Your debt today
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Your debt today
| Wed, 09-07-2005 - 9:23am |
Did you make a decision today that was affected by the fact you are in debt? Did you cancel plans or decide not to do something so as not to add to your debt total or so that you could make or meet a payment? What was it, and how did you feel about it?
Littlesbigs

DH and I constantly make decisions based on our current debt load.
All my best,
Danni
Great question. Like others I'm sure, we constantly make decisions based on our debt load. As for today, I was able to help a friend make a decision that proved important, but that could have been bad if they had made the decision purely on their own debt load.
Fortunately, we are far enough in our debt journey that we have cash reserves as well as credit cards with zero balances and grace periods. Our friends, however, are in bad shape financially and will be for a while as they wait for her work permit to come through. I suspect that they have no credit available. So when she came down with a severe kidney infection, they waited and waited to go to the doctor. Today, I finally took her to the doctor and paid for the exam and the prescription with the understanding that they will pay me back on Friday when he gets paid. They were going to wait until Friday, and the doctor said if she had waited any longer, she probably would have ended up in the hospital.
Those are the kind of decisions I'm grateful I don't have to make any more--putting off a doctor visit because of lack of money. I'm a little uncomfortable having loaned the money for it, as it has so much potential to be uncomfortable at best and devastating to a friendship at worst, but I hope it won't come to that. It wouldn't be a major blow to us if they never paid us back, but I would feel put upon and taken advantage of, and that would damage the friendship.
Anyway, today my friends almost made a disastrous decision not to go to the doctor because of debt. Yeah, I'd say it affects people pretty deeply.
Heather
I inventoried the kids clothes and realized that I really shouldn't buy DS anything. Situation is that in-laws are raising my nephew and we get all the hand-me-downs. So in size 24 months/2T Ian has 20 short sleeve shirts, 19 shorts, 24 long sleeved shirts, 15 pants, a coat, at least 1 pair of shoes for each size up to 10, 5 pairs of winter pajamas and a swimsuit. BUT, I didn't get to pick any of that out and MIL and I don't always have the same taste. So, if I didn't have debt I would probably buy some clothes that suit my taste anyway.
DH wanted to eat Indian for lunch. I love it and we can't take DD (white rice is a no, no for her) but I'm trying to avoid eating out as much as possible.
Um, I also found myself honestly perplexed about packing emergency bags because neither DH nor I have spare clothes to just stick in a bag. And I'm not about to spend money on that...
Taleyna
I feel like I constantly make decisions based on my debt. It usually is the little things - am I going to spend 3€ on lunch or not? Am I going to buy this magazine or not?
We cancelled all plans to go on holiday this year so as not to add to our debt, that was a major thing.
Those decision do not feel very good, I don't like to say "no, you can'thave that." to myself, but it is necessary, I guess. The positive side of it all is that my debt and my constant eyperiments how to tackle debt best has made me very 'spending-conscious' and aware about the difference between spent money and invested money. A new coat is an investment. A new t-shirt that will last a season 'cause it is the height of fashion and probably will tear after three or four washings anyway - that is spending :-)
Greetings, Jordis
ivy_jordis
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unfortunatly, yesterday dh and I made some crappy decisions regarding our debt load. We did not charge anything but we did spend some unplanned money which will likely result in us being short somewhere else this month. (but i will not charge anything!!! if i need to be late on a bill so be it, but i will not charge anything else. if i start charging again, it will not stop..) Dh needed some clothes for an important work function today and we already had some clothes on layaway for him at boscov's. so we paid that off which was 80 dollars. while we were at the mall i also bought a nice fleece jacket for 12.oo , dd a pair of cat ears from the halloween store (she been walking around in an old cat costume for a week now.. at home only of course...she's three by the way with an active imagination) and of course, we ended up eating out. We have a 212.00 payment due for insurance this friday as well as our mortgage payments. pretty dumb, i know... but at least we didn't charge... urgh...
kel
I was shopping for a casual brown pair of shoes, found 1 pair for $85 but decided they were too spendy & winter isn't here yet, I can still wear sandals...so I didn't buy them. I was also at the makeup counter with my sister, she was buying cuz she wanted the free gift with purchase, I normally would have also...but I didn't buy anything! I really want to be debt free, so I just have to change my way of thinking about those things.
Have a good day!
cindylee
My DH and I went shopping for his work shoes. As I was waiting for him to make a decision a pair of Levi's caught my eye. All I could think about was how tight my Levi shorts had gotten. I was just about to get a pair to try on when I snapped out of this illusion of having enough money to pay for DH shoes...and a pair of Levi's.
So in the end I'm back on my diet - maybe if I lose the 8 pounds I gained this summer I'll be able to wear all the jeans I charged last year. What was I thinking?? My DH already thinks I obsess too much over the credit card debt (he doesn't even look at the statements, even if I were to glue them to his forehead,LOL), so in a way I'm forced to obsess, by default.