The New Year

I'm mostly writing this post today because I'm having a bout with false labor and I'm irritated by it. Keeping my brain busy will take my mind off other stuff. And a lot of the blogs I read are starting to post about debt elimination, new year resolutions, and lifestyle changes. All positive, all inspiring.

So, what will the new year bring us? A new baby. A new outlook. A new budget.

Right now, we spend about $450 making minimum payments on credit cards. That doesn't include the car payment and cell phones. We are expecting a decent sized tax return this year- so we'll be using it to eliminate as many of the credit cards as we can so that we can apply more money to finish paying them off. From there, we will begin aggressively paying down our car until it is also paid off. Lastly, we'll be switching to Straight Talk for our cell phones- which will save us about $80/month.

So, how will we stick to it? Well, we do plan to keep 4 of the cards open. Two large ones and two small ones. The large ones will be kept at Seth's office as they will hold as our emergency fund. Meaning, the car breaks down, our house burns down, REAL emergencies. The two smaller ones consist of one card in either of our names. Those will be used for specific expenses, as well as shopping. They both offer rewards and such, and only let us get into trouble up to x number of dollars. And we will decline ANY limit increases. ;-) They will each be paid off, in full, every month. The rest will be cut up, paid off, and closed. The only sure way to stop using credit cards is to no longer have the accounts.

When we build up emergency savings in the amounts of the larger cards, they will too be closed. The smaller ones will only remain because many places like hotels, car rentals, etc. won't accept a debit card- and we like to travel. But again, they'll be paid off monthly. I trust us to that extent.

We're just done. Thank God we're as young as we are and realizing our many mistakes. By the time the kids are school age, we should be debt free, and own a paid in cash home. So every bit of it is worth it, and we're both willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do it- whatever the cost. I think that's where my confidence in it comes from. Same goal, same drive to make it happen.

Right now, my plan is to finish this last few courses as fast as possible, and generate some money from home. Next week I'll be listing ALL my maternity clothes on ebay. I don't wear most of them, and the few things I do wear won't matter soon anyway. I believe I have about $200 worth. After that, its on to selling off the mountain of clothes and purses I have. Most of it goes unworn, some still with tags. I only wear about a dozen pieces total. And I literally have a closet and about 3-4 totes and boxes full of clothes. To me, it's all clutter and needs to go. So it will.

I LOVE being in purge mode. Ha!