College Student, 24, Pays Off Grandparents' Mortgage by Saving Money Eating Microwave Pizza and.....

[steve2470]

College Student, 24, Pays Off Grandparents' Mortgage by Saving Money Eating Microwave Pizza and Skipping Parties

http://www.people.com/article/houston-college-student-pays-off-grandparents-mortgage



The gift of a lifetime.

Stefun Darts – a Houston native, college students and founder of non-profit Caring Heart Youth – repaid his grandparents for everything they've done for him by gifting them with a $15,000 check and a trip to the Bahamas.

"I promised God in the second grade I would pay off you guys house and help you retire. A promise I would never break," Darts, 24, wrote on Facebook. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched… but are felt by the heart.

"Even with this, I could never repay you for what you've done for me," the San Jacinto College student said. "I sacrificed my teenage and early adulthood of not having fun for this moment. I couldn't stand you going to work at night, some nights I didn't even sleep knowing it shouldn't be like this. Never have I wrote a check wanting this to be the first one. To all my friends that stood by me over these last 6 years I appreciate you."


What a wonderful grandson!

[romanic]

1. Man of the year material.

What a great guy, his granparents must be so proud.

[ViseGrip]

2. Another being, full of light

[airplaneman]

3. A very fine man I bet they are so proud of him. n/t.

[haikugal]

4. Sweet heart...

[Pauldg47]

5. A great young man.

[roguevalley]

6. oh god. how lovely

[Lochloosa]

7. Got a few bucks laying around?

http://www.caringheartyouth.org/#!projects/c21kz

[spooky3]

18. thank you for the link - happy to give a little.

[Lochloosa]

20. Looks like a good cause.

Thanks

[Iwillnevergiveup]

8. No words, just

[Not Sure]

9. Wow, that's so cool.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. K&R! Wow! What a wonderful kid!

[Marrah_G]

11. Amazing young man

[mnhtnbb]

12. What a wonderful thing for him to do.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Don't listen to the RW tell you African Americans are lazy, thuggish, and not very bright

Stefun Darts is not alone, not the first, and not the last.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Or super predators that need to be brought to heel.... So, not just the RW.

[gregcrawford]

14. A noble young man...

... whose integrity and determination will take him a long way. Good on ya, kid!

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

15. Amazing young man.

If he isn't the epitome of what every parent hopes their child will grow up to be, I don't know who is!

I hope he goes on to have a wonderful life and touches many others along the way.

[rug]

16. Keep an eye on him. This is a good man.

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. Stefun...

[valerief]

19. I wish I was that smart that young. nt

[demigoddess]

23. One very fine young man!! I know his grandparents are proud!

[tabasco]

24. Well done, young man!

I wish I had it together like that when I was his age.

[redruddyred]

25. he's a nice kid and all

but you don't save 15k eating microwave food and not partying -- much the opposite!

i cook cos it's cheaper :/

sorry, I don't buy it! also, what is his job pls nothing in texas pays enough for leftover from food and rent unless you're out on an oilrig (in which case you're not making classes).

sorry but the 'system' doesn't work this good

[Rex]

26. I believe that is from 6 years of effort.

So yeah, I can believe it since 15k in 6 years in easily obtainable.

[redruddyred]

30. really?

with a high school education? unless he's living with his folks, he's just scraping by. i'm from houston and i lived this and there are only shitty lowpaid jobs with no opportunities for promotion.

[Rex]

32. Sure why not 15k over 6 years is nothing, maybe a part time job at best.

No doubt he did more then just skip eating at Pizza Hut and drinking Shiner with his friends.

[redruddyred]

33. what alternate reality are you living in?

this is something a republican would say to justify the continued oppression of youth.

[Rex]

36. Nice projection there.

Truth hurt?

[redruddyred]

37. how old are you?

have you lived on <10/hr in 2010s dollars?

[xmas74]

29. You can get Totino's Party Pizzas for about a buck each.

Those little Michelina meals are about the same, Banquet meals about $1.25-1.50 each. Find a good sale and stock up.

(I have a teenager. Even though I cook at night I still stock up on those items whenever there is a good sale, sometimes as low as 50 cents for a Banquet meal. My kid is very busy, even on school nights-sometimes too busy for me to cook. At least they're better than fast food and they cook for a couple of minutes in the microwave.)

[redruddyred]

31. not where i am

i troll the shit out of those sales, lucky to get a buck seventyfive on lean cuisine items. banquet seems like asking for some real expensive medical bills down the road.

still when i lived in a place with better & cheaper grocery stores i found that buying fresh, if you picked the right items, was still cheapest. sometimes you get a good deal on canned stuff but it varies.

[xmas74]

35. The town I grew up in has a Banquet plant.

I have classmates that work there. They had a company store for years. (I don't know, they might still have it.) Anyway, when I was young I'd give an employee a ten and a list. They'd pick up lots of Banquet dinners, pot pies, boil bags (the meat and gravy bags-I'd pour them over rice or mashed potatoes), etc. They also would get a few Healthy Choice meals for a great price, frozen burritos and sometimes they would have the Healthy Choice soups on sale for a dime each.

