‘We live and we learn, right?’: Woman faces jail time for buying $4,000 bed when she was 20 and forgetting to pay for it for years

We have all had those moments where we have impulse-bought something we probably shouldn’t have. Maybe it was that overpriced latte when we were already running late for work, or perhaps that unnecessary gadget that promised to revolutionize our lives but is now collecting dust in a drawer. But a $4000 bed? Now that’s what I call dreaming big.

A TikToker by the username @alaskaaayoung77 recently shared a brief yet viral confession about her youthful financial folly. When she was just 20 years old, she bought a $4,000 bed and then stopped paying for it halfway through. Now, years later, she’s facing the consequences and heading to court, possibly even jail time. But hey, we all make mistakes, right? Especially when we’re young and dumb and easily swayed by the siren song of a luxury mattress. Plus it’s not like anyone ever sat us down and taught us how to manage our money responsibly. (Thanks for nothing, high school!)

Of course, the collective reaction from the TikTok community is a mix of horror, humor, and a dash of “been there, done that.” One user shares a tale of a sofa payment that magically zeroed itself out after a skipped payment. Another recounts how they had to summon the retailer to haul away an unaffordable couch, only to find logistical hiccups in fitting the darn thing onto the truck.

Many others also reacted:

Wait I just got summoned to court for a $780 credit card debt from 2021 I forgot about I really didn’t. know this was a thing

This just happened to me too said they’d file a lawsuit if I didn’t pay my credit card off lmao.

What really got me, though, was the idea that @alaskaaayoung77 could actually be facing jail time over this, as she suggests. There could be more to the story that we don’t know — other extenuating circumstances or details that @alaskaaayoung77 left out of her 12-second TikTok clip. Maybe the claim of facing jail time might be more hyperbole than reality to highlight the seriousness of the legal trouble she’s facing.

That being said, we all need to take personal responsibility for our financial choices. However, at the same time, when you consider the fact that most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, that the cost of living keeps rising while wages remain stagnant, and that the average household debt is over $90,000, it starts to feel like the deck is stacked against us. So what’s the solution?

Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe we all just need to be a little kinder to ourselves and each other. As for @alaskaaayoung77, I truly hope everything works out for her.