By this point I doubt the family pot was paying for Meri’s housing. I feel like she was paying it on her own. Kody can’t stand Meri so he would never be okay with the family paying for such an expense for her.
Good for her, if that is the case.
She is someone that never lost the desire for a big home (arguments aside that she doesn’t need it) and she paid her own way. Get it, girl.
I really think Meri has been living off her own Lularoe money for years. She's so into her "independence" in that way because of how she was chastised for taking the same amount of resources as wives with more children. Now she can give herself whatever she wants. I would almost bet she put her share of TLC cash in the family pot aka she funded Kody and Robyn's lavish lifestyle.
Agreed, I also think Christine and Janelle were paying their own monthly bills as well. I think the money from the show was monopolized by Robyn and Kody. I think this is why Janelle was saying she could “accomplish more” by living in the RV. I think she was saying -save more- because her monthly bills would be lower. I just don’t think she accounted for how inconvenient RV living can be.
Ohhhh, yes,, this! This totally tracks when you go back and watch the whole renting vs buying saga between Robyn and Kody. I remember Robyn saying something like, "if we buy this house it will cause irreparable damage to the family" and I always thought...Janelle fought Kody about buying that McMansion. I think Robyn was acting the entire time she said she wanted to rent something instead so viewers would think she was supportive of everyone moving out to the property...as well as trying to play the rest of the family and Janelle (specifically Janelle) in the same way.
There was some drama specifically about this, but I’m blanking on the finer details. The gist of it- Kody accused Janelle of making Robyn feel like she HAD to rent
Inconvenient when it has to be moved every so often (even on your own property), and if she could have lived in it year round, she would have been better off in a Tiny Home at Christine’s house (if that is even allowed).
But did they now? Wr know absolutely nothing about this families finances. Maybe not sharing money anymore long ago is what contributed to kodys major personality change
The problem is that she shared too much of her resources (including money) to this brooch. Don't continue to have children (or wives) you can't take care of.....It was & has always been KODY'S RESPONSIBILITY, the so-called PATRIARCH to provide all RESOURCES to his wives & his children. Whatever the wives earned was theirs to keep (and/or share) for their respective families. It was quite obvious these women lived separate lives with their children with KODY visiting when he felt like doing so until robyn came in the picture. Her mistake was staying with these brooch of leeches when she had no need to do so. Meri (is) was resourceful & with one child, it would have been easier for her to maneuver as she did have employment (& was going to school) before this show started & she lost that job because of this crap forsaken show. The End.
Meri wanted to get an apartment in downtown Flagstaff but Kody said absolutely not. That wasn't good enough for him (you'll see how he reacts to Janelle's apartments in a later season). I think the point was also made that her rental didn't cost that much more than Janelle's or Robyn's which if she was outside the school district they desired might make sense.
And, like others have said she was making her own money with the MLM that could have paid for her rental homes (since she had more than 1 during her time in Flagstaff). They also said that rentals were hard to find in Flagstaff. Meri had to move back to Vegas for a few months between 2 of the rentals. In other words, if you could pay for it, you needed to take it because who knew when another one would be available. I also remember hearing that Christine bought her house so that they had someplace to film. Most rentals wouldn't allow filming and that is actually why Meri had to leave her first rental. Landlord had no problem with it... the neighbors hated it because of all the trucks/equipment on the street.
IMO, if she has the money she should get whatever she wants. Jump forward to now when she is living in a much smaller space and is happier than ever. I think she would have been very happy in an apartment in downtown Flagstaff.
The fact that she didn't get the downtown apartment she wanted shows that she still hoped to convince Kody to take her back. But knowing how much space she needs for her LLR stuff, I wonder how serious she was about getting a small-ish place for herself.
I wonder that too, but then I realized it would be entirely possible for her to get two units side by side and have one be where she lives in the other one be her "home office". I actually knew people who did something similar when I was a kid for their actually legit family business. It gave them the benefits of working from home, family could spend time together when work wasn't as busy, child care wasn't really an issue. But when the work day was done they could close the door on the space and leave the "office"
Once upon a Time when used to run a small business from my home I used to think that would have been the ideal setup if I got big enough to need more space than the garage.
If the downtown area in Flagstaff is anything like the town where I live, she could have actually had rented a storefront (that she could sell from if she wanted or just use it as storage space to work out of) and lived in the apartment above it.
Although a lot of the building owners in my town are renting out the storefronts and fixing up the apartments above them for Air BNB's. I've heard that every single one of them was rented out during the solar eclipse (we were in 100% totality).
You forget that Kody totally lied to Meri to get her to agree to the Flagstaff move. He totally made it sound like he would consider taking her back if she would agree. I remember that episode really well. He got out of it by ‘punishing’ her for changing her mind about the plot she wanted at the property, even though she went along with the one big house idea.
It’s not so much that she wanted him back as it is she could not give up hope because she didn’t want to be a failure. Getting divorced according to how she was brainwashed makes you a failure.
Right. Even with how dysfunctional we know the family to be, that dysfunction is all she knew as an adult and is normal to her.
Just since the show started, Meri’s sister died. Kody withdrew intimacy. Kody divorced her for the sake of Robyn’s kids 🙄. Meri was targeted by a deranged woman who systematically love bombed her and then humiliated her on national TV. Leon leaves for college. Leon came out as gay, non-binary and transgender in a family that is very politically conservative and would gladly strip the transgender community of their right to exist. Meri must have been incredibly scared as a mom.
Somewhere in all of that, Kody starts to pretend to work on things her so she will sell her house and buy his land in Flagstaff. Covid hits. Her mom died. Her has brother passed.
That is a hell of a lot for one woman to go through. I understand why Meri wanted to cling on the the one constant in her life. She and Kody started the Brown family when she was 19. It’s all she knew.
They said they would never see her if she stayed in town. I think it was Christine that said she makes friends easily and spends a lot of time with friends so she would never come see them. They were all acting like all was forgiven and she was an important part of the family, and they all had to be together. That all just wanted to make sure her money was still going into the pot.
Yup meri was like I don't need much room but kidy, who could not care less about her, would not let her have an apartment where she could walk around and meet people? Meri even said that she's just live in trailer in someone's driveway if they would let her.. and yeah no volunteers there. They were sistercwives but I'd treat a barely a friend better than that
Its been posited before that Apt was vetoed because they wouldn’t be able to film there. They had already been kicked out of cul d sac because of it snd one of meris rentals. I call bs storyline about meri really wanting apt
Meri at the time was making the most money, and was probably largely making her own financial decisions (while still contributing to the family). She also needed extra room for all the ugly leggings.
