Puppies and Penury

This is Bonny... all together now, "aaah, isn't she sweet!" I am due to become her mother on Thursday. I am full of excitement, but also nerves - what if she falls in the water? What if I can't train her? What if she is impossible at work? But then, as I have written elsewhere, 'what if's' are no reason not to do something!

The last of my savings are going to pay for her (and for vet's insurance!). Once that cheque is cashed, then I shall be writing to my bank to 're-negotiate' my loan payments. The CAB have been really helpful in showing me how to write to the bank in such a way that they will have no choice but to reduce my boat loan payments by a whacking amount. Yes, it means I'll be in hock to the powers that be forever, but it also means that I will be able to (just) live within my means, while only working 3 days a week!

I refuse to feel even an iota of guilt over shrinking my loan payments to the bank. All banks are evil! Up to the end of the Middle Ages, usurers (people who take interest on money loaned) were regarded as sinners who were destined for hell. Merchants on their death bed would regularly pay back all the interest they had taken in a lifetime, to save their souls. But the Church's attitude changed through the centuries until it seems to have become regarded as a sign of God's favour to be rich and somehow the sin of usury disappeared from the Christian conscience - probably replaced by an increased interest in sex! (Or should I say sexual sins?)

These days the banks charge obscene interest for money borrowed and then whack massive charges on top if you dare to risk missing a payment. They have brought the world's economies to their knees in one year and yet, just the other night, two banks posted massive half yearly profits - profits obtained from the pain of those poorer than them. Bank bonuses are still being paid out in their millions to people who have gambled the savings and pensions of ordinary folk.

So if you are in debt, don't lose sleep over it. The banks certainly won't. In fact they love us being in debt because then they can really make money from us. I have known people driven into depression or worse because of debt. But debt doesn't really exist. It is just a number on a computer screen. The same as my savings were when they disappeared from Kaupthing Edge (see previous post). They are not worth losing our happiness for. They are not worth anything in fact! I will endevour to eventually pay back what I owe, because that is what my own conscience tells me is right. But I refuse to let the bank bully me over it. I refuse to let it darken my life and I will make sure I have enough to live on before paying money to an organisation that is destined for hell!

Meanwhile the next 'freedom' that I will experience, will be the 'freedom' of having no savings. I suspect I shall learn some hard lessons, but worthwhile ones. "Blessed are the poor" said Jesus. Maybe he had a point.