“Curing” Your Home on a Budget: Week Infinity
Unfortunately, my 8-Week Home Cure has quickly turned into the 3-Month Basement Cure.
For a while, I was able to work on cleaning and organizing the upstairs while my husband worked on the basement. But now he’s needing my help more and more, and the Cure has fallen to the wayside.
Maybe the reason I haven’t been blogging lately is that I feel like a hypocrite. Every time I set some lofty goal, I end up abandoning it halfway through. I think the only goal that I’m actually making continuous progress on is getting out of debt. But even with that, it’s hard to feel like I’m making a lot of headway…
I guess it’s hard to stay motivated when your only debts are a pair of mortgages. I’m still making my minimum extra debt payment of $1,974 a month. But what ever happened to snowflaking every extra dollar toward debt? Instead, I’ve become sidetracked with home renovations, vacations, weight loss, trying to get pregnant, etc. Which I guess is to be expected. But I’m feeling a bit like a Jesus Freak that’s fallen off the wagon. Am I headed toward the dark side, or just human?
Maybe money became such an obsession that it’s just ingrained in me now. I’ve learned most everything I can learn (roll eyes here), and know what I should be doing. Now it’s just a matter of whether I want to.
If you’re feeling this way too, check out this post from Get Rich Slowly: Should Repaying Debt Be an Obsession?. My answer is, I’m not sure. Am I a J.D. Roth, who paid off $35,000 over the course of three years, or a Money Saving Mom, who is quickly saving up to buy a house outright?
Maybe I’m somewhere in between.
Photo Credit: Thomson’s gazelle by [PS], used under Creative Commons licensing.
7 responses so far
I don’t think you’re a hypocrite at all! Paying an extra $1,974 toward your debt every month is an AMAZING accomplishment. You should be proud!
We’re debt-free except for our mortgage, but I find it really hard to put that extra money towards it to pay it off… it seems there are always little projects or unexpected repairs that come up.
I find that sometimes frugality ebbs and flows… and as long as you’re making some progress on your goals, who cares if it takes you a little longer to get there!
Love the picture. We have also “fallen off the wagon” and that picture perfectly represents when gazelle intensity wanes. Thanks for the laugh.
Thanks for this post! Too bad these darn blogs couldn’t earn us more $$’s - I too, think of money way too much !! It s so hard when money makes the world go around! Love your site and this post!
Hi Jen,
I’m glad you like the picture. Because it’s mine.
I don’t mind Finance Girl using it, but she has violated both Flickr usage policy and the Creative Commons license that is attached to it. What would it cost to maintain the link to Flickr and to mention who shot the photo? Not a cent. Just a little thoughtfulness would have been nice…
PS
PS - I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Your photo credit and link is listed at the bottom of the post.
Sorry, didn’t see that. (It usually goes right under the photo…)
Flickr requires that the photo itself actually links back to the Flickr site, but I was just worried about the license…
I think that paying almost $2000 a month extra is awesome! Good for you! I would consider what you find to be important and what isn’t though, before beating yourself up over it. Is going on vacation really important? Could that money be put towards the house and say, maybe have a week off work and relax in your own city instead? I’m not judging, just trying to help come up with some ideas to make u feel better or save a bit more if thats what you want to do.
Hope all goes well,
Take Care!