Debt Makes My Teeth Itch

There has been a small financial windfall at our house.  A retention bonus for that man from his employer.  (that he's worked at since all of October, yay!)

So we're in discussions as how to best use that money.  We accumulated too much debt after moving.  It's been worse in the past and I've paid it down, I don't see any reason to let it get that bad again.  And in this economy, I like it even less.

Now, I'm temperamentally allergic to debt.  My upbringing made me hate and fear any sort of debt.  It's a big piece of why I did not continue in college.  I couldn't pay for it without taking out loans, which I refused to do.  I was too scared of owing money.  I realized, years later, that it was a bone head decision.  But, what are you gonna' do?  Onward.

Anyhow, so that man does not worry about debt like I do.  He says it's unsecured and they can't do anything to us over it if anything horrible happens.  And, if something horrible happens, yes, we probably will lose the house.  The bank owns it anyway.  But debt still makes my teeth itch.

Outside of debt reduction, it's a new house.  It needs all sorts of things that could soak up this little bit of extra money 10 or 20 times over.   New oven, new stove, flooring in the living room, a furnace would be nice, new windows in the living room, a fence that actually keeps the dog in the yard, landscaping, omg landscaping.

So, instead of cleaning house, which was part of todays plan, we're going to Ikea.  I promised the boys new dressers well over a year ago.  Our compromise seems to be neither house things nor debt reduction but economic stimulation.  How did *that* happen?