Our Cars Have Houses

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I don’t remember where I heard that… might have been church or the radio… but I heard it nonetheless. Most of us not only have homes to live in, but we also have houses that our cars live in. As of late, when I drive around town, all I can see are garages.

I am the stereotypical person with champagne taste living on a beer budget. I like name brand things and I like to own lots of stuff. In spite of that, my husband and I have slowly been chipping away at our debt for years. We’ve been motivated to get out of debt primarily for selfish reasons: wanting a house were our kids can have their own rooms; having a retirement fund; wanting to take the kids to Disney World; etc. 

But in the last 48 hours, something major has shifted in my thinking. Yesterday, there was a boy in my son’s kindergarten class who couldn’t concentrate because he was so hungry that his belly hurt. Somehow he had missed the free breakfast at school and the teachers told him to hang tight because snack time was quickly approaching. We soon found out that the kid who was supposed to bring the snack yesterday did not. Thankfully the teacher thought to bring a box of crackers from home which she shared with the class. I told her I would bring a back up snack today so she had something on hand. She felt terrible because she didn’t want me to feel obligated to bring something. Seriously? These babies are hungry. There is no reason why we can’t help out.

The PTO is fundraising because we need playground supplies. My son’s class has ancient computers. They need new headphones and they can’t put them on the school supply list because too many families can’t afford the $15. There are kids who can’t identify the letters in their names and there aren’t enough people to give them the one-on-one help they need. And I’m sure there are needs that I haven’t been made aware of yet.

But most of the cars in this town have their very own houses.

All I keep thinking is if my family didn’t have this debt, we could do so much more to help these kids. And we could help relieve some of the burden from the teachers. UGH! So I’m returning the sweater & scarf I bought for our family pictures because we found something I owned that will work. We are returning the new vacuum because my husband “fixed” the one we have and we can use it until it can’t be “fixed” any more. And now, more than ever, I am going to commit to break free from the insane debt load we carry.

It’s time that I stop living beyond my means so that I can do more to help meet the basic needs of others. The funny thing is that we will probably get to reach our personal goals faster too.