Blogging Through My Debt: Renewed Dedication

With the new year just around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to take a look at my benchmarks and goals for my Debt Project and talk about what, if any, changes have or must be made.

If you remember from my last Blogging Through My Debt post back in August, here are the benchmarks and goals I'd set for myself (with those crossed out being the ones I've already accomplished):

1. Establish a $1,000 emergency fund
   
2. Pay off my Victoria's Secret credit card
3. Pay off my Visa Platinum credit card
4. Buy an iPod - REWARD!
   
5. Pay off my Visa Miles credit card
   
6. Buy an iPhone - REWARD!
   
7. Establish a $1,000 miscellaneous savings fund
   
8. Increase emergency fund to cover 3 months of expenses
   
9. Begin setting money aside each month for retirement and/or buying a home
   
10. Increase miscellaneous savings fund to $5,000
    
11. Buy a Mac laptop or a used car (depending on my lifestyle at the time) - REWARD!
    
12. Begin paying down student loans 
    

I'm a little sad to say that nothing has really changed (except that I got an iPod for Christmas so that will no longer be the goal for paying off my Visa Platinum).  If anything, I think I may actually be a little more in debt than I was in August.  It's sad to realize that, sad to realize that I haven't been as dedicated as I should have been, and that had I thrown myself whole-heartedly into getting out of debt I could have funneled a lot more money this past year into paying off cards than I actually did.

One of the biggest problems has been that I had no timeline for myself.  Sure, I had goals, but when were those goals supposed to be accomplished by?  And I think I also felt guilty about leaving myself money each month to purchase things I wanted, because when you're in as much debt as I am and you know you need every single penny you can get your hands on in order to pay it off, you just don't think to leave any play money for yourself.  But that's unrealistic for me.  What I've noticed over the last year is that I'll go for months without spending a dime on anything but debt, but then on the third month I'll go completely off the reservation and spend hundreds of dollars in one fell swoop, canceling out any good saving I'd done before.

So what I'm going to work on over the next several days is a new goal/benchmark plan that incorporates dates so that I have deadlines for certain things (I've always worked best with deadlines), and a new budget that takes into account my personality quirks.  I'm not trying to be lenient with my debt -- I know that this isn't supposed to be fun or easy -- but I am trying to realistic with my relationship with money, particularly when seeing how my Debt Project has gone over the last year.  Changes need to be made, like now.  The budget may be little bit of a challenge though, because who knows if I'll still be working full time at the end of January, but I'll write my budget as if I am and adjust accordingly if I need to.

For those of you who are also working on getting yourselves out of debt, for some great inspiration you should check out Ashley over at A Story of Debt.  And congratulate her while you're at it!

The Pro's and Con's of NaNoWriMo

I realize that NaNoWriMo was a while back and ended nearly a whole month ago (where did December go, anyway?), and I'm sure you've also noticed that I've been conspicuously absent from the blogosphere lately, so I'm going to take this chance to recap November and all of its writing glories and pitfalls.

First, I did not make it to the end of November this year.  I think I actually stopped somewhere in the first week.  I'd like to blame it on the story itself, or the characters and their persnickety natures which made it impossible to get from one chapter to the next, but it's neither of those things.  I just couldn't get myself to commit this year.  I was distracted -- November and December really are notoriously busy months for me (and everyone else on the planet, I think) -- and I honestly wasn't sure how to move from one section of the story I'd written to the next.  That big writers block wall wins once again!

I'm not giving up on this story though, because I really do think it's one of those stories that sort of hits all the things I love about my favorite books, and isn't that the kind of thing we should all be writing anyway?  Not in a jumbled, lets-put-everything-into-the-same-pot, kind of way, but in a good, organized, I-would-have-written-those-books-this-way-if-it-were-me, sort of way.  And NaNoWriMo is the thing that got me writing it in the first place, regardless of whether or not I "won".

Will I do NaNo again next year?  Definitely.  I am going to reach the finish line.  I am going to get that t-shirt.  I am going to have a finished product one day if it kills me.  Okay...maybe not if kills me, but you know what I mean!  Until then, I'll keep plugging away at this one and will hopefully be working on something new when November rolls around again.