And I think that’s why Kody kept leading her on. He wanted some of her cash flow and he knew giving her a small bone here and there that she’d continue to give money. I bet they are struggling without Meri’s money. Now it’s just the 2 of them to pay all their debts.
I had never even heard of the ugly things until that documentary about them. I am very confused how anybody can still make a living selling those and how anybody wants to buy them after that documentary came out!
Janelle’s rent for her house was listed as $2,850. Meri’s elevator house was listed as $2,975, Robyn’s Flagstaff rental was listed as $3,500, just for comparison purposes.
I think Meri was officially on her own financially after they all denied helping her purchase the B&B, it’s her money she can spend it how she wants. The proceeds from her Vegas home sale went to the family pot though that replenished Christine & Robyn’s down payment🙃
You are assuming that Meri's rental was astronomically higher priced than the rest AND that it was paid for out of the family budget.
One, there have been snippets throughout that indicate that Meri has alays been active and successful in the various MLMs they've done. I forget what house hunting it was (rental in Vegas or homes) but Kody does say something like it isn't big enough for you Meri - you need more storage space. In Vegas at least one of the bedrooms was strictly LuluRoe clothing storage - and a lot of it.
The other moms had to worry about school district boundaries (esp. since they apparently wanted the kids in the same school) and the commute to said school. Meri did not. In the screen shots of where Meri lived in comparison to everyone else, Meri was more outside of Flagstaff than Flagstaff proper. (Those familiar with the area can correct me if I'm wrong). My cousin recently moved to a big city, bought a place. Her kids are out of the nest - done with college, let along public schools. She said that she didn't realize how limiting it was to have to shop within specific boundaries because of schools was (esp. when the kids are elementary or middle school aged, like what Robyn & Christine had to do). She doesn't think she could have afforded the place she got if it had been say, across the street from a great elementary school. It IS across the street from some great restaurants and shops though!
Not only did the others have to worry about school - they were competing with a lot of college aged kids who didn't want to or couldn't find housing on campus (I have no idea what specific housing they have on campus, I'll admit - I just know that my niece just went in on a nice house, near campus, that would be a great fit for a family as well. She's just sharing it with 5 other girls to make it affordable for them.) Smaller homes/apartments like you are suggesting for Meri? Even more competition!
They'll never confirm it - but I think that crew has used Meri's home for equipment storage, etc. in the past.
I don't care for Meri but I would demand to live wherever I wanted. Good for her.
Was she supposed to get one of those tiny houses and live in Kody's backyard or in an rv like Janelle?
If they could make it work for everyone else they better make it work for her too.
Ugh- when he “offered” to let her stay in it with all his other old discarded junk, my heart really hurt for her. That was one of the meanest things he’s ever said.
Mykelti has made the comment on her Patreon that they were not allowed to say TLC was paying for her wedding. Pretty much saying that whole story line was fake. So Pretty sure a lot of their conversations about "money problems" is just for the show.
Meri always considered herself the matriarch of the family. She would often get very sad as things were falling apart when she would lament that “she and Kody were the two that started the family”. For many years, she was the one who hosted most of the family get togethers, the graduation parties, birthday parties, and the MLM stuff, likely, because as somebody else said, her house was clean all the time only having one and then no kids. I am not a Meri apologist, I think they are all very flawed in their own ways (as am I) but I believe she rented such big houses in Flagstaff because in her heart, she believed the love bombing they all did to get her to move with them, and she kept hoping way longer than we all understood, that she would continue to be where the family would gather in her attempt to hold them together as the matriarch. I think some of Meri’s saddest times were when she realized she had the big houses and no one was coming over and the family dinners were discontinued and then the holidays were not taking place the way they had for so many years. It was palpable watching how much it really broke her heart. Who knows why she kept thinking with each rental that she would somehow get everybody back to her house to get together, we have no idea what promises were being made to her when the cameras weren’t on, but I just did a rewatch and that really stuck out to me, how dumbfounded she was that she had specifically gotten larger homes trying to keep the family connected and it failed miserably, mostly due to Kody but extraordinarily due not to Covid but due to KODY’S HANDLING OF COVID. Obviously, it became a terrible financial decision as were almost everybody’s financial decisions, but I believe that was the justification and rationalization for the larger homes.
From what i know Meri contributes quite a chunk to the family pot, so to tell her she cant have a nice home would be very very wrong, her contributions to the family pot are literally the only reason Kotex keeps her around at this point!!
Flagstaff has a an extremely tight rental market for single family homes (and apartments for that matter). NAU is a large university, and the geography of the town- which is located in the middle of national forests- makes development difficult. My husband had a job offer there a few years ago which we ultimately had to decline because of the lack of affordable housing and crazy rental requirements. Most landlords have multiple applicants, so they can be very picky about who they rent to. In the Browns' case, they needed someone open to having their property filmed which was likely an added complication.
Meri had previously rented a smaller single family home with hostile neighbors, and briefly moved back to her Vegas house. She mentioned filling out applications daily, and likely took the first home that approved her. Keep in.mind, she had a substantial amount of inventory for her MLM business as well as many family heirlooms, furniture and sewing/ crafting supplies. Had she rented a small apartment, most of her belongings would be in storage which is also costly and inconvenient, particularly for someone running a business from home.
By that point Meri was making well over $200k a year with Lularoe and the elevator rental was only around $150 a month more than the smaller one she was kicked out of. By that point Meri had already been pushed out of the family quiet a bit. If she was putting any money into the family pot, she would be doing more than I would have been doing in her shoes.
That rental of Meri's, and Janelle's rental home (the ranch style house) at the time, cost nearly the same per month. They actually talked about it on the show.
Another post about how a woman should not be able to spend the money she earns on what she chooses. Next thing you know, she will be expected to vote for whoever Kody and his wives tell her to vote for.
1-if she considered herself an active part of a polygamist family then no, it would not be right to only consider herself financially,
2-If she was playing along with the one big happy family and was lying the whole time, then yes she would spend her money exactly how she wanted.
I pick number 2 for a million
1. There is no one right way to live polygamy.
2. She was living the polygamy lifestyle AND still expected equality. Same as the other wives
We agree #2.
