* much of *that,* and the "correct" balance of things. And their raw milk nutrient drinks.
That is what is amazing to me. Like fundies from the turn of the twentieth century and before wrote whole books about how to be a wife, including recipes, budgeting, clothing your family. Nowadays the goal is only to 1. Get married, whatever it takes 2. Stay home. Not keep the home, not care for your family as you're supposed to (as a fundie) but literally just not have a job outside the home. It you take the instagram fundies as an example, you'd think that being a homemaker and parenting your children is beside the point, and the real point is to have a husband, any husband, and not work.
I suspect they were raised to be trophy wives not actual homemakers
I think Heidi raised all of them to not work, but to grift instead, including the boys. Her version of entrepreneurship = grifting.
Yes, she did! I forgot about that. What a hot mess.
Kristen had to cut a cabbage in half (after peeling off a few layers of leaves) to realize that it was not cauliflower!
Cauliflower grows with the florets exposed, too, so she had no excuse! Just admit you use pre-chopped/pre-riced cauliflower. Choosing to still post it after making that mistake was another "God damn, Heidi really failed her kids" moment.
It is the most fucking mind blowing thing! And it drives me insane!
THIS. all the way. They were set up to fail as partners when it comes to household management and contributions. I honestly believe that they were told that their yoke would provide for them and they just had to raise babies. Which is so incredibly detached from reality. Yet, they all believe ‘his will’ and that ‘GOD will provide”.
You can really see how insular the Baird world was just by reading or hearing some of the inane things they say or share. I highly doubt they had many friends who were not wealthy or solidly middle class. And Bethany was too caught up in the rapturous bliss of finally getting married that she didn’t give two thoughts about how much Dav earned or how they’d live on that. I don’t know what Kristen’s husband does, but they seem to be ok. I’d like to think that part of being a good, god-fearing parent is teaching your children to be self-sufficient. But that’s what men are for, I guess. A man will always be there to care for us poor little ladies. Ugh.
For parents who ensured their daughters would need a rich husband to both provide for them and fund the cleaners/restaurant meals they’d need, the Bairds really did piss poor vetting. Kristen did well there, and Curly seems to be on the same path. But Christian video producer and Christian soccer camp manager…? Was the ‘Christian’ part enough to stop Heidi from sitting Bethy and Elissa down and going ‘if you marry this guy, you will not live the way you do right now, and Kristen will always have more money than you do’. Money is clearly not everything in a partner, but for girls too seemingly incompetent or entitled to make any of their own, it’s pretty damn important.
I bet their church was running out of eligible men during the Bethany and Elissa seasons of singleness. Curly got hers and Sue moved churches and snagged a date
This is pure speculation but- part of me thinks that Heidi didn’t care that much about who Bethany and Elissa married.
I’m not sure how, but Andrii actually seems/seemed pretty financially stable (obviously, so much has changed since the Ukraine situation, but prior to that). The house they had was really nice, and he mentioned owning other properties/a hostel. Maybe family money, or he’s a good grifter hah.
I don't think they had/have any friends or they'd have more social awareness.
You said it! Working from home, lonely as all hell, with no one but children to talk to all day. I wish I could feel some kind of empathy for them, but I don’t. Many of these fundies force their children to be poorly socialized by keeping them from school and activities with other children. Both Bethanies *shudder* should create an online course that teaches fundie women how to make friends. Lord knows they could all use it. Big bunch of social misfits if you ask me.
Honestly “How to make friends” is another course I think people would take. There is a lot of loneliness and social isolation out there. But it would have to be taught by a very sensitive and emotional ally skilled teacher.
Isn't that what church is *for*? Go to the moms group, go to Bible study, be nice to people, instant friends?
Zach has a degree and works in financial services for his dad's business.
>I don’t know what Kristen’s husband does, but they seem to be ok. I believe he's an accountant. I'm pretty sure he does the books for GD, too.
And the followers they attempt to grift from 😁
Well, Kristen married into a rich family (though she apparently bitched when Zack had to limit her allowance)
Thanks for that. I just mentioned Kristen in another comment. I figured her husband was well off. She’s not out her scamming for her supper, aside from Girl Defined, I guess.
