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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.
