Small Victories

This week I have had three very small victories towards getting out of debt.

Before I reveal them to you, I have to tell you not to laugh. No, seriously, don't laugh.

My small victories will look so stupid to someone else, so I want you to realize these are victories and they are personal and they are mine.

So, without further ado, here they are.

Victory number 1: I didn't get a mani/pedi on Sunday. In fact, I haven't gotten one in over 3 months. I love mani/pedis and with all the stuff going on in my personal life right now, I really wanted one! But I resisted. Due to the stress of my personal life right now, my back and shoulders are all knotted up. I did get a massage on Sunday to help work some of those knots out. Although many people would consider this frivolous, I consider it health related. After said massage, I really wanted to go get my nails did; but, I didn't.  While trying to dig myself out of credit card debt, I should be able to paint my own nails. And if I had done this, this would have in no way been creating memories or experiences with my kids. It would have been purely selfish and really added no value to my life. As I said in my last post, I'm all for spending money to make memories, but in order to do that, I need to be sure to saving money when I can.

So, for now, no mani/pedis. I don't know how long my resolve will last, but hopefully until I'm credit card debt free.

Victory number 2: I didn't go out to lunch today. I know, another victory that sounds like a no-brainer to everybody else. Generally, I'm really good about taking my lunch to school and not buying lunch out, but today I'm at an all day district meeting with people I have a lot in common with and really enjoy working with. We often grab lunch together on these days. I only go about half the time because of the cost and today I really wanted to, especially because they were going to a restaurant that I love, but only recently opened in my town and I haven't been to it since it opened. But, again, I resisted. I had a PB and J waiting for me at home, along with a sliced orange and all the snacks I could want.

Since we are going out of town tomorrow to attend my grandmother's funeral, I used the extra time wisely to get caught up on laundry and glue some rhinestones on my daughter's dance costume. Which leads me to victory number 3.

Victory number 3: For the last 6 years, my daughter has been a competitive dancer. Every year, we add lots of bling to the costumes they wear to compete. In the past, I have always paid one of the younger dance teachers to glue the stones on my daughter's costumes. Originally, the cost was $10 per costume. Two years ago, the cost went up to $12 costume. Each year, my daughter has been on anywhere from 3 to 5 teams. Last year, the young lady we usually pay decided to hand that job off to another girl at the studio. I didn't mind, except as the competition season went on, my daughter's costume lost many stones. They just popped right off. The new girl apparently didn't use enough glue. I was out $12 per costume and constantly looking for stones on the ground that I had to then re-glue on. This year it just didn't seem worth it; so, for the first time in 6 season, I glued my own stones on The Girl's costume, and you know what? It wasn't too bad and it didn't take too long. Money well saved, in my opinion.

This may well be my last post for January, what with heading out of town for my grandma's funeral. Definitely check back next month when I will finally own up to how much debt I accrued in the month of December and how much money I owe altogether!