Michelle's Debt Journal, Date: July 6, 2010
Even before the miracle that I call the month of February in the year 2011, I always considered my husband and I to be two of the luckiest people on this planet. We love each other ridiculously, we have a cat who prefers us above everyone else, and that has nothing to do with the fact that we feed him and give him shelter, I’m sure …
We have great families, we have great friends and we have achieved this weird sort of balance where we have everything we need and want for little. But we had cause for celebration this week when my husband got a promotion of sorts which will give him a nice bump in pay and more benefits.
The part of me that has spent the past few years reading any kind of article I can find on frugal living tells me that we should just pretend that this promotion has never happened and live according to our former standards. We’ll sock everything away, up our investment portfolios and live like we’ve had.
I’m going to keep chanting that mantra to myself though, because I’ll be honest … there are some things that my husband and I have gone without for the past few years while we’ve waited for this ship to come in. A real vacation, for one … computers that work are another.
I don’t need a new or fancier car. I can live with the antiquated drapes in my living room. Although I want to get rid of the carpeting in the kitchen, I can wait until my unborn, twinkle-in-my-eye children are teenagers before replacing it. I just want a computer that works and does not grind to a halt when I try to run three programs at once. And a new cell phone. And a long weekend with my husband in Duluth.
And fully funded Roth IRAs. And 401ks that we take full advantage of. Emergency funds that will tide us over for six months or more if something crappy happens.
I’m going to take a moment to praise the Lord for taking good care of us. And I’m going to take a moment to praise my husband for being a patient man and for keeping his eyes on the prize when there were times that we didn’t think this promotion would come through.
We’ve had pizza and take out a couple times this week in celebration. It’s now time to go back to our former lives and start saving towards a better future.
0 Comments