'Cause Debt-Free is the Way to Be

I am proud to announce that, with the refund from Uncle Sam (and the $800 handout of funny money from Obama), we have paid off one credit card and one outstanding medical bill, with another medical bill to follow tomorrow!!!! We have never been able to make more than the minimum payments, which of course sentences us to 8,000,000 years of debt, as the now-required-by-law handy dandy chart tells me on each statment. But if I only increase my payment to $644 per month...well then, I'll be done in 3 years instead. Or something like that.



So now, with $165 of monthly bills out of the way, I'm channeling that exact amount on top of the minimum of our next smallest bill, which should cut 3 years down to about 8 months! Then, shuffle $190 on to the next bill and so on. If we can only stay at the same stable level of poverty for, say 5 years (unless we make MORE money, obviously), then I think most of our debt will be gone! Hooray! I canNOT even fathom what life would feel like with only a mortgage, car and utility payments. Unbelievable. I want that even more than show lemons.



Last week I planned every dinner and some lunches. I didn't make most of them ahead of time (that to come soon, I hope!) but it was wonderful to go shopping and know I didn't have to go to the store again until the week after. Plus, it's great to have that plan posted on the fridge. I feel like I have control over that area of my life. I've actually grown to internally leap for joy when it's "junk mail day" because with that comes all the store ads! Yay! I have not turned into a full-blown coupon junkie, but I have my little accordion file and will often keep John from buying something if I know I have a coupon for it at home.



I know it's easier to praise God when times are good and I have to constantly remind myself to praise God when times really suck and we're eating spaghetti with that cursed Prego sauce for the 90th time in a row! We're definitely not out of the woods--we've only begun to see a little light at the end of the forest--but it is so encouraging to finally start getting a break!



So, how are you guys doing with the battle to avoid/eliminate debt?



And, speaking of debt...look at this beautiful, custom bed!!!

They don't tell me how much it costs...so that means it costs too much! *tear* Shoulda gotten the hint from the "custom" concept, huh?

Do we really need show lemons?

I've been struggling with a desire to buy stuff. Join the club, right? We moved in to our house more than a month ago and I've had it with bare walls. At our first rental we barely hung anything on the walls because I was afraid of making holes. Then I realized how easy it was to putty up a white wall so I hung lots of things up at our second rental. And about two months later, we moved. Grrrr. In with my father-in-law, who had just remodeled and, understandably, didn't want any holes in the walls. GrrrrrRRRR!

So now I don't care. Putty is made for a reason! So is white toothpaste! So I want stuff on the walls. I'm going to hold off on painting, which is what I really want to do. Makes no sense to invest in the walls on a month-to-month rental. But we sold most of our decor items in garage sales to make way for Jack and to consolidate our stuff to fit in my father-in-law's garage.

I've taken up a hobby, therefore, of window shopping on the internet, bookmarking things I want and things I'd like to have a cheaper substitute of on my Amazon WishList. It's kind of addicting. Side tables and art and bedframes, oh my!

My issue is balancing buying things I think are pretty with living within our means. I want to buy a print of a painting to hang in the kitchen, but wonder if I should just deny the urge and put the equivalent value toward our looming credit card debt? Does the empty wall bug me more than the bills? No. But it's just difficult for me right now to figure out where spending a little (or a lot) on making a house a home fits in our budget, or if it really matters.

I want a coat rack. Or at least a series of hooks on the wall by the front door. We want a full or queen bed in the guest bedroom, obviously. With that should come a nightstand. And a lamp. And a TV stand for the living room that actually contains the game consoles and wires. And might as well get a flatscreen tv, right? Kidding, kidding... Do I really NEED two prints of songbirds in the bathroom? Or another tablecloth?

In the movie, The Break-Up, Jennifer Aniston gets extremeley irritated with Vince Vaughn because he doesn't buy enough lemons to display in a bowl on the table as a centerpiece. Not lemons to use, necessarily, but to show off. Do we really need "show lemons" to make us feel content? Where does that fit in with bills? Am I buying something to make me happy, or look impressive? Hmmm...