Sometimes I wish money grew on trees.

While most people believe that finances are boring, I am enthralled by money and it consumes a lot of my thoughts through out the day.  Over a year ago, Scott and I decided we would get out of debt.  We used Dave Ramsey's 7 baby steps to get us started.  Once we found out Scott was deploying we stopped focusing on getting out of debt and just enjoying our family.  We obviously still paid all of our bills and everything but we used our extra money to go out to dinner, buy deployment stuff, move, et cetera.  But I am proud to say that in 14 or so months, we have paid off almost $15,000 in debt.  We have refinanced two credit cards into a loan to get a lower interest rate.  I hate saying it, but we still have a long way to go.  Over double that.  And I do not include my student loans in those figures.
But I have decided that I am going to become serious about paying off debt again.  So I have decided that from now until the end of April.  I am going to go on a shopping/money spending purge.  I am going to cut way back.  I am going to stay away from Target and IKEA and every other store that I spend money out.  While my spending recently is not "normal" I am afraid that if I don't do a purge, it will become my new normal.  That is will compensate for my husband's absence through an affair with my debit/credit card.
Included in this movement is to go back to a cash only spending system.  And right now I have $12 to spend until April 1st.  Because I spend too much random money recently that I am not going to withdraw the rest of my "allowance".  And on April 1st, I am going to take out less money than I originally budgeted for my allowance.
Because I have hit a point where I really want to focus on becoming debt free, I have made a decision on the job front.  I am going to take any job that is offered, which means that sometime in April I am employed because I received a job offer from the job interview I went to last Thursday.  I hope to find a different job, but a job is a job and it will equal financial freedom down the road (and not to mention a sure fire way to save up money to enjoy Scott's R&R at lovely restaurants, spas, and Disney World).
I hope that a purge will help me get back in the habit of not spending.  Or not whipping out my card for everything.  And I hope that I can get in a better habit of tracking everything that I spend, not tracking well has gotten me in trouble more times than I like to admit.  And so this is going to be a lifestyle change.  I am going to be shedding the bad habits and gaining the good ones.
I will answer to you.  I will answer to this blog.  I will post how I am doing over the next 6 weeks or so.  I will tell you how much I spend and how much I pay off and how much we make.  I will tell you all of this.  Because then I will have the accountability that I need to stay on track.  And I WILL STAY ON TRACK. Because I want to be free from the weight of $32,000 in debt.

So you will see me on two journeys as the same time.  My weight loss journey and my financial freedom  (or the financial freedom of my family really).  And I know I have tried to do this before.  But I am going to stick to this.  I want to go on a really nice vacation when my husband comes home after a year.  CAN WE SAY HAWAII?