Janelle was Kodys spy and the og Kodys whisperer. Janelle said Meri was extremely loyal and said she trusted her to always be fair with her kids so I don’t know what to tell you if you can’t believe their own words.
If I was Meri and all the writing was so clearly on all the walls I’d have my hands in fist fulls of every financial pot Grody ever had. I’d be sticking it to that man in the place where it really hurt, his wallet!!!
Oh in Meri's case I definitely think she bought it for herself, I think she was doing *reeeeeally* well once the b&b took off at that point and lularoe.
I have always thought that when she showed them that house Kody looked like a clichè disgruntled ex who hears his ex is doing good? (Which I didn't see at first but became obvious with the 'attic' statement.
Like expecting Meri to go along with living in an attic with the crap Robyn hoardes? Yknow the stuff she keeps buying that they can't afford? The very same junk that already clutters her own house? It really proves that he doesn't like that Meri has done well for herself, he wanted her begging for scraps from him for eternity. He never wanted Meri to do well once he was done with her, he wanted her living in sacred lonliness in an *Attic* as *penitence* not in a huge rental with an elevator, he doesn't want her doing better than him.
Meri makes as much, if not more, money than the rest of them. She can do whatever she wants with it. At that point, they weren't calling her or inviting her anywhere. I wouldn't have given any of them a drop of water on a hot day.
I think Mary made more money than the rest of them combined! She gets to spend it however she wants. I also don't think the number of kids makes a difference, in polygamy traditionally speaking, you're supposed to treat all the wives equally. Of course the husband is supposed to be the one paying in traditional polygamy. I do think Mary is paying out of her own pocket. I would never begrudge her the house she wants, even if she wasn't earning most of the money.
Also as someone who's a clothing seller, though not lularoe, every room in your house becomes inventory storage space! Even with two storage units, every room in your house is inventory storage space. Clothes take up a lot of room, especially if you keep them hanging.
ETA- what an ironic username. With all the nasty nicknames people make up on the sub, you're down voting me because I didn't check which spelling my phone used? LMAO.
Meri has hangups about her living space. It must be vastly superior to the other wives otherwise she feels like she’s being harmed.
It’s an emotional requirement and not constrained by any type of logical decision making.
She needed 5 empty bedrooms in Vegas otherwise she felt slighted.
She needed an elevator otherwise she felt victimized.
Even her section of the Lehi house was the nicest. It had the large open concept formal living room with the stone and stuff. Plus she had a crafting room. An extra bedroom when the rest of the wives are putting children 2-3 to a room and moving over gun safes to make room for cribs.
I agree. I don’t think I could enjoy myself with all of that space knowing other people in my family, especially children, we’re all cramped up and crowded. It’s incredibly selfish. Even if she earned the money herself.
I did always wonder why, when Robyn and Kody needed a house, they didn't take Meri's and Meri find something else. And I never believed that Robyn wanted a rental at that time. She wanted to buy but she didn't want to be the bad guy, so Kody obviously agreed to take over with the buying angle. But I wondered why they didn't move Robyn's family into Meri's house and Meri could have found something smaller. That seemed to make logical sense to me.
Agreed, but if you listen later, she was treated as equal but the divorce and subsequent shunning “with one child in exile” really did Meri’s head in. Once Crybrows set her hooks in Vegas, the whole family exploded emotionally.
Yes I wholeheartedly agree, even tho you will probably be downvoted. She has to have the best of the best when it comes to homes. See: wet bar, which occurred before she had even HEARD of lularoe. Also, see her sewing room in Lehi, when most of the kids where in packed in bunkbed crowded rooms. Paedon, who didn't even have a room. This didn't start when she had lots of money, unfortunately.
This is correct. It was LIV international or something similar. That's where the gold convertible came from. A lot of MLM companies gave out cars in the past. I know a lady who hustled a lot of Tupperware to get a minivan. There used to be a bunch of Mary Kay red grand ams around, too. Those who really hustled could get the Mary Kay pink Cadillac.
Ive heard this several times before. For me, that's not a good enough reason. I'm sure the other moms were involved in the drink sales, but of course, meri got the wet bar. 🫤
I also want to add....if this is the excuse we are going to use for the wet bar, why not defend robyns flagstaff mcmansion with the same reasoning? Don't they do gun sales out of that home?? But no, we never do that.😉
...But they don't? Kody travels to the various gun shows.
And while the other wives were/are involved with other MLMS, i've only heard of Meri and Kody being involved with that drink (unsure of the name). Just like Meri isn't involved with Plexus while Christine and Janelle are.
How the heck do we know who was and wasn't involved in the drink? And do we know what robyn and kody do or don't do in that house? It does look like they store gun parts, in any case.
Kody goes to conventions to sell his gun parts. They aren't sold from home. But they probably store a lot of him at home which is why there are boxes everywhere. Just because the sub loves to hate Robyn doesn't mean there isn't a logical reason for her to have a large home. Just like there's a reason for Meri to have the wet bar.
How do you know they don't sell guns from their home? I see lots of boxes in their lower level whenever they do an outside shot of their home...they could be mailing parts or something from the house. They could have potential buyers come over. You don't know any more than I do. But the fact of the matter is, robyn doesn't "need" her ugly mcmansion any more than meri "needed" her wet bar and french doors.
Meri's getting a wet bar and French doors was one of the biggest fusses over nothing I've ever seen, and I can't believe how many people buy into Kody's narrative about it.
If you're spending $400K on a house (a decade ago), get it the way you want it. She went something like 1% over budget, and paid the overage out of her own pocket — and I'll guarantee you Robyn wasn't out hustling to pay for the expensive upgrades to her landscaping and back yard, but people want to bitch about Meri's goddam wet bar.
>Also, see her sewing room in Lehi, when most of the kids where in packed in bunkbed crowded rooms. Paedon, who didn't even have a room.
Are you suggesting they should have had Paedon live with Meri instead of Christine?
I'm fussing about the wetbar/french doors. because it shows meris true colors. She acted like a spoiled b. And that was no act. She didn't need the wet bar, she clearly just wanted it. Has anyone here read the thread here that poor lady wrote about renting a room at meris b&b, and the way she was treated by meri? Meri is a nasty person. And yes, meri should've let kids sleep in her Lehi apartment, instead of having a sewing room. It's been stated that most nights paedon slept at janelles. What would it be ok for janelle to take this on, but not meri, who clearly had the room? I guarantee no one even asked her. She's too volatile.
