Reality Setting In

I'm starting to worry about sticking to it next year. With my losing 3 MONTHS of pay AND our acquiring a wonderful new expense debt payoff and debt snowball aren't going to be top priority.

I'm coming to terms with the fact that priorities are going to include:
-Spending frugally and intelligently.
-Not using any sort of credit card for any reason no matter how tight the finances become.
-Planning much better than I did this year... in other words working on some sort of savings for emergencies.
-Getting sleep.
-Taking very good care of our brand new son.

Unless something amazing happens there's just not going to be extra money for really great debt payoff. However, the way I see it the debt payoff is what keeps me motivated to not spend money, to pinch the pennies, and to watch the finances like a hawk. Every time a balance goes down, every time a card is payed off, every time I send an extra hundred or so to one of those credit cards it makes the tight living worth it. It's nice to see the work paying off. BUT if the work isn't visibly showing me grand results (which is what I'm anticipating for at least the first half of next year) I'm a tad bit worried I'll lose it.

Hopefully the 45 daily goals for next year are setting me up to really push through it. Hopefully the new little guy in our lives will be motivation enough to live financially responsible lives. Hopefully I've grown enough to not NEED the instant gratification of watching the cards go down in order to do what's right. Spending money (even money you don't actually have) is SOOOOOO stinkin easy. Oh, especially when you're tired, worn down, and not seeing grand results of your not spending the money.

Say a prayer, wish me luck, next year is going to be AMAZING and some really gosh darn hard work!

Sidenote: I'm still reading through my entire blog. I've only made it to March so far. I really like THIS POST. When I wrote it I was pretty sad about not being able to travel while paying off debt but today it's quite encouraging. There is life after this struggle, there is a whole world to be seen, and once the hard work has come to fruition there's a lot to be enjoyed free of debt!