I was going to talk about my awesome anniversary gift....

but.....my husband came in with a box of records I needed to shred! This is what happens when you are as old as I am and live in one place for a LONG time. Oh yes, it is all wonderful....great memories and fun times, but there is a dark side. I am loath to speak of it even now....but the truth is right here before me.

After 31 years you accumulate so much stuff! The biggest fear of all Americans is the IRS! We have boxes and boxes of "records" in the rafters of our garage. Why? Because we fear being audited! We are trying to make room in our garage and have decided that we won't be audited for the 90's. So here I am shredding all the checks and receipts we have stored in one of MANY boxes.

I am learning so much....first of all....we seem to love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups....in fact, I had a couple last night. :D There are lots of grocery receipts that almost all have Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on them.

My phone bill for May 25, 1991 was $30.16. Our last phone bill was $88.00, but to be fair that includes internet service, but whatI am not considering is that we also have a cell phone now so I figure the phone charges have gone way up. Our natural gas bill in 1991 was $13.22, and this past month it was $28.91. That is amazing to me since we don't even have gas cooking. We must have a really inefficient water heater. As a matter of fact, I notice it has a moist spot under a drainage hole.....

We get regular hair cuts and I notice a check written to a long since moved hair styler....$13.00 (I believe this was for 2 cuts, mine and my husband's). Now we pay close to $65.00 but to be fair it is for 1 to 2 cuts (depending on if I want mine trimmed) along with a color touch-up. (I'm completely gray now). So I think that is very reasonable.

Here is one for Chevron for $21.32. That would be for a month's gas. I am pretty sure it cost almost double to fill up now and we do that about once a week (not to mention we had a 1977 Panoramic Vista Cruiser that probably only got 7 miles per gallon).

It had some pretty sweet sky windows!

Here's a great one....my electric bill. In 1988 it was $25.47 what is it now? ....$191.00 and that is my "level pay" amount. I think it was closer to $300 this past month!

Some people never raised their fees. The sweet man who gave my kids guitar lessons for many years never raised his rates. He was always $7.50 a half hour. (my son went for 12 years)

But all in all I would say things have risen considerably since the early 90's. My husband and I wonder why prices have to rise? I mean, if our pay has to rise to compensate then why not just keep everything the same? It all seems so weird. Everything cost more and people have to make more to pay for the stuff that cost more. Oh well...back to shredding.....I have been going for about an hour now and the box is still full! I just ran across a check made out to "household hazardous waste wheel" for $3.75 in 1989. I wonder what that was????? By the way, I just found out you only need to keep records for 7 years. Boy I have a lot of work ahead of me!