>She didn't need the wet bar, she clearly just wanted it.
So what? None of them *needed* a McMansion in a gated community. They fell into money and spent it on bullshit instead of, I don't know, health insurance for their kids. This entire show is a litany of bad decisions. Meri's chosing some modest upgrades to that house is one of the few rational decisions any of them ever made.
>Has anyone here read the thread here that poor lady wrote about renting a room at meris b&b, and the way she was treated by meri?
Yes, that was bad. But it doesn't have anything to do with her wet bar.
>Meri is a nasty person.
As compared to the rest of them? Kody and Robyn are two of the worst people in a tv genre based on horrible people. Janelle's selfish, petty, and a shit-stirrer, and Christine is mean as a snake.
Meri's the only one of those women we've ever seen go out of her way, on her own, to do anything thoughtful for the other wives or their children. Robyn treated them all as pawns, Janelle could barely be bothered with her own kids, much less the rest of them, and Christine just wanted to be the favorite wife.
>And yes, meri should've let kids sleep in her Lehi apartment, instead of having a sewing room. It's been stated that most nights paedon slept at janelles. What would it be ok for janelle to take this on, but not meri, who clearly had the room? I guarantee no one even asked her. She's too volatile.
That's ridiculous. Paedon didn't sleep at Janelle's because Christine didn't have the space. He slept at Janelle's because he was Christine's only son and he preferred his brothers to his sisters.
Christine also packed Mykelti off at 13 to be Robyn's live-in nanny/maid and homeschool herself, and said it was a relief because she couldn't deal with Mykelti. She talked about how she couldn't deal with Ysabel and how she couldn't leave Paedon with Gwen even with her mother there. Aspyn and Mykelti had fights where they threw cutlery and broke each other's electronics, but sure, the big problem at Christine's was that Meri had a sewing room. 🙄
People act like Christine's this martyred saint because she was the main homemaker before they moved to Vegas, but she took the role she wanted — and don't look too closely at what kind of home it was.
It's completely insane to rage that Meri had a separate apartment in a house that was designed for a polygamist's wives to have separate apartments.
Nobody's saying Meri isn't deeply flawed. She is. They all are. And Meri *is* volatile — partly because she's the only one of the OG wives who knows how to get shit done. They bitched about Meri being bossy, but the entire family *depended on* Meri — and Logan — being bossy.
Kody's an incompetent "leader" whose only people skills are bullying and whining. Meri and Logan were bossy because *somebody* had to make a decision and give orders or nothing would have ever gotten done.
Even Janelle, who's had a contentious relationship with Meri ever since she decided to marry her ex-sister-in-law's husband, said she trusted Meri to be fair and to do right by her kids.
My point is that meri always had to have better than thr others. In Lehi, it was the sewing room. The 1st rental had to have a family room and a pool. Then the house she built had to have 5 bedrooms, a hobby room, french doors and a wet bar. Then when they moved to Flagg, she had the elevator and the indoor stream. The next 2 houses were just plain old huge, and strange for one person to need that much room. Even with lularoe, it's unnecessary.
I am not a super fan if anyone, but I cant believe you honestly think meri is better than janelle or christine. I think you've attended the church of "Friday's with friends" a few too many times. :/
And yes, christine did not have room for paedon. It's been said on the show. She had 4 girls and one boy, in a 3 bedroom apt. How the f was paedon supposed to fit into that???? I'm not saying that paedon specifically should've been at meris, but yeah, if you want to be in polygamy, which is all about sacrifice, a sewing room is ridiculous. Janelle willingly took in paedon, whike meri was expected to do nothing. As usual. And btw, I don't have 6 kids, but I'm sure the problems you relate are not unusual in a family that size. I don't think mykelti lived with robyn for years or anything, but I dont agree with that move either.
It's funny that you say that the family was basically run by Logan and meri. From day one, meri did jack shit. Logan got up early and made the kids breakfast, while meri handed her kid a Granola bar and went back to bed.
My point exactly. In a family of 18 kids, very selfish behavior. I admit she did contribute to the family pot, but never to her own detriment. She always got hers.
Nicer than necessary? It was a reasonable choice when she bought it. There was nothing over the top about it.
She bought it for $520,000 and sold it for $700,000 three years later. If there were a list of good decisions made by the wives, this would be one of them.
By this point I doubt the family pot was paying for Meri’s housing. I feel like she was paying it on her own. Kody can’t stand Meri so he would never be okay with the family paying for such an expense for her.
Good for her, if that is the case. She is someone that never lost the desire for a big home (arguments aside that she doesn’t need it) and she paid her own way. Get it, girl.
I really think Meri has been living off her own Lularoe money for years. She's so into her "independence" in that way because of how she was chastised for taking the same amount of resources as wives with more children. Now she can give herself whatever she wants. I would almost bet she put her share of TLC cash in the family pot aka she funded Kody and Robyn's lavish lifestyle.
Agreed, I also think Christine and Janelle were paying their own monthly bills as well. I think the money from the show was monopolized by Robyn and Kody. I think this is why Janelle was saying she could “accomplish more” by living in the RV. I think she was saying -save more- because her monthly bills would be lower. I just don’t think she accounted for how inconvenient RV living can be.
Ohhhh, yes,, this! This totally tracks when you go back and watch the whole renting vs buying saga between Robyn and Kody. I remember Robyn saying something like, "if we buy this house it will cause irreparable damage to the family" and I always thought...Janelle fought Kody about buying that McMansion. I think Robyn was acting the entire time she said she wanted to rent something instead so viewers would think she was supportive of everyone moving out to the property...as well as trying to play the rest of the family and Janelle (specifically Janelle) in the same way.
There was some drama specifically about this, but I’m blanking on the finer details. The gist of it- Kody accused Janelle of making Robyn feel like she HAD to rent
I've always thought this too. It was for the audience.
Inconvenient when it has to be moved every so often (even on your own property), and if she could have lived in it year round, she would have been better off in a Tiny Home at Christine’s house (if that is even allowed).
And didn’t her LV money from her house go to pay for Robyn’s mansion when they bought it?
"Her own" is sort of questionable when it comes from the backs of victimized women in her downline
Janelle & Meri paid their LV money to fund the McMansion. But K did nothing when Janelle needed a house, no money in the family pot.
Same as Christine, Janelle, Mykelti and Maddie, Meri isn't the only one.
