People need to “see” their finances with a written budget and spending plan– I do it weekly. I can’t recommend that enough!

Many years ago a friend suggested that my house looked a little too bare. At that point, I did not come across anything worth buying nor displaying. I have since added items. Mostly single purchases that I have made while on vacation. It reminds me of the vacation and it is something that I enjoy seeing.

The one piece of advice my parents and grandparents gave us when we were planning to buy our first house was not to need 2 incomes to afford it. We still live in a modest home but do have certain items we ‘luxuriate in’ without guilt.

What this article has sparked in me is the realization that I need a visual reminder of my debt. Perhaps a chart on the refrigerator would help. An even better idea, in order for it to actually take up space in my life, would be a stack of something (perhaps books) that represents every thousand dollars owed.

With all the mess of moving everything, it becomes apparent how much extra we all have. Every family member is called upon this week to define what they no longer need– and we are planning a garage sale in two weeks time. Everything that doesn’t sell will get donated. Clothes will be sorted thru and sized up if needed; those no longer in use get passed on to our circle of kids clothing friends/family.

If you don’t use it, you don’t need it.

I’ve never had to USE my life or disability insurance – are they wastes of money?

I’m not sure how this post got from ‘A’ to ‘B’ (where ‘A’ was “people don’t put much thought into shopping for their mortgage” and ‘B’ was “Things you can’t USE are a waste of money”). There’s a logical leap in there somewhere that I must have missed.

Perhaps dialing back on the “quantity” knob might be a good idea. I generally find the posts here to be thought provoking, but I’m sure there’s better meat out there than this.

Because of his connections, we got a very good rate. Mor importantly on our second loan, which we did because we couldn’t make the 10% down, the mortgage guy got us a FIXED loan, which for a second loan is unusual. Our other loan is fixed as well.

Us spending the extra money to get a mortagage guy certainly was worth it.

The difference from some others who have antiques? I actually use them….we eat off the antique dishes using them everyday, we sit on the antique furniture, we use the antique lamps.

What’s the sense in having stuff if you don’t use the stuff…which is why I purge anything I haven’t used in 2 years.

It’s not always easy being debt-free. For us, one of the hardest parts was dealing with other people’s changed perception of us once we “downgraded” from our McMansion to our modest home, and from our Rover to our Honda. Our status shifted overnight…

We had to learn to become secure in the choices we made to live smaller and more simply. We also learned who our true friends were.

It’s been quite a ride, but so worth it :o)

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I have started to pause before buying something, making sure it will be something I use and is something I NEED.

I have begun following a plan to be debt free in one year. (I did not have that much debt to begin with and I am lucky enough to currently own my home and car with no loans of any kind.)

I am incurring some debt in the form of school loans but I know the value of the education will far outweigh the burden of the debt. Again, I will USE the skills I gain from getting my degree.

Really looking at the usefulness of things is an interesting mindset. I recently decided to NOT buy a Wii because I don’t need it for exercise (which was my excuse for wanting it). I sold my Nintendo DS because I wasn’t using it and it was gathering dust. I DID decide to buy a replacement iPod part (on sale) because I do use that a LOT for walking and listening to around the house.

I know I feel far less stress when I am doing things to free myself from debt and this “gotta have it” mentality. I feel more in control of my life overall and knowing I can build and work towards what is truly important to me is far better than worrying how I’m going to pay the light bill at the end of the month.