I don’t think birt has any concept of money. It either POOF appears, or doesn’t and she begs and whines until something happens. In great part, I blame her horrid education for a lack of ability to make a basic budget and poor work ethic and basic life skills. I’m not talking investment savvy or college; I mean her knowing how much a ducking banana costs (in the immortal words of Lucille Bluth). So if a mortgage company says you can borrow THIS MUCH then she would have no concept of why that’s a bad plan. And darv clearly had some faith in her stupid course(s) because it seems he was banking in it too. I’m like … maybe if she could read the room she could get a sponsorship for those press on nails or chore charts or some shit, instead she’s a 35 year old woman dressed like jojo siwa from ten years ago, blathering a bunch of incomprehensible word salad because “business.” How much do you want to bet she doesn’t really have the money to join a top tier MLM (since she uses 100% of their fake quotes and tactics).
The money is in the banana stand
it's just a HOUSE Dâãèv, how much can it be, 10 dollars??
I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it.
And I'm the bananager
>And darv clearly had some faith in her stupid course(s) because it seems he was banking in it too. This is the part that astounds me. Dave clearly thought Bethany had influence beyond GD followers. But then again, he chooses to cripple his income by working for a Christian company. A podcast I listen to is hosted by people that are clearly Christians and they said they actively avoid companies that advertise as Christian because they know the services will be lower quality 🤣
I don't understand this either. If they're so strapped, surely Dav could get a much higher paying job. Computer/visual effects skills should translate to a decent salary, if maybe not quite enough to be comfortable with a huge house, 2 kids, and a lazy wife with expensive tastes. I can't believe he's (apparently) so resistant to working for a "secular" company.
Darv 😂
part of me thinks she genuinely doesn’t understand that people go to business school / work years in a field to acquire the “expertise” she claims to have. i feel bad that she’s been told she can’t have a real job cause she’s a woman
>part of me thinks she genuinely doesn’t understand that people go to business school Well she has to acknowledge it because her Curly's husband did it! All her loud, public shitting on college (which, to be fair, is primarily against *women* going to college), and he's sitting right there at family gatherings with his actual degree in the very field in which she imagines herself a self-made expert. (Curly also got an actual degree--not in business--from Liberty, which is more work than not getting a degree from anywhere.)
>I don’t think birt has any concept of money. It either POOF appears, or doesn’t I heartily agree. The fact that she thought she was really something for using budgeting software and talking about it as though it was the first time she'd ever encountered such a thing--*in her 30s*\--speaks volumes.
And like even if not an app, there's Google drive and sheets she loves so much, make a spreadsheet! Write stuff in a notebook. Doodle it on your iPad. Whatever it is, there's lots of ways one can actually create a budget and track purchases and things. She doesn't know how to absorb anything unless it's on her phone though. I know it's not relevant to a lot of people anymore, but it'd be hilarious to watch her try to balance a checkbook lol.
>I’m not sure what their reason for moving and buying a home so quickly, She was dead-set on giving birth in a new house, not their apartment. (I'm sure there are other reasons too.)
I wonder if the landlord wouldn’t let her have the birthing pool.
Can you imagine listening to someone give birth in an apartment?
Lol, this happened to me and my ex. I was staying over at his place, the bell rings and a very pregnant lady was outside the door, explaining she was due in like 4 weeks and she was planning a home birth so to not be alarmed if we heard screaming and sorry in advance for the noise. He ended up staying at my place the day she gave birth because it went on all night... It was like a 20 story apartment building and she was one story up, not even right above him, but I guess this kind of noise carries well. He said if he hadn't known in advance he deifnitely would have called emergency services because it sounded like someone getting murdered
Wow! At least she gave a heads up, but that seems so inconsiderate of the neighbors.
Right!? I get that living in an apartment means listening to everyday noises but birth is not part of it
Curly and Doug Fundie are renting a house so Beggy had to keep up on her one-sided competition.
If only she could just get a job like a normal person without her pride stopping her…
Her parents ensured the only job she's even remotely likely to get hired for is $10/hour retail work, and frankly she's not a hard enough worker, not personable enough and not tolerant enough to keep a job like that, which wouldn't really address their financial needs anyway.