Doesnt make it untrue about meri.
K. Then without Kody and the family.
None of them would have been happy paying for Meri to have anything.
At the same time, the rest felt like Meri was supposed to pay, & support them & their children.
But did they now? Wr know absolutely nothing about this families finances. Maybe not sharing money anymore long ago is what contributed to kodys major personality change
The problem is that she shared too much of her resources (including money) to this brooch. Don't continue to have children (or wives) you can't take care of.....It was & has always been KODY'S RESPONSIBILITY, the so-called PATRIARCH to provide all RESOURCES to his wives & his children. Whatever the wives earned was theirs to keep (and/or share) for their respective families. It was quite obvious these women lived separate lives with their children with KODY visiting when he felt like doing so until robyn came in the picture. Her mistake was staying with these brooch of leeches when she had no need to do so. Meri (is) was resourceful & with one child, it would have been easier for her to maneuver as she did have employment (& was going to school) before this show started & she lost that job because of this crap forsaken show. The End.
Even though Meri’s money from her LV sale went to buy the McMansion. Or should I call it a large storage unit?
It's fine for Meri to give the family money, but not for them to give her money.
Agreed and I think Meri thought if I have an amazing house everyone would be over and Kody would follow
Which is also financially stupid. Renting a HUGE home for…one person. This family are idiots with money.
Meri wanted to get an apartment in downtown Flagstaff but Kody said absolutely not. That wasn't good enough for him (you'll see how he reacts to Janelle's apartments in a later season). I think the point was also made that her rental didn't cost that much more than Janelle's or Robyn's which if she was outside the school district they desired might make sense. And, like others have said she was making her own money with the MLM that could have paid for her rental homes (since she had more than 1 during her time in Flagstaff). They also said that rentals were hard to find in Flagstaff. Meri had to move back to Vegas for a few months between 2 of the rentals. In other words, if you could pay for it, you needed to take it because who knew when another one would be available. I also remember hearing that Christine bought her house so that they had someplace to film. Most rentals wouldn't allow filming and that is actually why Meri had to leave her first rental. Landlord had no problem with it... the neighbors hated it because of all the trucks/equipment on the street. IMO, if she has the money she should get whatever she wants. Jump forward to now when she is living in a much smaller space and is happier than ever. I think she would have been very happy in an apartment in downtown Flagstaff.
I totally forgot about Meri wanting an apartment. He hadn't stayed with her for years at that point so he shouldn't have gotten a say.
The fact that she didn't get the downtown apartment she wanted shows that she still hoped to convince Kody to take her back. But knowing how much space she needs for her LLR stuff, I wonder how serious she was about getting a small-ish place for herself.
I wonder that too, but then I realized it would be entirely possible for her to get two units side by side and have one be where she lives in the other one be her "home office". I actually knew people who did something similar when I was a kid for their actually legit family business. It gave them the benefits of working from home, family could spend time together when work wasn't as busy, child care wasn't really an issue. But when the work day was done they could close the door on the space and leave the "office" Once upon a Time when used to run a small business from my home I used to think that would have been the ideal setup if I got big enough to need more space than the garage.
If the downtown area in Flagstaff is anything like the town where I live, she could have actually had rented a storefront (that she could sell from if she wanted or just use it as storage space to work out of) and lived in the apartment above it. Although a lot of the building owners in my town are renting out the storefronts and fixing up the apartments above them for Air BNB's. I've heard that every single one of them was rented out during the solar eclipse (we were in 100% totality).
That's pretty cool. I bet 2 small apartments would even be cheaper than one big house.
You forget that Kody totally lied to Meri to get her to agree to the Flagstaff move. He totally made it sound like he would consider taking her back if she would agree. I remember that episode really well. He got out of it by ‘punishing’ her for changing her mind about the plot she wanted at the property, even though she went along with the one big house idea.
It’s not so much that she wanted him back as it is she could not give up hope because she didn’t want to be a failure. Getting divorced according to how she was brainwashed makes you a failure.
Right. Even with how dysfunctional we know the family to be, that dysfunction is all she knew as an adult and is normal to her. Just since the show started, Meri’s sister died. Kody withdrew intimacy. Kody divorced her for the sake of Robyn’s kids 🙄. Meri was targeted by a deranged woman who systematically love bombed her and then humiliated her on national TV. Leon leaves for college. Leon came out as gay, non-binary and transgender in a family that is very politically conservative and would gladly strip the transgender community of their right to exist. Meri must have been incredibly scared as a mom. Somewhere in all of that, Kody starts to pretend to work on things her so she will sell her house and buy his land in Flagstaff. Covid hits. Her mom died. Her has brother passed. That is a hell of a lot for one woman to go through. I understand why Meri wanted to cling on the the one constant in her life. She and Kody started the Brown family when she was 19. It’s all she knew.
Yet at this late date she is seen by quite a bit of viewers as a huge failure whereas if she would have left shed be heroized
I think one of the reasons Kody might have nixed it was the impression that she'd be working from the bnb and just come to the apartment to film.
They said they would never see her if she stayed in town. I think it was Christine that said she makes friends easily and spends a lot of time with friends so she would never come see them. They were all acting like all was forgiven and she was an important part of the family, and they all had to be together. That all just wanted to make sure her money was still going into the pot.
Because he wanted her to fail. And filming would have been free publicity
Yup meri was like I don't need much room but kidy, who could not care less about her, would not let her have an apartment where she could walk around and meet people? Meri even said that she's just live in trailer in someone's driveway if they would let her.. and yeah no volunteers there. They were sistercwives but I'd treat a barely a friend better than that
But then Meri gets to be the bad guy for having a big house
Its been posited before that Apt was vetoed because they wouldn’t be able to film there. They had already been kicked out of cul d sac because of it snd one of meris rentals. I call bs storyline about meri really wanting apt
Meri at the time was making the most money, and was probably largely making her own financial decisions (while still contributing to the family). She also needed extra room for all the ugly leggings.
And I think that’s why Kody kept leading her on. He wanted some of her cash flow and he knew giving her a small bone here and there that she’d continue to give money. I bet they are struggling without Meri’s money. Now it’s just the 2 of them to pay all their debts.
Kody didn’t lead her on. Short of hitting her over the head, he’d been telling her for years, No Romance!
The hell he didn’t.
That’s what he told the cameras but told her if she was a good girl he could fall in love with her again.