I lived off the stuff for quite some time when I was young, before I had my child. I worked for the state of Missouri at the time and was only paid once a month. If an employee said there was an especially good sale I'd give them $20 or $30 to stock up for me. Sometimes they even had orange juice concentrate and powdered milk. Most of my shopping for the month could be covered at that one little place and I'd supplement fresh or frozen veggies, rice, pasta and a few other things. With the soup I'd make a green salad and maybe half a grilled cheese sandwich, burritos usually included frozen corn that I doctored into a Mexi-corn blend and a side salad, etc. I knew someone else who worked at a Quaker plant and I'd get oatmeal for my breakfast for free. Another friend had a family member who worked for Johnsonville and I'd occasionally go in on deals for brats and sausage. Yet another friend worked for Anheuser Busch and received free beer every Friday but we drank that away on the weekend. (I don't know if they still do it.) And the friend who had a route with Pepsi would bring us the dented cans. And for big cookouts we had friends who worked at the Tyson pork plant. They could get really good deals on mislabeled products.

We learned how to live really cheap. It can still be done but you need a few connections. And even if you eat lots of frozen meals you have to supplement them with something fresh or else it's just too much of everything.

(Oh, and the only meal I didn't eat from Banquet was the fried chicken. We were a chicken plant and that side of town reeked of Banquet fried chicken.)

[redruddyred]

38. thank you for sharing that story abt your life

it was a nice read and i learned something new.

[xmas74]

40. Thank you.

I just remember being young and poor and finding ways to save as much money as possible. Employees used to be able to receive products for free or a very low price years ago but now I'd be surprised if it's still offered as a perk at any of those places.

I look back at being young and though there was no money I did ok. I had a cute apartment with utilities included and an antenna for television, a car that ran, a job with benefits and lots of friends who were also trying to get by. We all put our supplies together and managed to get by just fine. We had hope for the future, something I don't see quite so much nowadays from the young adults and that's sad.

[redruddyred]

43. i've spent my 20s literally starving due to lack of medical care

and a lack of appropriate social services for what turned out to be a completely treatable medical condition (this is a bit more complicated than not having health insurance although that was a factor). i was lucky that i never had to be homeless but in order to avoid such had to endure some extremely abusive living situations; looking back I'm lucky i didn't go to jail for defending myself as many women do in this day and age.

i attended school on and off during this time and when i had time to study, and frequently when i didn't, would do very well. i stuck with it despite lack of resources because found my dayjob far too unchallenging. professors were mostly dicks about making exceptions for extenuating circumstances which is something many of my friends have also observed; the kids who work are hella discriminated against by the very structure of the courses which are emphatically not designed for them.

looking back i see all that time as a massive waste as i know i have better talents which i should be making use of but am not. i would say that i am optimistic about my ability to make changes in my life: things are a lot better than when i was 23 for example, but i am also realistic about how much things can budge. this hangs heavy on me and i find that i frequently lack motivation to complete tasks because i'm so inured to failure.

i'm surprised that you mention having supportive friends; i live in a kind of retirement community now so no one my age, but when there were i hated them all and made a concerted effort to avoid them. it might have been nice to have that kind of support but i just don't see people being able to work together in this way; the last job i had for any length of time had a serious and entirely avoidable bullying problem. atm i'm renting a house with an extra room and sometimes lend it out to couchsurfers who invariably have some dickish reaction to my rather simple accomodations. i figure one of the reasons rightwing groups keep winning elections is because there are so many pricks in the world.

[xmas74]

45. My friends at the time were the only way I really

made it through my twenties. Everyone knew someone with a connection or someone with a skill and it could all be bartered between us. Even the friend who worked part time at Walmart had something we could use: a discount on what we needed from Walmart. We all pooled our resources and learned to live through it. And we watched a few die along the way from various things. (Sadly, a couple were because of a lack of health insurance.)

I just don't see that same kind of camaraderie now among that age group. I don't understand why. Having a group of friends with different resources can only help get them through those first few rough years.

[redruddyred]

46. i don't either

but i'd love to hear any hypotheses

i wonder if the pop culture has anything to do with it; when i was growing up the films and music marketed towards teens were shockingly stupid and seemed to encourage the narcissism and utter shallowness i seem to see so frequently among my peers.

i also wonder if it's people wholly accepting the neoliberal dogma: i remember when i was younger joyriding on my bike late at night and getting harrassed by a group of teenagers in a lexus "GET A JOB". LOL.

i usually help out with the party during the election cycle and even among the democratic socialists i feel the least privileged of the group (it's the chronic illness). even progressives can be catty it seems.

[Prism]

41. Depends if there's a dollar store around

Here in the Bay Area, we have 99 cent stores and Dollar Tree. I save tons on various staples and household goods by making the trip.

