Debt Free For Three Days Now AND.............
Posted 08-09-2012 at 08:12 PM by CSD610
Believe it or not the concept is proving to be hard to wrap our brains around that we are really, truly debt free.
Sneakers and I are both struggling a wee bit with the whole idea of it all. The entire reality of the situation that we do not have to send that student loan payment on the 15th day of each month any longer. It is just mind boggling.
As we paid off the other debts the grasp of that situation was not hard to take hold of however, we just rolled that money from that debt into the payment for the next debt on the list. I guess the difference is there is no place to roll that payment to becuase the list is empty.
Now starts the hardest part in my opinion though. The taking all of what we don't send to creditors and putting it into savings and investments. How cool would it be to take ALL the money that USED to go to debt and just go shopping. The good news is neither Sneakers nor I enjoy shopping just to shop. We have to have a purpose to purchase something and it has to be something we need and have talked about and saved money for until we could pay cash for that particular item IF we still thought we needed it when we got the cash saved.
It all sounds so complicated to others I guess or it could sound complicated to others. To us though it is our way of doing things. We see something, we discuss, we save, we discuss, we save, we discuss then we either purchase or put what we have saved for that item toward debt if we have decided we really don't need or want that item any longer.
We still have plenty of items to be put in the garage sale coming up in a week or so then another next month. It isn't like we ONLY have what we need, we do have extras but not excess. Well, less excess in my opinion than we had before. I will admit though that my definition of excess and Sneakers is a pretty wide gap when it comes to material possessions. Of course the level of excess is dependant on the material item so we discuss a lot on those things.
I think having 32 pair of pants for work and play is excessive, Sneakers does not. I think having 127 pairs of socks for work and play is excessive, Sneakers does not. I think 75 rolls of toilet paper in the house at any given moment is NOT excessive, Sneakers thinks that amount may be a wee bit on the OCD side of excessive (heehee).
So as you can see everyone has their own level of excess depending on the material possession in question. There is a compromise somewhere in the middle of just enough and a wee bit over too much, the key is to discuss and discover where that middle ground is exactly and make that the compromise to excess.
Discussing and working and saving and paying debts and keeping it all low key without drama, turmoil, tears and fights is at times tough to do however, it is worth the effort it takes to be up front and honest and work things out. No right or wrong in who is to blame for the amount of mess or excess. Just discussion and compromise, open, honest, straight forward, to the point. Not mean, nasty, cruel abusive in any way.
So the thought to ponder if you choose to ponder is how much is your definition of excess and how much is your spouses' definition of excess. Is this a major issue between you? Have you openly and honestly discussed and kept it a discussion and not turned it into a fight? Where is your middle ground for compromise? Perhaps it is time to look around and see together if changes need to be made to your home, health, happiness, relationship, finances and the amount of material possessions you have obtained over the time period you have been together.
Never too late to start with that bottom left drawer of the dresser and work your way up from there.............
Sneakers and I are both struggling a wee bit with the whole idea of it all. The entire reality of the situation that we do not have to send that student loan payment on the 15th day of each month any longer. It is just mind boggling.
As we paid off the other debts the grasp of that situation was not hard to take hold of however, we just rolled that money from that debt into the payment for the next debt on the list. I guess the difference is there is no place to roll that payment to becuase the list is empty.
Now starts the hardest part in my opinion though. The taking all of what we don't send to creditors and putting it into savings and investments. How cool would it be to take ALL the money that USED to go to debt and just go shopping. The good news is neither Sneakers nor I enjoy shopping just to shop. We have to have a purpose to purchase something and it has to be something we need and have talked about and saved money for until we could pay cash for that particular item IF we still thought we needed it when we got the cash saved.
It all sounds so complicated to others I guess or it could sound complicated to others. To us though it is our way of doing things. We see something, we discuss, we save, we discuss, we save, we discuss then we either purchase or put what we have saved for that item toward debt if we have decided we really don't need or want that item any longer.
We still have plenty of items to be put in the garage sale coming up in a week or so then another next month. It isn't like we ONLY have what we need, we do have extras but not excess. Well, less excess in my opinion than we had before. I will admit though that my definition of excess and Sneakers is a pretty wide gap when it comes to material possessions. Of course the level of excess is dependant on the material item so we discuss a lot on those things.
I think having 32 pair of pants for work and play is excessive, Sneakers does not. I think having 127 pairs of socks for work and play is excessive, Sneakers does not. I think 75 rolls of toilet paper in the house at any given moment is NOT excessive, Sneakers thinks that amount may be a wee bit on the OCD side of excessive (heehee).
So as you can see everyone has their own level of excess depending on the material possession in question. There is a compromise somewhere in the middle of just enough and a wee bit over too much, the key is to discuss and discover where that middle ground is exactly and make that the compromise to excess.
Discussing and working and saving and paying debts and keeping it all low key without drama, turmoil, tears and fights is at times tough to do however, it is worth the effort it takes to be up front and honest and work things out. No right or wrong in who is to blame for the amount of mess or excess. Just discussion and compromise, open, honest, straight forward, to the point. Not mean, nasty, cruel abusive in any way.
So the thought to ponder if you choose to ponder is how much is your definition of excess and how much is your spouses' definition of excess. Is this a major issue between you? Have you openly and honestly discussed and kept it a discussion and not turned it into a fight? Where is your middle ground for compromise? Perhaps it is time to look around and see together if changes need to be made to your home, health, happiness, relationship, finances and the amount of material possessions you have obtained over the time period you have been together.
Never too late to start with that bottom left drawer of the dresser and work your way up from there.............
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