Dear Debt,
Thank you!
Love, Jessica
It’s strange, but it’s true. I owe my big pile o’debt an acknowledgement of appreciation. So today, and only today I am going to say I am grateful for the $35,000 plus in debt that I currently have on my back. I owe every single dollar of that 35,000 because the life lessons that I have learned are vital for my future success. They are going to ensure my future happiness and provide me with motivation to move forward.
Without further adieu, “Five Reasons Why I am Grateful for My Debt:”
1. Thank you for teaching me the importance of a savings account. Small emergencies like a cracked windshield and bigger ones, like unemployment do occur, and usually in threes. A savings account is vital for surviving those times. Credit cards are not the answer, neither is living in denial of these types of events.
2. Thank you for teaching me to live with less. Acquiring new “stuff” was a hobby of mine at one time. Now, I take great enjoyment in giving away items. These items that I once couldn’t live without have found a new home and freed up space in my own. That space isn’t filled with new items, it’s filled with space. Glorious, empty, dustless and free space!
3. Thank you for teaching me that perfect is unattainable and good-enough is just fine. I don’t need a perfect set of matching dishes that coordinate with the wall color in my kitchen. Those white plates I just bought at the thrift store for 99cents each are good enough to eat off of and they work just as well as those perfectly matched dishes. Those mismatched bowls of varying sizes actually make my table look cool and that is far better to me.
4. Thank you for teaching me that restaurants and eating out should be a treat and not the norm. (In addition to that, thank you for the 15lbs I’ve lost by not going to restaurants.) Saving my cash and only eating out once a month makes the dinner that much more enjoyable and when I can share that with a friend, I remember it more too.
5. And finally, Thank you for showing me that I am strong enough to overcome all of these hurtles that I’ve encountered. I once thought I would fall into the hole that you created but I’ve learned that I am strong enough to fight my way out of it. I am strong enough to tackle this and anything else life hands me. I will win this war with my addiction to debt.
I could probably come up with another 15 lessons that I have learned by having debt but these are the areas that seem to pop up within my day to day life. These are the more important lessons.
I truly am grateful for these lessons even if I would have rather learned them a different way.
What has debt taught you?
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This is a really good post Jess. #3&4 are things I’m trying to learn right now. I’ve overcompensated for my cash starved childhood. It’s not a good thing to try to keep up with the Joneses.
Elizabeth(Quote)
Yea my mother started to do that when she left my dad. Suddenly she had her own money and credit cards and she was spending it on stuff. That stuck with me for a long time.
As I’m packing up for this move I’m realizing that, while I have gotten rid of a ton of stuff, I still have way more than I need. I need to do another honest purge and really look at what I need and use vs. what I HOPE to use someday (like my box of “Skinny clothes”).
Jessica The DebtPrincess(Quote)
i am 31,000 im dept and this was helpful to read thank you for your dear dept letter i am a shop aholik bying things and spending money is my favorit pleasure it may allways be hopfuly not though im strugling to stop spending it is so hard to not go get what you want and need and just live with good enough or make due with what you got i was a stay at home mom for 10 years now im paying for it for not making due with what i had now im working and strugling to start a scucceful home day care was a great article
loreta(Quote)
Good luck with the day care! You need to take the first step, stop spending money and if you are using credit cards…STOP!! Then work on an emergency fund! Good luck with that as well.
Jessica The DebtPrincess(Quote)
The restaurant and eating out point is a hard lesson I had to learn. It took some time but I finally understand how much it actually costs me in the long run.
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Ralph(Quote)