Thursday, March 15, 2012

Do you take Diner's Club?

I admit it - I went Girls Gone Wild in my early 20s.  Not in the sexy way (well, okay, there was a bit of that), but in the spendy way.  But instead of this:





It was more like this:



Sure, I bought my fair share of useless stuff, but I bought way more than my fair share of crappy food.  In any given week, 80% of my credit card balance was spent on beer, fast food and bar food (the other 20% was spent on DVDs and junk from Target).

Even after I graduated from college, I continued to spend like crazy, almost entirely on food.  Dining out every night, plus groceries (because I need midnight snacks, right?).  I remember going to the grocery store once and only buying beer and cookies.  With a credit card.  I had a relatively high paying job and no student loan debt, but I was living eating way above my means.

I was lonely, I hated my job and I was bored.  I was out of control, both in spending and in eating.  Spending and eating were so highly correlated for me that I ended up with $12k in credit card debt and weighing 314 pounds.

I haven't used credit cards in more than three years (with the exception of the plumbing emergency right after we moved in to the new house).  Today, I made a $12,462.06 payment on my MasterCard.  That was the balance of what I ate in my early 20s.

According to my math, I just paid $87.76 for every pound I gained over my target weight.  As unbelievable as it sounds, I paid to be fat.  With interest in the form of stretch marks, acne and GERD.

The MasterCard is paid off now.  I'm done paying the debt I accrued in order to be fat.  Now, if I have to accrue a little debt to get my band, to be healthy - I'm going to do it without hesitation.

2 comments:

  1. Wow. That's a hard realization to come to, especially with the numbers crunched. The good news is, you're going to be spending all of it on new wardrobes by the time March 2013 rolls around! :)

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    Replies
    1. It's a difficult thing to think about. The bright side is that I got my spending completely under control and paid off my debts, so there's no reason to think I can't get my eating/inactivity under control and lose the weight!

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