I am a terrible cook.

It’s not uncommon in our household for dinner to go directly from stove top, to trash can.

And the pizza man is our salvation on those nights.  Or maybe the Mexican food restaurant around the corner.

I used to feel guilty about this fact.  On the nights I wasted dinner, you would usually find me pouting in my chips and salsa.  I had wasted good food, forced us to pay more for our meal, and had failed my family with my utter lack of culinary skills.

But recently I realized, guilt is lame.

And money, sometimes, is just money.  In the grand scheme of life and its meaning, guilt over burnt squash is nothing but drivel.

The other night, the chicken I made for A-Rob came out of the oven looking like this picture of Spongebob.

I kid you not.

I smiled, promptly dumped it, and phoned up A-Rob.

Me: “A-Rob, I have shocking news to tell you.  I ruined dinner.”

A-Rob: “Am I picking up pizza at Rochelli’s?”

Me: “Yes, please.”

And that pizza tasted much better than my stir fry ever would have.

The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed, whole, and happy.  No, it wasn’t the pizza.  It was because I had laughed off my failures.

I wasn’t bogged down from a guilt hangover.

Right now in my life, I am not a great cook.  I may never be.  Or who knows, I may become a culinary genius later on.  But right now, I burn things.  I forget to add spices.  I make soggy brown rice and it baffles me.

I won’t stop trying.  But at least now I can laugh about it.

So friends, where does your money guilt live?  Are there faults you’ve learned to (or need to learn to) laugh off?

Maybe you suck at remembering to use coupons.  Maybe you have a heavy foot and get a lot of speeding tickets.  Maybe you hate eating leftovers (that’s A-Rob’s guilty secret).  Maybe you’re addicted to True Blood and Big Love and are willing to be a slave to HBO for $14 a month to fill this craving (okay, I guess my guilt lives in the living room too).

We can call it Guilt-Free Friday.  I know there are at least 20 of you out there reading this blog.  Now’s your time to spill it!

A big THANKS to Well Heeled for hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance: Little Red Riding Hood Edition, and including this little post.