I’d rather be a Bates if for no reason other than trading in a history of sexual abuse for no sexual abuse. Honestly, I’d give anything not to have that history. 

Good lord. 

There is no way they need $300 to check a suitcase at the airport.  The bag will be $50 at most.  Probably something like $35.  They could check 6+ bags for $300.  They could easily find a suitcase for less than $100 on facebook marketplace.  A cursory search in my location (california) shows lots of them for $50 or less. 

Their estimates of costs are just way off.  Take the vet visits.  Maybe $100 for the visit.  $50 for meds (high estimate - they don't need a lot of sedative).  $40 for a travel litter box and litter  (they definitely don't need more than 1 and most likely the cat will not use it).  That is less than $200 total.  Is it really over $100 for rides to and from the vet? Maybe but I dunno. 

I wonder if they've already turned in their notice on their current apartment--that would tend to light a fire under getting funds to move.

19 minutes ago, patsymae said:

I don't think it's so much the money or the things they will do, but I do think the Bates women have had a taste of moving in different social circles and they wouldn't want a life under the Jboob/Meech thumb. Like Alyssa (?) may home school and all that but her in-law is in the legislature; Josie (? or is that Katie?) has a husband who is a musician with a certain amount of success and there is travel, etc. Can you see any Duggar daughters or in-laws all dolled up in chic, form-fitting dresses walking through Central Park with Michelle? Even the boutique seems to be a real business and at least one (Josie?) has an actual career. However steeped in the Kool Aid, and even having Erin and Michael as older sisters, I think a younger Bates woman would rather be an Alyssa or a josie/katie (can't keep them straight) or even a Whitney than an Anna Duggar. 

The Duggar family is much more famous than the Bates family. I sometimes forget that because they seem so similar to me. Jill wrote a best selling memoir and was all over the news. This is way different than any Bates daughter. She married to an actual attorney who received a real education, different than any Bates daughter. Jinger lives in LA, also wrote a book, does social media influencing and rubs elbows with Christian conservatives like Candace Cameron  Bure and Mel Gibson, different than any Bates daughter. Jessa and Joy are homeschooling mothers with broods similar to Erin, Alyssa and Tori B. Carlin, Katie and Josie B hustle and work because they want a certain lifestyle that the Duggar women don’t have to work as hard for. And Josie and Carlin will probably have smaller families due to their fertility/health issues. I think the Duggar women have capitalized on their fame while the Bates women have capitalized on their looks. I don’t really see one family as more aspirational than the other.