...without somebody nothing ain't worth a dime. Classic country anyone? Well, this song kinda struck a chord with what has been on my mind since last night. Travis and I took the kids to the haunted house and then out for ice cream. Since the girls had their boyfriends around, everyone wanted to linger so the big guy and I decided to peruse Gander Mountain and Best Buy. We are not shoppers and last night we remembered why. With our limited, now reduced to one income household, we don't have two nickels to rub together after we pay the bills, and to be quite honest that paying the bills part is skating on thin ice at this point as well. We pipe dreamed about getting the kids each a laptop, looked at the Nikon D80 that I've been drooling over and price checked the PS3 that Kullen is chomping at the bit over and wondered how other people do it. Not that we don't understand that our income is much more limited that that of many of our peers, but still with such prices we wondered how people afforded to have so much - 2 or 3 game systems, laptops for every member of the family, surround sound, satellite radio, cable television. (Believe me, we are by no stretch of the imagination deprived.) Suddenly I had a revelation. Most of those people that have all these "things" are buying them on credit. The toys they play with aren't even owned outright. Frustratingly, we also realized that this culture of credit has driven up the prices to the point that cash paying customers such as ourselves are paying way more than we would have otherwise.
A very similar thing is happening not only in our nation, but in the world economy and I realize, it's all going down the crapper.
How's that for your daily ray of Susie Sunshine?!?
Seriously, without credit card debt, owning both of our vehicles outright and only our mortgage, utilities and medical expenses after insurance I realize that no matter how bad our 'credit' rating is, we are far better off than a lot of people. We'll likely at least die debt free. How many Americans can say that?
Debt free is the way to be. I'm trying hard to get there!
ReplyDeleteSmart Julie!!
ReplyDeleteI have also been thinking about all the things I need & what I would get if I had money. I would buy a washer & dryer, fence in my yard for the dogs, make doctor,dentist & vet appointments, a decent dependable vehicle, heat for the house, fix a family room & plumbing, maybe add a 2nd bathroom. Then I started thinking about all the things I would buy that we don't need, a Wii for the boys, a tv that works, a radio, a laptop. Then someone asked me what I would do if I had a $1,000 & I immediately without hesitation screamed, "I WOULD GO TO DISNEY WORLD!!" HA! Some of us should definitely never ever have a credit card. LOL
ReplyDeleteYep, baby, this, too, is our situation. We are almost out of debt. I've been working on it for quite some time now. I don't envy anymore because I too have realized that all of this stuff people have is bought on borrowed money and time. Heck... why do people need and want all of this STUFF!? To fill the void that they aren't filling in working on relationships because, as we know, relationships are hard. It's real easy to devote your life to your toys, they don't talk back, their always there... blah, blah, blah. We're better off baby, we're better off! And when the sh*t really does hit the fan, we'll be the ones coming out on top! :)
ReplyDeleteI love ya, Susie Sunshine!
ReplyDeleteThere is such FREEDOM in being debt free (well, we still owe on the house)-- and I would never trade that for being a slave to "things".
Hey, to be fair, there are those who are able to have all the stuff, AND have no debt to go with it.
ReplyDeleteJust pointing out that just because one has the stuff doesn't have to mean they got there on credit.
But, yes, the vast majority, seems to do it that way, unfortunately. You are very wise not to participate in that insanity!