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!