Considering I started in February, I did fairly well. I've paid down a little less than 25% of my goal this year on my debt. I still have a long way to go, but it feels good to watch that slider move each month.

I've also added $200.00 to get my emergency fund in place. Granted, I'm still in deep doo if I have a big emergency. But just knowing there is a little something set aside makes me feel good.

I'm getting a tax refund this year. I'm torn between throwing it all at the debt and splitting it between my debt and EF. I know the smart thing to do would be to pay down the debt, but I truly do view the EF as Murphy Repellant.

Woo hoo.I had a nice surprise on my last paycheck.

The company I work for has a referral program for hard to fill positions. Last year, I sent a job opening to a friend and she got the job. I didn't realize that the job was one of the hard to fill listings.

Fast forward to this past Friday. My paycheck had an extra $500 in it because she has been in her job for a year.

I sent out the extra $ to one of the CC this morning! It was tempting to go spend it on something "fun", but we managed to resist.

$ 69,000 in debt.

That number staring back at me from the pages of Quicken made me sick to my stomach. But there it was in black and white. 69,000 pieces of shame, over indulgence and just poor planning.

How did I get to that point?

When we moved from the west coast to the east coast, I had ZERO in credit card debt plus a healthy savings account. But little by little, my bad habits whittled down that number. A potentially career ending injury caused that debt number to creep up. We moved to a new house. One that we truly could not afford, now that I am being honest about it. We hadn't sold the first one yet, so I took out a line of credit so we could just get rid of that house at a loss, just to be rid of a payment. Then my DH got sent back to the West Coast for work. 2 coasts. 2 households to keep up. Then he got laid off.

A small severance package and unemployment helped us hold on for a while. But sooner than I would have liked, the unemployment was no longer available. It meant me getting serious about getting healthy and going back to work. Or rather, getting healthy ENOUGH to go back to work.

And that's where I am today. Working 12 hour shifts at a job I can't stand, just because it pays most of the bills and we have medical insurance again.

I hope to make this blog a journal of how, with patience and hard work, I can slay that Debt Monster that haunts my dreams and steals my peace. I know it won't be easy. But I am hoping that through this community, I will find both the support and encouragement I need to make this journey.