What’s going to be different when I’m debt free?

Original Post by Michelle / July 17, 2009

Let me wax nostalgic for a second here … 

First and foremost, I’ve been getting a glimpse of what it will be like to be debt free through Sadie Morris’s blog, which you can find here. Also, see below for a list of Sadie's favorite books ...  

As I inch closer to my goal, I find myself frequently dreaming about what life is going to be like once I am done paying off my credit card debt.

Frankly, once that’s done – I’ll start trying to pay off my car, but that’s not as romantic as the other visions that run rampant through my head:

– Sleeping in on a Saturday morning. Until 8 a.m. Getting up and hanging around in my pajamas, watching Food Network and drinking coffee with my cat and my husband. Not that the Cat drinks coffee. He prefers milk from my cereal bowl – gross, I know.

– Being able to go to the Garden Center at my local hardware depot/superstore/whatever and being able to invest in various perennials and gadgets like shepherd’s hooks without worrying that buying a German Ivy is digging into what I can be paying off in debt. Because it does …

– Cutting back on my work load in general. I’m still on the fence whether I’m going to quit my part time job once I’m done paying off my credit card bills. Because it’s nice to have weekends off, but it would be nice to work a couple weekends a month and throw that money into savings or towards home improvement repairs.

Once this is all done, will I have more time to work on my novel? Will I be less stressed out in general?

I don’t know what the answers are, but I know that I can’t wait for this book to be put back up on a high shelf.

Sadie's List of Favorite Books on Creativity and Jump Starting Your Own Creative Juices for Debt Reduction

From Sadie's SavingAdvice article:

If you’re interested in learning more about creativity and jump starting your own creative juices, here’s a list of my favorite books on the subject. None of these relate directly to finance, but once you see how the creative process works, you’re likely to see how you can use it to become and remain debt free.

• Creativity Workout: 62 Exercises to Unlock Your Most Creative Ideas by Edward De Bono
• Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition) by Michael Michalko
• The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp
• The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All by John U. Bacon
• Boost your creativity by Robert Allen
• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
• Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield
• Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, Avoiders, and People Who Would Really Rather Sleep All Day by Sark
• Aha!: 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas by Jordan E. Ayan; with Rick Benzel
• A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech

Finally, I’ll throw one more book out for you. It’s not a book about creativity, but it is the most creative finance book I’ve ever read. It’s called The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. That book has some of the most creative, frugal solutions to everyday problems that I have ever encountered. It makes a great jumping off point for creating your own solutions. I’ve used my own creativity to adapt many of her ideas to work better for me.

Creativity allows you to see ways to save and make money that others miss. It opens you up to see how old things can be made new again, or used for other purposes to keep you from spending more money. Creativity helps you budget and reduce your expenses so that you don’t have to take on debt. 

Everything you do to reduce your expenses and your need for “stuff” is creative. A debt free life is a very creative life.