Last week, I put up a post called most expensive month evar. A commenter pointed out that I was doing quite a bit of belly-aching, when I should just be gutting it out until my debt level is $0. I wasn’t intending to come off a whining, I was just trying to illustrate that sometimes your own actions and things completely out of your control can conspire against you and make your finances into something like a bad horror flick. Dave Ramsey likes to call this Murphys law (anything that can go wrong will).
But boy, this month made me glad I have an emergency fund, although only 1 thing that has happened (so far) was a qualified emergency fund problem (the car). Other comments noted this point, that it was nice that I had an emergency fund, so that this didnt make my situation worse – I’d have to agree with that.
What I really wanted to note though, was that the underlying point of the commenting person was not lost on me. (I think) He was trying to tell me that while I was working on getting out of debt, it is obvious that I could try much, much harder than I have been.
I think he had a great point – I really need to get back to my “gazelle intensity” that I started the year with. I noticed this because I tried to think back to the last time I had a no spend day. Unfortunately, it has been at least 7 days since I have had a no spend day, and even then I’m not sure when it was. This really, really needs to change if I’m going to accomplish some of the goals that I plan on setting for myself next year and the year after. I’m not going to divulge them right now, but will put them up on the goals page sometime in the next 30 days.
Not only have I been slacking on my no spend days, I also have not been working as much as normal either – in fact, I got about 66% of the hours that I’d like to get on my most recent time card. I think that doing so much in October and November may have worn me out a bit from the things that I’ve been doing that have been saving me time and money (like batch making my lunches for the week on Sunday night). Part of it could be due to the extensive amount of traveling that I’ve been doing on holidays and weekends, which has made it difficult for me to get back into the routine that I carried into the vacation.
At any rate, I think that it all happened at a time that will be fairly easy for me to break out and say, that’s over, It’s time for something new. Or in my case, time to revert back to something that Ive been doing but don’t do as much anymore. The new year will be a great time to start this, and I think should work out well (Although I do have another trip planned – but this one was “paid for” with a free ticket!) It was actually a card that I used as a balance transfer card before I paid off my credit card debt. Just doing the balance transfer got me a free ticket – You can read about it on my guest post at Budgeting in the FUN Stuff. Once that trip is over, I don’t have anything planned (at least not yet), leaving me plenty of time to hit the work at the 2nd job and make a lot of money!
Have you slacked on your debt repayment recently? How are you planning to get back on track?
About the author
- More at
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
That sounds like a great 2011 New Year’s resolution to me: Stop slacking off on paying off debt.
Thank you for taking my comment in the spirit with which it was intended.
The siren call of immediate gratification and lifestyle inflation, (as with any other addiction), is ever present and requires constant vigilance. We all can make excuses as to the necessity of a particular purchase. The important thing is to have goals, decide if the purchase helps achieve those goals, and if not, be completely aware of the penalty.
I think you have your head on straight Jeff. Keep your eye on the prize; it’s worth it!
Gotta love when those New Years Resolutions just come together so easily!
Dude, I am in awe of you. I totally would have taken offense to Robert’s comment. (I still think it could have been worded better if his intention was to be constructive.) Good for you for taking it constructively and making changes for the better.
Our debt repayment slowed down in November and December. We took a vacation. Then holidays came… You know, it is okay to slack sometimes. We all need a break. It is normal. Then we get inspired to hit our debt harder.
{ 1 trackback }