Someday I will go...
Nothing is worth the horrible feeling of owing somebody money. And I mean nothing. No house, no car, no TV, no video game, no new sofa, no cute little thing for the house, no outfit, no trip, no dinner out...NOTHING!!!
I have come to realize that most of my purchases were made because someone told me on TV I should have one, some person I know just got a new one and I thought I should get one too, some adorable woman posted something on her blog and I thought I should make one of those, I walked into a store and thought, "I love that _______ (fill in the blank) and need to buy it!" I even had that guilt ridden thought that just because we live on a school teacher's salary and we have 6 children doesn't mean we can't afford a big fancy house!
Well, let me tell ya....it's not worth it. Don't get me wrong, I love my house, but sometimes you need to buy the big house to realize you didn't actually need the big house. I know that I could be quite content now in a house half this size with half the stuff.
I could totally rationalize and say that we weren't putting anything on credit cards, we were paying cash for everything, but the truth is, all of those little "extras" that we were paying for with cash should have been paying down our debt. We weren't incurring any new debt, but we weren't helping our situation either.
Does any of this sound familiar?
First things first. Stop spending! I mean on everything! No extra purchases at all! Unless it is food, shelter or gas, you don't need it! Try it for a month.
We put a sheet of paper up in the kitchen that said, "No Spend Month." Down the left hand side we put the days of the month and then filled it out every day. We of course still paid the bills. Those didn't go on the sheet. But every day we put what we spent that day. How much I spent on groceries, gas, doctors, etc...
It's amazing to see exactly where your money is going. The goal everyday was to put a big fat ZERO up there, and there were a lot of them, but there could have been more.
Try it! It's fun...really!
I will be gone for a week to California (Disneyland)...I know it's going against my "get out of debt" rantings, but the whole trip is already paid for...I will come home and post how we did Disney on the Cheap!
2 comments:
Wow- Buff. You don't blog in forever and now you are soapbox Mama with this debt stuff! Sorry to say though that we are people who enjoy spending money when we have it. We know we don't NEED it but if we can afford it, we WANT it and everything in moderation I believe. The 4 times we've gone to Disneyworld have been well worth the few thousand $ we spent for the week there because of the memories we made- everyone needs o do a little of that every now and again!
I want to see you when you are in CA! How can I talk you into coming up north? Or can I meet you down there?
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