Spends enormous amounts of money on items she doesn't need. Doesn't open them for months and months. Sometimes buys two of everything. What can be done.
I can block the stations, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Fear of her finding out, or fear of hurting her? I'm not sure. She's 85. She spends around $1,000.00 a month on just QVC. She buys from HSN and others. Buys from catalogues. She has a direct line to these places. I spent 2 solid weeks with my friend, working in her home getting it cleaned up, from 7 am till 8,9,10 pm so they would let her come home from a nursing home where she was for rehab. They do a house inspection before letting patients go home. She could not get in her bedroom closet for years. I could clean up because she was gone. She never let me. I didn't throw a thing out. It's all in garbage bags in the garage. Stacked to the ceiling. We cleaned from top to bottom every room. She doesn't need a thing. She knows it. She will not spend money on a cleaning person because she says it cost too much, but will spend $400.00 a week on QVC. She complains about lawn care, too expensive , so I cut the grass. I work two jobs to stay afloat to pay bills , my husband works 7 days a week, and she says she would love to help but money is tight. It's amazing really. She says she buys because she never had a thing when she was growing up. She was in high school. I get so mad, but I don't say a thing. When she can't find something, I get a call being accused of taking it. I have never taken a thing. When she is sick and hospital bound, she's nice. When she feels good, she gets mean. It's horrible really.
Jlfree, I had the same problem with my father and ordering from catalogs. He would order hundreds of dollars of junk each month. He loved to look at the catalogs, but the main payoff for him was opening the boxes when they came. It was rarely anything useful, just more to clutter the house.
The only thing I found that worked was having my mother tell him to stop doing it. I tried to keep the catalogs away from him, but he seemed to always have a stash from somewhere. It disturbed him very much when my mother would say to stop it, but it would work for a while.
Now that he is not doing well, he has stopped ordering very much. I think he ordered things because he was bored. It gave him something to do and something to look forward to. I wonder if there is some positive way that family can redirect the QVC/catalog ordering to something more constructive. Having fights about it didn't feel very good.
What would the person do if you changed the cable package to block QVC? Many people have the QVC addiction, so perhaps it would be a good way to intervene.
The only thing I found that worked was having my mother tell him to stop doing it. I tried to keep the catalogs away from him, but he seemed to always have a stash from somewhere. It disturbed him very much when my mother would say to stop it, but it would work for a while.
Now that he is not doing well, he has stopped ordering very much. I think he ordered things because he was bored. It gave him something to do and something to look forward to. I wonder if there is some positive way that family can redirect the QVC/catalog ordering to something more constructive. Having fights about it didn't feel very good.
What would the person do if you changed the cable package to block QVC? Many people have the QVC addiction, so perhaps it would be a good way to intervene.