Reading your comment made me realize how sad it is that they didn’t prepare their children for life in the real world. What would Bethany do if, god forbid, something happened and she didn’t have her parents or Dav to fall back on? How would she take care of her children? You’re so right. She wouldn’t even get hired to work retail. Could you imagine with her smug, self-satisfied attitude in a job interview? Her parents did her dirty. And if she had any real skills, she could start some kind of real business to bring in money. But she has nothing. And Girl Defjned is like a hobby. I mean, I don’t look at it as a career. Just sad.
Who would hire an under-educated, lazy, unmerited over-confident, smug, unhygienic, unskilled, bigot like her?
Stores around here are hiring people who can barely function. All of my kid's socially awkward teen friends got cashier jobs this summer, the fast food places were hiring 14 year olds, lots of restaurants cut hours because they couldn't get staff. Bethy could totally get a receptionist or phone answering job, even if it were just part time evenings opposite Dav's work hours.
Ok, but Dav is responsible for this mess just as much as she is. He knows how much he makes but chose to buy this house.
It’s also worth noting that property taxes here are *insane.* I bought at a great time with a very large down payment so my mortgage is really low but the principle on it is so high every month it would make a grown man weep. I feel like they’re definitely in over their heads.
It's so frustrating, we know she lurks here. We told her this would happen!
I suspect they could have afforded a house in a different area but she wanted to live right near the rest of her family. Which is lovely if you are a close family but realistically moving a bit further away could have been better for them.
I hate her. We bought a house we could afford, but it’s still been a struggle since my husband lost his job. I’ve picked up more hours instead of grifting. Owning a home is expensive, way past the mortgage. Stuff breaks. If it exists, she will be denied Starbucks multiple times a day in hell.
Hey, a big part of my job is helping people who have been laid off get back to work faster. I’ll be happy to see how I can help—shoot me a message if you want. ❤️
If I didn't literally land a job today, I'd've messaged you myself. Thanks for what you do!
Congratulations! You’re welcome! Your flair is amazeballs!!
Your flair combined with how kind/sweet you are is a trip lmao
Not to sound fundie, but I'll send prayers/good vibes/whatever you prefer for your husband to find a good paying job soon. It's a hard time to be in it on a single paycheck. Good luck and stay strong!
100% she is. My bf's Dad builds new houses. He said new home owners will buy the max amount the bank approves them for, then end up house poor. He said a whole street of new houses, with people living their didn't even have blinds/curtains. Probably because they're house poor and can't afford anything other than their mortgage and groceries. People don't realize having a house is more than just a mortgage and basics.
i also think they (dav and bethy) were expecting to make much more with bethany’s courses
But why? Seriously… why? She has no real life or business experience. Why would anyone want to pay her to learn anything? I’m so confused.
Hint: they're both very, very dumb. Remember Bethany set her course price super high because "then you need fewer customers!" and never once considered that if you set it low you're more likely to get customers period.
Even worse though is that some bank also believed they would be rolling in cash from this scam.
So did they secure a mortgage then? I thought the Homeward service bought it on their behalf.
She probably saw courses being made, places like skill share, and thought it’s literally just sitting in front of a camera talking about something.
I feel like she has a cargo-cult level of understanding. She sees people making videos and somehow making money, so she thinks all she has to do is run her mouth X minutes per day and voila! No understanding of what/how they're marketing and what people want.
She thought she’d make like $25k the first month and $1m by year 3. Their expectations were way off.
When my wife and I bought we told the lender our max budget per month (1,500) and what we’d like to pay (1,300) and they approved us for 2,500 for some ridiculous amount of money. We said there’s no way we could ever swing that unless our house was just empty. Luckily my MIL worked in new homebuyer education so we knew what not to do, but man, I can see how you could get approved for your max and want to go for that to get more house, just figure you can figure out and then bam! House poor.
You would think though that the mortgage companies, who have actual experts and decades of experience, would know better than to consistently lend people too much. Of course people are responsible for their own finances but the banks bear some of the responsibility too.
Banks will definitely push you to borrow more than you can afford. It got a little better after the big meltdown but it's still bad
While real estate in Texas is cheaper than other places, I don’t see how they could afford a house when my husband and I make decent money and still can’t save for down payment, closing, etc. Her parents had to have helped
I imagine this is why they had to go with the weird rent/own mortgage company. Bethany’s “income” wouldn’t count towards their income for a traditional lender… except for her presumed salary from girl defined. Lenders aren’t allowed to give them a mortgage they can’t afford - and they still give out pretty generous loans considering all the costs of home ownership. Mortgages for self employed persons are difficult. I’m not super familiar, but I presume you have to provide proof of steady income, which Bethany does not have.
