After I came home from my week away my husband said, “Oh and  by the way, your vacuum sucks, and not in the good way.” I smiled knowingly. Notice he called it your vacuum. That’s because I’m the one that uses it. My vacuum is not top-of-the-line, no, in stark contrast I would call it nearly-bottom-of-the-line. Our home is small and I’ve been able to get by with it just fine … until now. My hubby had shown an interest in upgrading and I was all ears.

A couple days later I found him online looking at new vacuum cleaners that were a little better than what I have now. They were tempting me for sure. He was still grumbling about how the vacuum spit out everything it sucked up as soon as he turned it off. I smiled knowingly again – the ole vacuum spew. I’m familiar with it.

Our next trip to Walmart found us standing in front of all the vacuums they sell, comparing prices and features. We just stood there. And then we walked away. We have become slightly more intelligent spenders and we know better than to buy something out of emotion (like anger toward a vacuum) or on a whim. The days of going to the store for toilet paper and coming home with a new DVD player are over – and I couldn’t be happier.

A while ago, I don’t even remember when (although I’m sure David could tell you the exact day), the television in our living room died. It was only 2 years old and it just died. Turns out it was some flaw in the system that was too pricey to repair. If it had happened a few years ago we would have gone to the store that night and purchased a new television (and probably a better one), justifying that we needed it. Fast-forward to present – we sadly went into our bedroom and moved the TV that was in there into the living room. It was a sad day for my sports-lover. Back down to the 24″. We’re still using it because it still works and although we’d like a bigger television we’re waiting on it for now.

Back to the vacuum cleaner. So today I pulled it back out to use and found it was acting much worse than usual; not really working at all actually. I could see David’s frustration. The difference is that it’s my vacuum so I knew what I had to do. I took it apart. I’ve done it before and I don’t really enjoy it (except that I feel cool using tools), but after I took it apart and cleaned out the places where gross things get trapped, then put it all back together, it worked like it was brand-new again. Annoying? Yes. Am I waiting on a new one? You betcha.

Living frugally and working hard to get out of debt has made me re-think the things I actually need and re-prioritize the things that we’d like to upgrade. I know for certain that when we finally upgrade the TV and when my current vacuum is no longer fixable I’m going to think long and hard about the items I choose to replace them because there’s one thing I know for sure – I’ll probably be keeping them for quite a long time.

Why I do what I do ~ The theological questions are beginning. Tonight at bedtime I told Chloe it was time to say her prayers, as usual. She asked if I would pray tonight. I told her yes. Then she asked, “Do you want to pray to Jesus or to God?” Then tapping her finger on her chin too show she was in deep thought, she said, “You should pray to both.” Then she closed her eyes, folded her hands and waited for me to begin.

photo credit: A.K. Photography

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