Blogging Through My Debt: The Struggle

I'm having a bad day week month when it comes to money and my budget.  There just doesn't seem to be enough of the money to work with both the budget and the want.  I knew from the start of this journey that I would reach this point, and I'd wondered how I'd deal with the struggle.  Would I persevere through it, not spending a dime outside of the parameters I set for myself?  Would I fold and say, "How 'bout we just forget this whole crazy business of getting out of debt and go shopping instead!"?  Or would I fall somewhere in the middle?

Well, I'm in the middle.

Here's how it's going one week into August:

1. I didn't write up an August budget -- my first mistake -- and have been relying on my [often not so stellar] self-control to keep myself from overdrawing my bank account or just overspending in general.  
2. There were some big purchases I needed to make (i.e. plane tickets to my sisters wedding)
3. There were some other purchases I just somehow justified (i.e. a monitor for the desktop computer I was given, clothes, lunch and coffee at work everyday this week), after which I immediately felt buyers remorse and am now freaking out over.  Though obviously not enough to return any of the returnable purchases.  
4. And while the bank account is safe from the threat of over-drawing, I've definitely overspent what my would-be budget would have allowed and subsequently will not be able to put as much toward my credit card this month as I had hoped.

It's no secret to me why I've got the sudden urge to spend, spend, spend after existing so happily on a budget for these past months.  I'm stressed about work, about taking the GRE's, about grad school looming around the corner, about paying my bills and never having anything left over to buy something pretty with, about my relationship.  You name it, I've probably managed to stress out about it recently and, as we all know by now, shopping therapy is my favorite kind.  It's a habit that's been especially hard to break.

But the good news is that I won't let this last.  I'm discouraged, yes, but I'm not done.  I think I've just realized that I've worked too hard to give up now.  And I'm definitely looking forward to being debt-free too much to stop working towards it.   So tomorrow night is set aside for completing my August budget, however difficult it may be after my minor shopping spree a little earlier.  I think that's the first step to getting back on track.

This whole ordeal has left me with a question though:  For those of you who are also working on getting out of debt, on those days when things were particularly discouraging, how have you managed to avoid giving in and/or giving up?