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We ended up taking the car in to get it fixed yesterday. The total will likely be over $300, which was a little frustrating, but we got fixed what HAD to be done right then, and spent $125 or so. I'm finding that my attitude about the unexpected expenses are not quite as devastating to me as they were before. The longer I linger on the money that is gone, the more I stew and worry about not making progress on this lofty goal.

We also bought Kara's elliptical machine that she has wanted for about as long as we've been married. It costs $250, but is worth about double that. She loves it, and I love that she loves it. It's worth the money.

Today, Kara did the budget and the forecast for the month of December. We should make a lot of progress on our debt this month. I'm grateful to Kara because we have the extra money that we could spend on Christmas, but instead she is willing to put it towards debt. I'm not certain how much we will be able to pay off, but according to the preliminary outcome, we may be able to pay off BOTH Living Scriptures, AND NCO, and have a little money to put towards the Chase Credit Card. This is fantastic news.

I found it interesting today to feel this progress we appear to be making.

When we hit a wall and realize that we are behind, my knee-jerk reaction is to become anxious and scared, and go to work (no matter what time of day it is) in order to try and make an extra couple bucks. I pull on the reigns of any talk of spending, and go into "how to fix this" mode.

Today, I had the opposite feelings, but those feelings made me want to do the same thing. I feel the weight getting a little lighter. I feel the pressure releasing a little, and I feel a lot of confidence that our goal to be out of debt is, in fact, realistic.

I still feel like going to work to try and make an extra couple bucks.
It motivates me to work to pay this debt down even faster.
It motivates me to hold off on things that I would LIKE to have in order to live well below my means and get my debt taken care of.

I'm grateful to Kara for taking this on as a goal as well. I know that she doesn't have the same anxiety about debt that I do, so I can tell she really cares about me when she is willing to sacrifice to make this goal happen.

Next 2 tasks:

#1 Plan a Christmas break ballroom or other dance class

(after hearing how we were doing and how excited I was about it, Kara gave the go-ahead to do this class over our break, even though I was sick for Thanksgiving break and we really didn't get to enjoy it).

#2 Call either Chase or Wells Fargo to see if we can negotiate the interest rate for a period of a few months to try and pay it off quicker in that amount of time.