I am determined to get out of debt as quickly and painlessly as possible. But why is it everytime we start this venture it feels like we are doomed from the beginning? Here's what I mean. Last week I spent a couple of days diligently working on our budget. I had it finally! There in front of me was everything we were going to spend Friday's check on. I was so excited and proud. It felt good to have a plan.

So, Friday DH got paid. I sat down and wrote out the checks, directing the money as the budget instructed. Everything was going great and it felt like we were going to conqur the debt demon once and for all. Then things began happening. Those unexpected, unplanned kinds of things.

I had forgotten that DD had a cheerleading event during a basketball game. While I didn't forget about the event, I forgot to plan for paying to get in. So, before the game I ran to the gas station and wrote a check for $15.00. We only ended up needing $8.00 to get in. After the game, I went BACK to the gas station and wrote ANOTHER check for $3.50 for a 12 pack of soda. Expensive, I know...that's why we're going to quit drinking pop. Okay well just after I had ripped the check out and the cashier put it in her drawer, DH called from the van on the cell wanting cigarettes. I groaned! Well I noticed they had a buy 2 get 1 free offer. I bought that for $9.20, which didn't feel like anything "free" to me. So in about 2 hours I wrote 3 checks at the same station totaling $27.70, all of which were not in the budget. That isn't terrible, I mean I could have delt with that easily if that was all that happened. But...

After we got home and were settled in, hubby decides he wants to rent a movie. Fine. He will use the cash left over from the basketball game, $8.00. I tell him I don't want a movie, trying to stress that I'd rather save the money. Well he insists that he'll call me from the store to see if there is anything I've thought of that I may want to see. Which is fine because we have free mobile to mobile calls. Then he can't find his cell phone. So I began calling and calling and CALLING it. We're not hearing it anywhere. He heads outside to see if maybe he left the phone in the van. And then he finds it...on the ground. It had been outside in the front yard for about 20 minutes. Oh, and did I mention we were getting a rain/ice mixture at that time? So yea, his cell phone, the cell phone that we've only had for 2 months is fried! I know he was upset so I chose to keep my mouth shut. I just wanted to scream about how it figures he'd be reckless and loose it.

Remember when he called me from the van when I was inside the gas station? Well when he got off the phone he laid it in his lap. It was dark and the phones are so light anymore that when he got out he didn't even notice it drop to the ground. I refused the insurance when we got the phones because I didn't think it was right paying $5.95 per month PER phone. Now I'm kicking myself while I search the net for a resonably priced phone, which by the way is nearly impossible to find. It seems this phone will cost around $100-$150.

So, even though most of my budget was disrupted. I'm not quitting. I'm taking the $27.70 from Friday nights adventure, from the gas money. I had budgeted $50 for the remaining of the week. And since it was my first week with this budget, I thought I'd leave us a little extra just in case I had forgotten a bill or something. As for the cell phone, I will continue looking online at auctions and such.

On the bright side of this weeks budget, I paid off 3 smaller bills from doctors, etc. So now we're 3 bills closer to a debt free life. And rather than charge the cell phone, we're going to take the money from our ING account. I really hate to do that, but it's cheaper than paying intrest if I charge it.

I'm still going to stay positive and not stop our budget. We're going to dig our way out of this debt!