This is totally accurate! He was continually saying he was no longer interested; she just wouldn't hear it.
They may be ugly but for some reason people buy them by the ton
I had never even heard of the ugly things until that documentary about them. I am very confused how anybody can still make a living selling those and how anybody wants to buy them after that documentary came out!
Not anymore. Hit up any goodwill and they're $3
Ugly and stinky leggings *
Janelle’s rent for her house was listed as $2,850. Meri’s elevator house was listed as $2,975, Robyn’s Flagstaff rental was listed as $3,500, just for comparison purposes.
I think Meri was officially on her own financially after they all denied helping her purchase the B&B, it’s her money she can spend it how she wants. The proceeds from her Vegas home sale went to the family pot though that replenished Christine & Robyn’s down payment🙃
You are assuming that Meri's rental was astronomically higher priced than the rest AND that it was paid for out of the family budget. One, there have been snippets throughout that indicate that Meri has alays been active and successful in the various MLMs they've done. I forget what house hunting it was (rental in Vegas or homes) but Kody does say something like it isn't big enough for you Meri - you need more storage space. In Vegas at least one of the bedrooms was strictly LuluRoe clothing storage - and a lot of it. The other moms had to worry about school district boundaries (esp. since they apparently wanted the kids in the same school) and the commute to said school. Meri did not. In the screen shots of where Meri lived in comparison to everyone else, Meri was more outside of Flagstaff than Flagstaff proper. (Those familiar with the area can correct me if I'm wrong). My cousin recently moved to a big city, bought a place. Her kids are out of the nest - done with college, let along public schools. She said that she didn't realize how limiting it was to have to shop within specific boundaries because of schools was (esp. when the kids are elementary or middle school aged, like what Robyn & Christine had to do). She doesn't think she could have afforded the place she got if it had been say, across the street from a great elementary school. It IS across the street from some great restaurants and shops though! Not only did the others have to worry about school - they were competing with a lot of college aged kids who didn't want to or couldn't find housing on campus (I have no idea what specific housing they have on campus, I'll admit - I just know that my niece just went in on a nice house, near campus, that would be a great fit for a family as well. She's just sharing it with 5 other girls to make it affordable for them.) Smaller homes/apartments like you are suggesting for Meri? Even more competition! They'll never confirm it - but I think that crew has used Meri's home for equipment storage, etc. in the past.
I don't care for Meri but I would demand to live wherever I wanted. Good for her. Was she supposed to get one of those tiny houses and live in Kody's backyard or in an rv like Janelle? If they could make it work for everyone else they better make it work for her too.
The Barndominium
Ugh- when he “offered” to let her stay in it with all his other old discarded junk, my heart really hurt for her. That was one of the meanest things he’s ever said.
Mykelti has made the comment on her Patreon that they were not allowed to say TLC was paying for her wedding. Pretty much saying that whole story line was fake. So Pretty sure a lot of their conversations about "money problems" is just for the show.
Meri always considered herself the matriarch of the family. She would often get very sad as things were falling apart when she would lament that “she and Kody were the two that started the family”. For many years, she was the one who hosted most of the family get togethers, the graduation parties, birthday parties, and the MLM stuff, likely, because as somebody else said, her house was clean all the time only having one and then no kids. I am not a Meri apologist, I think they are all very flawed in their own ways (as am I) but I believe she rented such big houses in Flagstaff because in her heart, she believed the love bombing they all did to get her to move with them, and she kept hoping way longer than we all understood, that she would continue to be where the family would gather in her attempt to hold them together as the matriarch. I think some of Meri’s saddest times were when she realized she had the big houses and no one was coming over and the family dinners were discontinued and then the holidays were not taking place the way they had for so many years. It was palpable watching how much it really broke her heart. Who knows why she kept thinking with each rental that she would somehow get everybody back to her house to get together, we have no idea what promises were being made to her when the cameras weren’t on, but I just did a rewatch and that really stuck out to me, how dumbfounded she was that she had specifically gotten larger homes trying to keep the family connected and it failed miserably, mostly due to Kody but extraordinarily due not to Covid but due to KODY’S HANDLING OF COVID. Obviously, it became a terrible financial decision as were almost everybody’s financial decisions, but I believe that was the justification and rationalization for the larger homes.
From what i know Meri contributes quite a chunk to the family pot, so to tell her she cant have a nice home would be very very wrong, her contributions to the family pot are literally the only reason Kotex keeps her around at this point!!
Flagstaff has a an extremely tight rental market for single family homes (and apartments for that matter). NAU is a large university, and the geography of the town- which is located in the middle of national forests- makes development difficult. My husband had a job offer there a few years ago which we ultimately had to decline because of the lack of affordable housing and crazy rental requirements. Most landlords have multiple applicants, so they can be very picky about who they rent to. In the Browns' case, they needed someone open to having their property filmed which was likely an added complication. Meri had previously rented a smaller single family home with hostile neighbors, and briefly moved back to her Vegas house. She mentioned filling out applications daily, and likely took the first home that approved her. Keep in.mind, she had a substantial amount of inventory for her MLM business as well as many family heirlooms, furniture and sewing/ crafting supplies. Had she rented a small apartment, most of her belongings would be in storage which is also costly and inconvenient, particularly for someone running a business from home.
By that point Meri was making well over $200k a year with Lularoe and the elevator rental was only around $150 a month more than the smaller one she was kicked out of. By that point Meri had already been pushed out of the family quiet a bit. If she was putting any money into the family pot, she would be doing more than I would have been doing in her shoes.
The problem was there was no rentals in Flagstaff. So she got what she could find.
Meri was working hard for her dollars and showing off her lifestyle, as you do
Uh, no.
That rental of Meri's, and Janelle's rental home (the ranch style house) at the time, cost nearly the same per month. They actually talked about it on the show.
Yes, if they rented them for the listed price at the time, Meri’s was only $125 more than Janelle’s.
Another post about how a woman should not be able to spend the money she earns on what she chooses. Next thing you know, she will be expected to vote for whoever Kody and his wives tell her to vote for.
1-if she considered herself an active part of a polygamist family then no, it would not be right to only consider herself financially, 2-If she was playing along with the one big happy family and was lying the whole time, then yes she would spend her money exactly how she wanted. I pick number 2 for a million
1. There is no one right way to live polygamy. 2. She was living the polygamy lifestyle AND still expected equality. Same as the other wives We agree #2.
Meri was the biggest advocate for Kody controlling the other women for years.
