All Fired Up to Keep Paying Down

I was finally going through our files today and organizing and purging them. I was throwing things out left and right, using this list as my guide. It was nice to be getting rid of some old files, like electric bills from our old apartment and random condo association newsletters. Then I came to the file where I put all the receipts from our wedding.

This was the thickest file in the whole drawer. As I was going through it, it was like going back in time to when I spent money recklessly, without a care in the world. I always knew which credit card had the most available balance, because that is what I used to buy everything. I look at all the money we spent on the wedding, borrowed from credit cards, lines of credit, and family and it makes me sick.

We bought a lot of things we didn't need. Of course, the argument can be made that all you need to get married is the piece of paper and a trip to the courthouse. But there were just superfluous purchases made here and there that all added onto our debt. I really look forward when I can think of our wedding with only happy memories and not reflect on the mistakes we made. (Not in marrying my husband - that was no mistake and the best decision I ever made. More on that in a minute.)

So of course, all these receipts made quite a big pile. I'm looking at them and getting bummed out more and more. My husband asked me what was bothering me so much. When I told him, he suggested getting rid of them - we've already dropped that spendy mindset and there was no need to keep them (except the wedding ring receipt). Since we had a nice little fire going tonight, that's where they all ended up. Burnt to ashes. It felt really good to get them out of my file cabinet, my house, my life.



I still felt like an idiot for making the purchases in the first place. Until my husband said to me, "You're only an idiot if you don't fix the problem. We're already solving the problem. So this (referring to the flaming receipts) was just a mistake." He's pretty good at saying the right thing and never just what I want to hear. Mistakes I can deal with. Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to only make it once, and learn and grow. Or burn and grow. :)