I spent 10 years of my life, from before high school graduation to getting married, buying on credit, enjoying the immature lust of immediate gratification, and growing my level of work and worry at the same rate of my debt.

They say you don’t know the worth of what you have until you don’t have it anymore, and financial freedom definitely fits that lesson. It took me until I was working two jobs over 80 hours a week just to pay the bills and minimum credit card payments before I realized that, truly, what I owned owned me.

Delayed gratification is far more a blessing than a curse in life. I am now thankful to have the good sense to wait to buy something until it’s a year old, no longer a fad, or can be bought used or at a discount.

I was just going to suggest this. I always make a point of having an extra half gallon left over anyway, labelled for what room it belongs in. Good paint comes in those nice plastic jugs that never rust and boy is it nice 6-7 years on to be able to quickly touch up a room like new without fully repainting the whole thing. *Thats* where you really save the money (and time).

tina – well, we weren’t always that patient. It’s great to see our debt go down, but I really cherish how our attitude about so many things has changed during the process.

To answer the question about this post, no, I never feel deprived. And, I save a lot of money. Today, I put down several poster boards and let my 21 month old daughter experiment with crayons, markers, colored pencils and paint. I sat and watched her and cut squares out of fabric that people from my freecycle groups gave me. It was a very full day, and cost just about nothing. It all depends on your perspective. I have to admit, though, sometimes I feel deprived that I only have one child. If I could afford 18 kids, I would have them.

We are now debt free and our home will be paid off in about 3 yrs, we only took out a 10 yr mortgage so that was one SMART thing we did. I have to say, I could not have continued with our debt journey without blogs like yours. Level headed people that plan for tomorrow by sacrificing today!!

i LOVE your blog, keep up the good work!!
tina

Going cold turkey to save is extremely hard and is more than likely going to fail. It so important when starting out to save to do a dollar amount and increase it over time.

I love that mis-mixed paint. Hard to get four walls worth on a big room, but it’s so very cheap, often for the really good paint. I’ve been tempted to ask them to color-match a full-price gallon to the discount batch, then just blend them to save $ and insure consistency of color.

Now, instead of feeling deprived because I can’t have the wardrobe I want right now or the car or the whatever, I remember that each time I save and put money in one of my long-term “pots,” I’m funding my dreams… not depriving myself in any way. Quite the opposite really.