Money, Debt?

I suppose what’s on everyone’s mind lately is debt. Will the United States of America default on its debts or end up not paying its military or elderly and leave people to starve? All good questions. Just off hand I don’t think anything of the kind will happen. The way families everywhere behave towards debt, or I say “should” behave towards debt, might just be the best way for our government to behave. In my house debt is bad, unwanted, and causes way too much tension. I grew up in a family that was pretty much ok with debt. My husband as well. We went to college together and racked up our own debts paying for college, and many, many other things we didn’t really need. When we graduated and started a family we were already well over fifty thousand dollars in the hole. I hope and pray to teach my children that debt is not the only answer. College is important, extremely. Having a degree, any degree, shows future employers you can stick with something and finish it, it shows them that you can think too. What I’m trying to say is that there must be a better way. Back on topic, debt is just another word for slavery. If I don’t pay my mortgage, I lose the house. If I don’t pay my student loans, they can take the money from the bank, and I won’t be able to buy groceries. If I owe a friend money, yes still a debt, I am no longer just a friend but a debtor. There is tension there that wasn’t there before. Now the friendship is on rocky ground.
One thing a family has to do is decide how to pay the bills. For some few, its no big deal, there’s always money left over at the end of the month. For many others there’s too much month left over at the end of the money. My family has found itself much more often with too much month. It doesn’t matter how much a family brings in, if we spend more than we have we eventually have to pay the consequences. Repossessions or late fees, or bad credit scores, or annoying creditor calls, foreclosures, all these things happen to all of us if we don’t pay what’s due. Why not congress? Who gave them permission to spend money they don’t have? If I don’t have it I can’t spend it. So I eat at home more, do Chinese take-out less. I make ends meet. Congress should at least do better than that.

So how should we be with our money when it runs out too fast?  Sometimes your hole is just too big to get out of, what do you do then?  First things first, what’s important?  Know what you spend your money on, and decide what’s important.  A house over your head?  Heating, and AC, water and gas?  Food?  These things are absolutely necessary.  Pay for these things first.  Cable TV?  Internet? Magazine subscriptions?  Golfing? Eating out?  Maybe you should reconsider their importance.  My family gave up Direct Tv.  You know what?  We watch more than we did before.  We rent movies at the dollar kiosks, and download shows off of the internet and connect the computer to the TV.  It was kind of scary but it’s turned out really well and we’re saving almost a hundred dollars a month.  Eating out is another thing that really bites us in the butt.  We love to eat out.  So we limit ourselves now.  Not as much fun, I miss eating out more, but we’re eating healthier.  We’ve lost weight too.  If I could just figure out how to save more on gas I’d be happier.  The gas prices are just plain annoying.  It costs almost $85 to fill up my minivan…  That gets old fast.  Any one with ideas on that sure would help me.

Ok, well, thanks for listening world,

w