Shredded What?

Get it?  Like Shredded Wheat, the cereal!  HA!  Which, coincidentally, is my favorite cereal of all time.  Both the mini, frosted kind and the large, un-frosted kind (I have a thing for old people cereal!).  But I didn't mean to get off on a cereal tangent, although you now know another small interesting fact about me.  Consider it a bonus.  On with the post.


So, obviously financial freedom is the biggest payoff to the Dave Ramsey program.  We are successfully whittling our debt snowball down and soon (by next winter at the most recent estimate) we should have everything but the house and student loans paid off!  Which is good for our adoption/moving timeline as we will then be able to kick those things into high gear!  Woo hoo!  But there are other side affects to the program, namely the paperwork!  As we pay off credit card after credit card we are left with all of the old statements, bills, and whatnot associated with them.  Once we get the letter of confirmation stating that the account is paid off and closed we have no need for any of it!  The bill box's waistline is getting trimmer as we eliminate cumbersome files!


So this morning Amy and I got into an impromptu cleaning/purging spree.  In its path - the bill box.  Amy hadn't been through this in a while so it needed some attention.  Before we knew it we had a good pile of paperwork that needed shredding.  Now, I will admit to the inner nerd in me yet again as I confirm my excitement at that prospect.  I LOVE shredding papers.  I mean, it is fun!  Just ask Julie in our school office.  I get such delight at sitting down to the school's heavy-duty shredder and just going at it.  So, needless to say, I was all to willing to help Amy out with this new found dilemma.  Trash bag in hand I sat about my task.  About half-way, and one container dump, into the process the shredder begins to make a very high-pitched squealing sound.  A cross between brakes in need of some replacement and a pig being tightly squeezed.  Let's just say, it wasn't pleasant.  Amy and I shared a worried glance along with the comment that we hope it made it through the job.  FAIL!  Shortly after acknowledging the fact that we have had this shredder for like 6 years, it squealed its last.  Uh oh!  Upon closer inspections, after a hopeful cool-down period, I found a piece of plastic, somehow hidden in an envelope.  The culprit!  That small plastic something, and the squealing sickness were too much for our old, budget paper shredder.  I briefly, like 2 minutes, tore paper by hand.  That sucked.  I mean, what did people do before paper shredders?  It was boring and tiresome, nothing like the thrill of running a paper shredder.  Plus I have a nonexistent pain threshold so it was best I quit before the inevitable paper cut came! 


Now we wait, with a pile of to-be-shredded papers, until we can work a new shredder into our budget.  Bummed that I couldn't finish the shredding?  Yes.  Excited about a new, more advanced shredder?  Oddly yes!  So, Dave Ramsey's intensive program may free us financially, but it was a burden too great for our shredder to bear.  Small price to pay in the long run.

All is well, partially shredded but paper cut free, in Drosche Land.