My 2016 resolution is to be completely debt free by the end of the year, so I've been in total scrimp mode on the day to day things like food and household items. The savings I've noticed are insane.

It's doable if you have a place to go. I also have to counsel people about spending on limited and fixed incomes. If you put in the effort, there are ways to wriggle out savings.

The doesn't mean I don't think people in the social safety net or making less than a living wage deserve far more than they're getting. Quite the opposite. And there's also the issue of transportation, food deserts, and the ability to buy in bulk when you're living from check to check. It's a rough situation all around.

But, I don't dismiss the idea someone could scrimp and come up with $15k after six years if they were really dedicated to the task. It seems this young man was.

[redruddyred]

42. i'll push my point again

the social safety net pays way less than cost of living, many jobs as well

[Prism]

44. I 100% agree with you

Part of my job is to counsel recipients of state aid on spending habits. Believe me, I'm aware of how shabbily we treat people.

"So! Here's how you don't starve this week!"

Believe me. It's demoralizing.

[redruddyred]

47. **hugs**

thanks for being part of the solution

[Prism]

48. For now!

I both love and hate social work. I love it, because I feel like I'm doing something. I hate it, because it's just so damn depressing. (Also, this job just plain doesn't pay).

But soon, I'm transitioning into tech as one of those horrible San Francisco tech people. I will be responsible for gentrification, real estate costs skyrocketing, and general douchery that comes from that population.

But I'll still try to help. If you don't see West Oakland and go, "Wait, why aren't we fixing this?" you have no soul.

[redruddyred]

57. i haven't seen west oakland

but i think there are a lot of neighborhoods which could use "fixing".

i moved out to the woods years ago because i got sick and tired of watching people get fucked up the ass thru no fault of their own. it sucks here too, but at least the access to "free" natural resources precludes total immersion in crony capitalism, 2016.

social workers get paid okay tho; do you ever feel frustrated that instead of teaching ppl how to get by on unnecessarily limited resources the state could simply... pay them more? it all seems oddly paternalistic.

[Prism]

59. I definitely feel assy at times

Because I'm a representative of the government. And I'm the stereotypical white guy swooping in to lecture. Paternalistic is very much the word. I don't want to be standing here telling a 40 year old woman how to live her life. But that's precisely what I end up doing. It's a dual role. I'm both trying to help and also aware I'm kind of the dick in the scenario.

But sometimes you have to let the guilt go. You have to be the one shouting, "You are making poor life choices!" and not feel bad about it.

It's a balance, between indulgence and being a hard-ass.

[redruddyred]

60. i live in rural nh

and here the poorest are definitely not the brightest crayons in the box, but i also see them struggling heroically without the kind of support systems someone from an upper class family would have. they also have AMAZING work ethics which is think is true of the underclass in general but here especially so.

although i'm convinced that my last manager was something of a borderline genius, and best i can tell her life has been hard and undeservedly so.

I don't really have a problem with a system that rewards good decisions but the way things stand now it doesn't really matter what decisions you make because there's nowhere to go. frankly i'm pretty sure this is what drives the drug use in lowincome communities: unrelenting stresses, and also despair.

good luck in your new career. vote for higher taxes on the wealthy, if your conscience can't stand it anymore. the social safety net SUCKS.

[LanternWaste]

53. That point seems to be missing from your original allegation than what he did is not possible...

That point seems to be missing from your original allegation than what he did is not possible... I imagine I missed the transition from A to B somewhere in the middle.

[redruddyred]

55. it may be possible if he were living with his grandparents at the time

in which case his act of charity seems quite logical!

but you don't pay your living expenses on a job given to someone with an hs diploma, not anymore.

maybe construction, but in houston that's run by the mexican mafia

i'll summarize again: you're not going to save several thousand even over a course of several years by buying frozen food and not going to parties. if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it! and they definitely are, they're just not nearly as successful, probably because they also pay bills.

[Rex]

56. No you didn't miss anything, that was his intention.

Concern trolling and not even clever about it.

[redruddyred]

58. "her"

and i'm sick and tired of listening to older generations make excuses for not raising the wage or investing in public education. it's not working anymore. maybe it was never working.

[pacalo]

27. What a jewel of a grandson.

I hope this generous, loving gift will enrich his own life in many ways.

[JI7]

28. parties suck anyways , i hope he does well in life and is able to take vacations every year

and able to easily afford to send them on more also.

[yawnmaster]

34. Great kid...parties are easily forgotten but this lasts forever. He should have written the check...

on a smaller piece of paper, though.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. Great story

[Katashi_itto]

49. ...becoming diabetic in the process.

[yuiyoshida]

50. If I did that for my parents...

They would be in Las Vegas right now!! no kidding!

[Katashi_itto]

52. :)

[jonno99]

51. Wow! k&r - we need to hear more stories like this! nt

[smirkymonkey]

54. Beautiful story!

What a wonderful young man! Makes me want to cry.