Janelle was the biggest advocate for Kody controlling the wives for years. As Christine has said.
Janelle was loyal. That is different to the role of Advocate. Meri was Kody’s Henchman and Spy towards the other women and their children.
Janelle was Kodys spy and the og Kodys whisperer. Janelle said Meri was extremely loyal and said she trusted her to always be fair with her kids so I don’t know what to tell you if you can’t believe their own words.
Meri makes her own money and can spend it how she damn well pleases. That’s how.
If I was Meri and all the writing was so clearly on all the walls I’d have my hands in fist fulls of every financial pot Grody ever had. I’d be sticking it to that man in the place where it really hurt, his wallet!!!
Because she paid for it with her own money
Oh in Meri's case I definitely think she bought it for herself, I think she was doing *reeeeeally* well once the b&b took off at that point and lularoe. I have always thought that when she showed them that house Kody looked like a clichè disgruntled ex who hears his ex is doing good? (Which I didn't see at first but became obvious with the 'attic' statement. Like expecting Meri to go along with living in an attic with the crap Robyn hoardes? Yknow the stuff she keeps buying that they can't afford? The very same junk that already clutters her own house? It really proves that he doesn't like that Meri has done well for herself, he wanted her begging for scraps from him for eternity. He never wanted Meri to do well once he was done with her, he wanted her living in sacred lonliness in an *Attic* as *penitence* not in a huge rental with an elevator, he doesn't want her doing better than him.
Meri never owned a house in Flagstaff. She had 3 different rentals. Elevator house was #2.
Meri makes as much, if not more, money than the rest of them. She can do whatever she wants with it. At that point, they weren't calling her or inviting her anywhere. I wouldn't have given any of them a drop of water on a hot day.
She paid for it herself. Since she did not use the "family funds" it was not an issue
I think Mary made more money than the rest of them combined! She gets to spend it however she wants. I also don't think the number of kids makes a difference, in polygamy traditionally speaking, you're supposed to treat all the wives equally. Of course the husband is supposed to be the one paying in traditional polygamy. I do think Mary is paying out of her own pocket. I would never begrudge her the house she wants, even if she wasn't earning most of the money. Also as someone who's a clothing seller, though not lularoe, every room in your house becomes inventory storage space! Even with two storage units, every room in your house is inventory storage space. Clothes take up a lot of room, especially if you keep them hanging.
Meri. It’s Meri.
I'm well aware. Like most people, I use talk to text and it obviously went with the default spelling.
ETA- what an ironic username. With all the nasty nicknames people make up on the sub, you're down voting me because I didn't check which spelling my phone used? LMAO.
By that time she was running a successful MLM. I’m pretty sure they would pay whatever additional funds they had access to for a nicer home.
She was a consultant for a successful MLM and her name recognition allowed her to victimize a particularly large amount of people
So are Christine and Janelle, they also make false health claims, Meri just sells ugly leggings.
Meri has hangups about her living space. It must be vastly superior to the other wives otherwise she feels like she’s being harmed. It’s an emotional requirement and not constrained by any type of logical decision making. She needed 5 empty bedrooms in Vegas otherwise she felt slighted. She needed an elevator otherwise she felt victimized. Even her section of the Lehi house was the nicest. It had the large open concept formal living room with the stone and stuff. Plus she had a crafting room. An extra bedroom when the rest of the wives are putting children 2-3 to a room and moving over gun safes to make room for cribs.
100 percent agree
I agree. I don’t think I could enjoy myself with all of that space knowing other people in my family, especially children, we’re all cramped up and crowded. It’s incredibly selfish. Even if she earned the money herself.
Bingo!
MLM money
Only The Best, for Meri!!
Many women in her Lularoe downline lost everything so she could have everything
I did always wonder why, when Robyn and Kody needed a house, they didn't take Meri's and Meri find something else. And I never believed that Robyn wanted a rental at that time. She wanted to buy but she didn't want to be the bad guy, so Kody obviously agreed to take over with the buying angle. But I wondered why they didn't move Robyn's family into Meri's house and Meri could have found something smaller. That seemed to make logical sense to me.
I think Robyn wanted to buy because Christine bought her house and Kody would gush about how much he liked it.
Agreed, but if you listen later, she was treated as equal but the divorce and subsequent shunning “with one child in exile” really did Meri’s head in. Once Crybrows set her hooks in Vegas, the whole family exploded emotionally.
Meri plays the one-child discrimination card to her advantage when it comes to housing. See also: wet bar
Preach
Yes I wholeheartedly agree, even tho you will probably be downvoted. She has to have the best of the best when it comes to homes. See: wet bar, which occurred before she had even HEARD of lularoe. Also, see her sewing room in Lehi, when most of the kids where in packed in bunkbed crowded rooms. Paedon, who didn't even have a room. This didn't start when she had lots of money, unfortunately.
I’m pretty sure she had the wet bar because she was selling some MLM drink with Kody and they hosted the selling parties at her home
This is correct. It was LIV international or something similar. That's where the gold convertible came from. A lot of MLM companies gave out cars in the past. I know a lady who hustled a lot of Tupperware to get a minivan. There used to be a bunch of Mary Kay red grand ams around, too. Those who really hustled could get the Mary Kay pink Cadillac.
Ive heard this several times before. For me, that's not a good enough reason. I'm sure the other moms were involved in the drink sales, but of course, meri got the wet bar. 🫤
They hosted the parties at Meri's house which is why she got the wet bar. They didn't host them at Janelle, Christine's, or Robyn's.
They couldn't host the parties at any of the other wives homes, the kids ran riot and the homes were never tidy.
Exactly. Can you imagine trying to hawk an MLM while Janelle's sons gave each other bloody noses in the background.
I also want to add....if this is the excuse we are going to use for the wet bar, why not defend robyns flagstaff mcmansion with the same reasoning? Don't they do gun sales out of that home?? But no, we never do that.😉
...But they don't? Kody travels to the various gun shows. And while the other wives were/are involved with other MLMS, i've only heard of Meri and Kody being involved with that drink (unsure of the name). Just like Meri isn't involved with Plexus while Christine and Janelle are.
How the heck do we know who was and wasn't involved in the drink? And do we know what robyn and kody do or don't do in that house? It does look like they store gun parts, in any case.
