Thoughts...

One of my biggest goals is to get out of debt... in fact, the idea of being debt free somewhat consumes me at times. And I'm going through one of those times right now. It's like everything is going fine and I wake up one morning, or go to bed one night and the thought of our debt comes crashing into my head like a ton of bricks. I am always aware of our debt, as it's something we are constantly working on. But these moments that I'm describing come at such unexpected times and they just consume me- it's all I can think about. I spend a good portion of my time thinking about ways we can better save money... ways we can have a better budget... and most importantly- how long will it take us to get out of debt. The debt we have is pretty normal in the world of debt- one credit card, one car loan and one student loan. Compared to a lot of people we're relatively well off. In fact, we are VERY well off. Damien and I both have excellent paying jobs and we are able to maintain a mortgage and continue to pay down debt. But during these moments that I'm currently having I get mad at myself that we have ANY credit card debt... because all that money going towards those stupid cards could be going to something a LOT more beneficial like Deacons education... or a vacation (LOL). But I really can't give into these thoughts too often- what's done is done and no amount of kicking and screaming will take back time.

So today I found a amortization calculator (well, Damien found it for me) to figure out how long we were going to be in this little pickle. 5 years. That may seem like a lot to some of you... but to me, 5 years is doable. And 5 years is what it will be if we continue to make these same payments. Now, I hope that in these 5 years I am able to complete one of my other goals which is to get a new job- which would give me more money a month. So I think we can even shave off more time... and now I'm able to say that in less than 5 years we will be debt free. No car payment, no student loans, no credit card debt. Just paying off our house- which, let's face it, who doesn't have some type of housing payment a month?- I'm not too concerned with paying off our mortgage super fast.

But the problem now lies within the fact that gas prices and grocery prices continue to go way up. We need to account for that and get more creative. Thank goodness for the Grocery Game- I don't remember the last time I spent money on items like toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc... It's too bad I can't find as great of deals on gas. But, what I can do with gas prices is be more frugal and picky about my travels on the weekend... and even during the week. It's times like these that I'm SO thankful for the Prius.

I also think I need to re-read Dave Ramsey... he's very inspirational when it comes to money management and when I finish his book I just have this desire to be the most frugal person on the planet :)

So while this post had nothing to do with completing a goal it is about the process of completing one of my goals on the list- I would love to get the Prius paid off in these 2 1/2 years. If we can do that we are definitely on the right track to being completely debt free in less than 5 years.