Oh those awesome, alluring, office supplies!

I love office supplies.  I really do.  Paper clips and printers.  Folders and files.  Sticky notes and scissors.  And Paper!  Paper!  Paper!  Punched paper and purple paper.  Cardstock and calendars.  Sharpies, fax machines, desk top blotters, three ring binders and tabbed dividers.

I used to spend evenings browsing through the catalogs sent to business addresses, dreaming of the day when I could buy office supplies without taking out a loan.  I limped along on leftover file folders from an office that was going to throw them away and refilled ink cartridges.  I refilled my own ink for a long time because I could save a few bucks per cartridge, but the price was in brightly colored fingers for years.  I dreamed of a supply closet filled with tape and boxes of pens.   I envisioned those lovely shelves filled with everything that I would need to print and file, and I filled out order forms that I never could afford to send in.  I sat in old chairs and worked on old computers, and figured out ways to do what I needed to do with a $25 printer and Kinkos.

I learned during those lean years running a business that you don't need fancy office chairs, and a new computer every year.  You don't need to have that supply closet with spare ink cartridges and assorted types of paper and those pretty boxes of pens.  I learned that you can spend time or you can spend money.  I chose to spend time refilling that printer ink because I wanted so much more than unstained fingers.

I wanted debt free success more than I wanted the supply closet that now I stand in front of  to admire and smell those lovely office supplies, that I can reach in and use whenever I have need of them.

They are precious to me today.  I know what they cost.