Black Friday...

What a month! This isn't the recap, more my thoughts on this silly shopping tradition we have. I've participated in Black Friday shopping craziness in the past, but the last 2 years I've realized that most of these door-busters and deals aren't really that great - or at least the ones they want you to spend the big bucks on aren't that great of a deal. This year, Tony got up and got a great deal on batteries and poinsettias and one or two great gifts. He spent less than $100, didn't wait in any lines (Home Depot and Fred Meyers) and came home feeling good about what he got. This month was a very tight month for us anyway, but at the end of that day we were on our last $20.

Honestly I don't see what all the hype is. People get trampled, you're low on sleep, tempers are running high and often lost, and its FREEZING! Is it worth it? I totally understand getting a deal on a few select gifts for family or friends, but for decor or things for yourself - there are WAY better deals on the days after Christmas sales.

It was a great Friday for me, I spent the day getting all of my fall/thanksgiving decor down and setting up for Christmas! I enjoyed eating leftovers and plenty of pumpkin pie. But mostly I enjoyed sleeping in and saving money (by not spending it).

Again I just want to say how THANKFUL I am for budgets and tracking spending! I can only imagine the damage we could have done if we weren't being consciously aware of our finances.

Sobering

So for fun tonight, since my son is deciding not to sleep anyway, I searched on Google trying to see if I could find our blog. Sadly no. A huge waste of time. I did find a lot of other bloggers, doing exactly what we are doing. I looked for fun to see what other people were doing and how much debt they had. At first I was a little impressed with us, the next lowest number I saw was over $10,000 more than we had. Then I looked at their breakdowns, about $15,000 of it was in car loans. Unfortunately for us, all of our debt is in plastic. We don't have hardly anything to show for it (like a vehicle). It was a very sobering night. Glad we're doing something about it though and not just wishing and hoping.

October Recap

This month was a curve ball (as noted in our last post). We only worked about once a week. Thankfully, because of our budget we were able to stay within our means and didn't overdraw or default on any bills. And spectacularly we are back in business! The last few days of last month, our boss informed us that we have enough projects to last through the year. Plus, Tony got another job at a jewelry store in the mall - doing sales, which he loves and is so great at (I wish I had half of his skills).

Because of the skimpy month ahead (based on our hours worked last month), we didn't pay anything other than the minimum due on our credit cards. We actually even closed another credit card so that the minimum payments and interest would be lower. This also helps to prevent us from putting more on that.

When we started this 2 1/2 months ago, I had a dream to finish paying off our debt within 2 years. That was a very lofty goal considering almost all of our income would be going to bills and debt, and thus far I'm seeing that at our current status, this goal cannot be reached that soon. More like 3 years. Still a great accomplishment if we can achieve it.

It's been a great month though, still spent a little more on eating out than we should and "unnecessary expenses", etc. The great feeling of staying within our means in irreplaceable!