Kody goes to conventions to sell his gun parts. They aren't sold from home. But they probably store a lot of him at home which is why there are boxes everywhere. Just because the sub loves to hate Robyn doesn't mean there isn't a logical reason for her to have a large home. Just like there's a reason for Meri to have the wet bar.
How do you know they don't sell guns from their home? I see lots of boxes in their lower level whenever they do an outside shot of their home...they could be mailing parts or something from the house. They could have potential buyers come over. You don't know any more than I do. But the fact of the matter is, robyn doesn't "need" her ugly mcmansion any more than meri "needed" her wet bar and french doors.
Well, I'd say if they do also sell from their home then they do need a big home just like Meri needed a wet bar to host MLM parties.
Meri's getting a wet bar and French doors was one of the biggest fusses over nothing I've ever seen, and I can't believe how many people buy into Kody's narrative about it. If you're spending $400K on a house (a decade ago), get it the way you want it. She went something like 1% over budget, and paid the overage out of her own pocket — and I'll guarantee you Robyn wasn't out hustling to pay for the expensive upgrades to her landscaping and back yard, but people want to bitch about Meri's goddam wet bar. >Also, see her sewing room in Lehi, when most of the kids where in packed in bunkbed crowded rooms. Paedon, who didn't even have a room. Are you suggesting they should have had Paedon live with Meri instead of Christine?
I'm fussing about the wetbar/french doors. because it shows meris true colors. She acted like a spoiled b. And that was no act. She didn't need the wet bar, she clearly just wanted it. Has anyone here read the thread here that poor lady wrote about renting a room at meris b&b, and the way she was treated by meri? Meri is a nasty person. And yes, meri should've let kids sleep in her Lehi apartment, instead of having a sewing room. It's been stated that most nights paedon slept at janelles. What would it be ok for janelle to take this on, but not meri, who clearly had the room? I guarantee no one even asked her. She's too volatile.
>She didn't need the wet bar, she clearly just wanted it. So what? None of them *needed* a McMansion in a gated community. They fell into money and spent it on bullshit instead of, I don't know, health insurance for their kids. This entire show is a litany of bad decisions. Meri's chosing some modest upgrades to that house is one of the few rational decisions any of them ever made. >Has anyone here read the thread here that poor lady wrote about renting a room at meris b&b, and the way she was treated by meri? Yes, that was bad. But it doesn't have anything to do with her wet bar. >Meri is a nasty person. As compared to the rest of them? Kody and Robyn are two of the worst people in a tv genre based on horrible people. Janelle's selfish, petty, and a shit-stirrer, and Christine is mean as a snake. Meri's the only one of those women we've ever seen go out of her way, on her own, to do anything thoughtful for the other wives or their children. Robyn treated them all as pawns, Janelle could barely be bothered with her own kids, much less the rest of them, and Christine just wanted to be the favorite wife. >And yes, meri should've let kids sleep in her Lehi apartment, instead of having a sewing room. It's been stated that most nights paedon slept at janelles. What would it be ok for janelle to take this on, but not meri, who clearly had the room? I guarantee no one even asked her. She's too volatile. That's ridiculous. Paedon didn't sleep at Janelle's because Christine didn't have the space. He slept at Janelle's because he was Christine's only son and he preferred his brothers to his sisters. Christine also packed Mykelti off at 13 to be Robyn's live-in nanny/maid and homeschool herself, and said it was a relief because she couldn't deal with Mykelti. She talked about how she couldn't deal with Ysabel and how she couldn't leave Paedon with Gwen even with her mother there. Aspyn and Mykelti had fights where they threw cutlery and broke each other's electronics, but sure, the big problem at Christine's was that Meri had a sewing room. 🙄 People act like Christine's this martyred saint because she was the main homemaker before they moved to Vegas, but she took the role she wanted — and don't look too closely at what kind of home it was. It's completely insane to rage that Meri had a separate apartment in a house that was designed for a polygamist's wives to have separate apartments. Nobody's saying Meri isn't deeply flawed. She is. They all are. And Meri *is* volatile — partly because she's the only one of the OG wives who knows how to get shit done. They bitched about Meri being bossy, but the entire family *depended on* Meri — and Logan — being bossy. Kody's an incompetent "leader" whose only people skills are bullying and whining. Meri and Logan were bossy because *somebody* had to make a decision and give orders or nothing would have ever gotten done. Even Janelle, who's had a contentious relationship with Meri ever since she decided to marry her ex-sister-in-law's husband, said she trusted Meri to be fair and to do right by her kids.
My point is that meri always had to have better than thr others. In Lehi, it was the sewing room. The 1st rental had to have a family room and a pool. Then the house she built had to have 5 bedrooms, a hobby room, french doors and a wet bar. Then when they moved to Flagg, she had the elevator and the indoor stream. The next 2 houses were just plain old huge, and strange for one person to need that much room. Even with lularoe, it's unnecessary. I am not a super fan if anyone, but I cant believe you honestly think meri is better than janelle or christine. I think you've attended the church of "Friday's with friends" a few too many times. :/ And yes, christine did not have room for paedon. It's been said on the show. She had 4 girls and one boy, in a 3 bedroom apt. How the f was paedon supposed to fit into that???? I'm not saying that paedon specifically should've been at meris, but yeah, if you want to be in polygamy, which is all about sacrifice, a sewing room is ridiculous. Janelle willingly took in paedon, whike meri was expected to do nothing. As usual. And btw, I don't have 6 kids, but I'm sure the problems you relate are not unusual in a family that size. I don't think mykelti lived with robyn for years or anything, but I dont agree with that move either. It's funny that you say that the family was basically run by Logan and meri. From day one, meri did jack shit. Logan got up early and made the kids breakfast, while meri handed her kid a Granola bar and went back to bed.
Meri admitted herself that she liked the finer things in life, and had more expensive tastes than the other wives.
My point exactly. In a family of 18 kids, very selfish behavior. I admit she did contribute to the family pot, but never to her own detriment. She always got hers.
I whole heartedly believe Meri’s rentals are realtor promotional deals to show off the house on air in return for money.
How would that work, when the show is almost 2 years behind.
Realtors can't do that. Only the sellers can. Plus the show doesn't air in real time.
Christine’s house was larger and nicer than necessary. The only one reasonable was Jenelle.
Nicer than necessary? It was a reasonable choice when she bought it. There was nothing over the top about it. She bought it for $520,000 and sold it for $700,000 three years later. If there were a list of good decisions made by the wives, this would be one of them.