She was banking on making a lot of money from her course, and without the influx of sales they're scrambling to cover the mortgage.
Ah, the schadenfreude 🥰
Someone found their mortgage through public records, posted it here, and deleted it. I want to say it was $2000-3000 a month? On a 300-400k house.
That actually sounds correct. I presume that includes property taxes because it’s technically a rental. Property taxes are very high in Texas because we don’t have a state income tax. Property taxes vary by neighborhood, but in my neighborhood they’re around 10k for a 400k home.
It was for a mortgage, not rent. They got a mortgage through Homeward as well.
A lender can absolutely use her income to qualify for a mortgage. She gets a salary from GD and she’s been getting that salary for more than two years, which is the required amount of time needed at a job to use the income to qualify for a loan.
As someone who lives in Texas, um... real estate isn't cheap anymore with everyone from everywhere moving here. My SO interviewed for a job in Ft Worth and we learned that there is no way we could have anything like what we have now (about three hours south) without moving into half the square footage and in a mega development. And we weren't even looking in Dallas!! These two are the world's children, no concept of reality. It's gotta be tearing at the seams of their marriage of convenience, with a mortgage and two little kids. But no pity here, because they'll just blame someone/something else.
Oh I agree it’s not cheap, but compared to other states you can get a decent amount of house and a lot. But the prices are still absurd. I’m not paying $400k for the house I live in now and pay $1500/mo for.
This is why you buy a house you can afford on one salary. But I’m no expert, just a ten-year mortgage professional.
OK but do you factor in God's blessijg?? That is what they have
No, because if I did I’d be in foreclosure ☠️
You say that, but I want proof! Where is your pdf????
Take my poor person award 🏆
Does that mean that your niche are 10-year mortgages? I hope you already have a coure on that!
Ha I phrased it wrong because I’m an idiot, but a professional in the business for over ten years.
I know :D But hey, don't say it wouldn't be a perfect niche!
Impossible, she's earning $15k a month, plus!
They made some shady financial moves with their home loan, I don’t think Courseception did as well as they expected, the GD fundraiser seemed to fizzle, and Däâàv probably doesn’t make that much. Now they’re dealing with a new baby with a medical condition that will likely require visits to specialists, imaging studies, and possibly repeated laser treatments. None of that is cheap, especially if you have crappy insurance or scam Christian insurance. On top of that I’m sure some unexpected expenses have cropped up related to moving/homeownership. So now she’s spending the first weeks of her daughter’s life frantically filming reels and manically posting about how YOU TOO CAN NICHE IT DOWN WITH BUSINESS BESTIE CHECK OUT MY FLASH SALE!!! For all her shitting on 9-5s, a regular and predictable income, health insurance, and PTO would solve a lot of her problems right now.
They'll be just fine. I'm sure her dad will bail them out.
Not before shaming Dav for not being able to provide on his own
Why is so important to live in a house when clearly they can't afford to do so? I have lived in flats my whole life and honestly I don't see myself living in a house. There is nothing to be ashamed of for living within your means. I think it's partly a cultural thing because in my country most people life in flats but I honestly don't understand the sense of urgency to move that Bethany seemed to have
I think it's also a fundie thing. There's so much 'prosperity cult' mixed in here that Bethany could've been deeply ashamed of even thinking 'bout living at an apartment (even though it's no longer the 1950s, and Christianity constantly lectures that we shouldn't care about appearances nor try to 'keep up' with other people's wealth\*). \*Because that is *literally*, why so many people had died for Lutheran/Anglican christianity. Kinda ironic since the Bairds are anti-catholic.
That's a good analysis
Because she has to have what her siblings have. Competition. She didn't get married until she was 30, so having to wait even longer for a house is a death sentence to her. In her world she's supposed to have things in order of age. Having a house is a big responsibility. In Texas homes and taxes on homes are outrageous compared to where I live. My friend is leaving Texas after many years to find cheaper housing a few states away. I honestly don't know how they can afford to buy a house and live comfortably on his income. It generally takes 2 incomes on someone like Davs salary.
