Saturday 6 December 2008

Friday 5th December - Credit

Cut up the credit card? Not this weekend! Seriously, as a convenient way of paying, credit cards are fine but as a feeder of temptation they are potentially dangerous. We always pay off every month and usually that’s OK although there are sometimes surprises. I can remember having to buy travellers’ cheques and declaring all currency on your passport. Travelling today is much easier and I’m sure the extensive travel nowadays helps people to understand each other better.

Walking around the Christmas market and shops this evening reminded us again how stylish and extremely smart most things are here in France. It will be difficult to ‘spend realistically’ on Christmas gifts and food to bring home.

Other debts - ‘claims of love, forgiveness, generosity and mercy’ are much more difficult to measure - a monthly statement would be useful! People are kind and forgiving and don’t consider their actions in these terms, but we should be more aware of their generosity and say ‘thank you’ more often. I’ll try to be more supportive of other people without expecting anything in return. And more aware of the debt I owe when someone does something for me.


I went to the ATM this morning and it said "insufficient funds".

I’m wondering is it them or me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm Glad you are enjoying France at the expense of your credit cards! As you say, the important thing is to pay them off each month. Before I retired I got into a lot of debt on them and vowed never to do it again. I try to persuade my son of this, but with little success.
But I really wanted to comment on Day 1 of stephen Cottrell's book. I have never blogged before and my reactions are too slow for this game. But like you I do not want to prune my card list. These are all people who were once of value to me, and though some I have not seen for years and may not see again, Christmas cards are a means of keeping the memory of that value warm, and that is important. Since Christine put all the address labels on our computer, that saves a lot of time.

Ron