How Picking Up Trash Paid My Debt and Eased My Stress
Working as a trash valet changed my outlook on money and relationships.
In mid-2019, my husband and I decided to take control of our financial situation. We’d been living paycheck to paycheck since the moment we moved in together.
I remember our first financial conversation. We had just enough money to pay all of our bills.
He was thrilled. “They’re all getting paid. We’re doing something right!”
I was horrified. “No babe, we’re not putting anything aside. We’re doing something wrong.”
I hated the anxiety of wondering what would happen if we missed a paycheck. He could feel my stress becoming more and more palpable every single time we sat down to do the bills together. We started watching our spending, and with a little diligence, it took just over a year for us to reach the point where we were actually saving a little bit of money each month. But still, we knew we could do better.
We determined that it was time to do what was necessary to eliminate the debt that was stealing most of our paychecks. That wasn’t going to happen with our current income. The quickest way to make a dent in the debt would be for each of us to get a second job. However, we didn’t want to spend a ton of…