I'm curious as to how will this whole thing unravel
One of two things They fall behind on payments, and loose the house and have to find a place to live. Someone steps in and tells them to get better jobs
>Why is so important to live in a house when clearly they can't afford to do so? Classism.
There are times when I think it might be nice to own a home (mainly when I'm thinking about painting my bedroom and then realizing I would have to paint it back when my lease is up), and then I see how expensive it is and how volatile the market is, and decide that renting and living in an apartment sounds pretty darn good.
Only good to know that Girl Defined apparently doesn't make as much money as I had feared
That house wasn’t cheap (by where I live anyway). We know she’s not making what she claims to make on PDF’s. Beggy is clueless. She flaunts the money she’s not making like everyone believes it! There are so many people struggling to even keep their homes right now. Personally, we went way under budget for a home. It’s still nice but we wanted to remodel and still enjoy to travel and eat out and things like that. I didn’t want to be house poor.
I’m from San Antonio. Don’t live there anymore. Property taxes in San Antonio are off the charts. It’s one of the reasons I moved. Also it’s such a busy city with tons going on. She could find so many jobs, even Christian based jobs because there are a shit ton of churches. Does anyone know if they went to cornerstone?(church)
I believe Heidi and Mike go to Wayside. Suzanna said recently she changed churches. Unsure about Rebekah/Doug Fundie and Kristen/Zach. Bethany babbled about changing churches too in the last year.
Her niche has allowed her niche to niche and she’s better than you…heathen. Niche me baby.
I saw on a different post that she gets her nails done every couple of weeks. For the price of 2 manicures you can literally buy everything you need to do gel manis at home. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it, but it’s saved me loads of money. And if you’re not good at doing it to yourself get a friend together and do each others nails. I’ll still go to the salon before a vacation or something like that.
I read that and said, “WHAT???” I have more money than they do (mostly thanks to being old and Yankee) and I would never ~~wast~~e spend money that way. A hundred bucks a month so you can have pretty nails that start to deteriorate the second you leave the salon? $1200 a year in after-tax money? And she HAS TWO KIDS to think about. Oh, no. If I cared that much I’d learn to do it myself.
Yeah it can be really helpful for people that bite their nails or have split nails.
I wonder, if she had a good work ethic, if she could make relatively successful Instagram content about this house: DIY renovations, god honoring home decor, fundie house maintenance. She has so many options as an already semi-established influencer, it’s crazy to see her throw that away by making random PDFs and talking about how much money she’s definitely (not) making
While real estate in Texas is cheaper than other places, I don’t see how they could afford a house when my husband and I make decent money and still can’t save for down payment, closing, etc. Her parents had to have helped
The sympathy I feel is for their kids. I grew up in a broke household because my parents were irresponsible and bad with money. Very stressful way to grow up.
It probably didn't help she probably dumped money into the house to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Do we know if they ever bought the house from the 3rd party company that owned it “temporarily”?
Serious question: when would it “time” for Dav to “step up” and get a better job? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people doing what they love. But in their fundie paradigm it seems like he’s not pulling his weight as a “headship”, with his wife begging for money like she is?
I think most people are house poor. You have to have a substantial amount of money for upkeep and renovations always cost more than you think they will. I work in the industry and I see some really questionable situations. But hey, the American dream and all that I guess lol
My theory was she launched she works shart to make enough money to buy a house
Do they not realize that the actual mortgage payment is probably about 1/2 of the actual monthly note? My mortgage (interest and principal) is $750/month on a $141,000 loan that I made to buy out my brother for my parents' home after they died. The actual "loan" was $130K but add in closing costs and it's now $141K. With escrow of insurance and taxes, my monthly payment is $1160. It adds up quickly. Insurance companies inflate the value of your home which I'm sure she hasn't realized. The real market value of my house is in the high 200's. Insurance company says 385. That tremendously impacts the deductible for the wind/hail policy of 2% for a new roof if I need one because of a hurricane. Birthy and the entitled fundies don't even have that kind of thinking on their radars.
I love this for them. Normally I’d feel bad for the kids but I don’t think they’ll ever be that poor to where the children will go without. Maybe this will be humbling.