Thank you Joan for seeming to understand me a little! I was a young mom. 17 to be exact! I do not regret it for a moment. I read the article and I don't see where it applies to me. I have never had the problem of trying to spend money that I did not have to pay for it. We are not in a desperate situation. We can pay our bills and I save some money every month. I can pay for birthdays, and xmas and whatever else I need and we do it all without credit cards. We aren't flat broke I just felt sometimes when I read the posts that the majority of the people here were more financially set than we are right now and I just wondered if there were more members out there that are in my current situation. I do feel we spend way to much on internet and cable. but there is not much alternative here. Unless I want to go back to a phone line which at the cheapest is about $40 a month to be able to use unlimited calls and then of course you have the dial up charge and I could go on and on. But yes, our internet and cable is, in my opinion high. It is $138 per month. This pays for my internet, which between my second job and my sanity will not let go, digital cable, two boxes, a small sport package (3.95 mnth) for my dh, the insurance on the wires, starz and show time which we don't watch but amazingly it is not cheaper to just drop the digital. Then the internet is no longer a combo package. and we pay higher for them individually. I have actually looked into this. It is my one point of contention in our expenses! However, I have a sports freak for a husband and he would go bonkers without his sports. And as said before, we don't go to the movies, bowling, partying, we don't really do much actually, pretty much at home. It is not that I could not cut ourselves to the bone and quote unquote get ahead faster. and I do cut most other expenses pretty tight. Groceries run me less than 200 per month. that includes shampoo and cleaners and stuff like that. and I feed four kids every weekend. We keep the heat as low as possible, turn off lights etc. I don't have a car payment, both vehicles are paid in full. I do have two loans that I am working to get paid off. I rarely shop at walmart for non essentials. I hate buying clothes. However, I am already 40 and am not at a point in my life where I want to sit in the dark and watch 3 lousy channels on tv. So I have one area that I do pay a little more for. I have a current goal of paying off all our debt completely before I turn 50. that is a little over 9 years and that would be nice. I would say honestly we neither one are desperate to become rich. I just want to be comfortable with a little money in the bank.
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