In about 2 weeks from now, my niece will be having a birthday of sorts. I say, "of sorts" because she was born early, lived for a 30 minutes and died. I never even got to hold her warm body. She was the first kid of any of my brothers and sisters, and was much anticipated.
I spoil my husband's nieces and nephews, and love spending time with them. I love buying them things, and having fun with them. I never got to do that for my niece. I got rid of the clothes I had her bought her because they made me cry everytime I saw them.
I had all these plans and they all ended up not happening. The only thing I do every year is to buy a big thing of flowers and take them up there on the day before. That way, my sister sees them and knows someone else was thinking of her. However, I had a coworker question why I would spend that much on a babe that wasn't mine, and it made me wonder if I should. Is there somethings where it doesn't matter even if someone else thinks it a stupid expense? I don't know. I guess after 6 years it shouldn't but it still does.

So, I thought I would post some introduction information....
Lets see, I am a 25 year old woman. I've been happily married for 5 and a half years. We have a five year old daughter who starts kindergarden in the fall.
My husband and I both work full time, and go to school part time. He's working on getting an electronics degree; I'm finishing a bachelors degree. To say we are busy is an understatement.
We both make good money. We also spend a lot of money. We currently are paying off 2 cars, some school debt, and landscaping debt, as well as a house.
One of the biggest speedbumps in our race to pay off debts has been school. I recently went from a job that payed 100% of my tuition to one that pays 2k a year. I also switched to a different school, one that is twice as expensive. We are working on the new expense, but the debt from this may just be a necessary evil.
I have a great, close family and a wonderful husband. It's only this pesky debt that gets in the way!

Right now, I'm in a funk. I have a nasty cold, it's midterms, I'm working 60 hrs a week, and my house is trashed. I barely care about paying bills let alone saving money. So, I thought I would write a list to try to inspire me to get rid off it.
1) Current debt load is way too much. The minimum payments are only a couple of hundreds dollar less than my mortgage payments. Freeing up that much money would mean fully funded roth-iras for my husband and I.
2) I need my job and income level to survive. Getting rid of this would let me go part time without any stress.
3) What I owe is over a years net pay for me. Yup, I'll have worked over 2080 hrs to pay for my stuff.
On the plus side, my debt hasn't all been bad, nor the getting it.
1) A large part of it is to get my mommy dream car... V6, brand new picked out by me, sunroof, oh yeah.
2) A lot of it was to put in a yard and fence our acreage. Which is seriously improving my enjoyment of my house and property. My husband and I just don't have the time to do everything ourselves. The money I spent on that stuff has saved many fights and given us free time together.
3) 2k of it came from suddenly having to take a trip for a grandparents funeral. It was a convenience to just put it on a credit card, but somethings are worth more than money.
4)It's all at low interest rates, and nothing is unmanageable with our pay.

Well, only 5 hrs left before I go home. Lunch is over!

So, with my first real post I thought I would post my total debts:

Car 1: 9200 @6% interest
Car 2: 13700@6.22%
Credit card 1: 1400 @ 0% till 5/2010
Credit card 2: 2400@ 3.99
Credit card 3: 7920 @ 3.99
furniture: 600 @ 0 %

Plan to pay them off, who knows... Just kidding. The stimulus will pay off cc#1, and part of the furniture. Will snowball furniture next month and a half. Way too much overtime this month will demolish number 2... After that, its slow and steady wins the race. I have a goal to be debt free in 24 mths (plus or minus one month)... We are on schedule to do that with the regular payments we make plus about 100 extra each month.
My husband doesn't necessarily care about being debt free, its a massive goal for me. We'll see who wins... Since I pay the bills, I'm betting I'll be on the winning side!

1) It doesn't matter how hard you try, someone is always going to criticize your parenting.

2) Some parents like to offer advice without knowing the full situations.

3) Even though you try to control everything that happens to your child, they can't.

4) That even when they are five, your child can still suprise you with their inherent sweetness.

5) That simple things matter more to young kids than fancy toys.

6) Having a stable homelife is one of the best things you can do for your children.

7) Divorce is sometimes the best option. (ETA: I'm happily married to a wonderful man. It's my parents who I wished had divorced much earlier).

8) It doesn't matter whether she was planned or not, I love my daughter more than I ever though possible.

9) Working full time does not make me a worse parent than being a stay at home mom.

10) Three best words to hear at the end of a long work week: Let's snuggle, mommy.