I know I can be successful at reaching my goals. I just have to give 100% everyday, and when I have slip-ups, keep going and don't let it become worse than it was. I have faith that I am not alone and that God is with me and helping give me a nudge in the right directions each day. I just have to listen to him and not to my impulses. I recognize that I'm a very impulsive person usually. I sabotage my financial goals with impulse purchases of fast food, candy, magazines, or whatever else I don't need. I sabotage my health goals with laziness, fast food, and junk food. I sabotage my academic goals with laziness and procrastination. Unfortunately I'm not the only person I'm hurting. I have been trying to finish college for over 5 1/2 years now. I still have a solid 2 years of courses to go but I have to actually complete the courses to finish in 2 years. I'm not only hurting myself by being lazy and procrastinating, which leads to me failing courses. I'm hurting my husband as well. He graduated almost 3 years ago. He has been waiting as patiently as possible for me to finish so we can move on with our lives. I have been wasting our time and unfortunately money as well, because of the loans I've had to take out to pay for my tuition. I feel terrible but feeling bad isn't going to make it okay. I have to do something about it. All of my goals are connected. My impulsiveness and laziness sabotage my financial, health, and academic goals. I'm going to do a few things today before work. I'm going to find my embarrassingly blank planner and fill it out with my daily to do's with homework and other necessities. I'm going to start a daily food and exercise journal. I'm going to dig out my old coupon holder and organize it with the coupons that are shoved in the bottom of my purse. I'm going to plan out for the week and make a grocery list so I know exactly what we NEED when we go to the grocery store on Tuesday. I'm going to take my debit card and credit card out of my purse and only take them with me for planned shopping trips where I have a list of what we NEED. I'm usually good at sticking to a list, it's when I don't have a list but have those cards in my purse that I make impulse purchases. I know this post is obscenely long, but it's for my own reminder of my goals and how I can reach them.

I was watching "The Biggest Loser" online today and I started thinking how I wish there was a reality show about getting out of debt. Something where the contestants must have a certain amount of debt goal to payoff like $10,000 or something. There should be rules like no declaring bankruptcy, nothing illegal, no borrowing money, etc. I would love a show like this to inspire me to keep at it and give me new ideas about saving money. I googled it and saw there was a show in 2006 but it didn't last. There's a show in Canada called "Til Debt Do Us Part" which I'd love to see, and they have episodes online but it won't let me watch them. I dunno if you have to live in Canada to access the episodes or what. If anyone knows how I can watch them please let me know. Anyway, wouldn't it be cool if there was such a show in the US?!

As I said in the last post, I wish we could just buy a house and rent it out or sell it when we move when I graduate to get the money back. Houses in Boone are SOOOOO expensive though. I can't find one for under $180,000, not even the foreclosed ones. I looked up the monthly payments on a home loan that size and it's over $1k a month, which we can't afford. I'm determined to get us out of debt though and save up for when we do move. I've been picking up extra hours at work and we're cutting back at home. Keeping lights off, stuff unplugged, no heat, coupons and generic groceries, eating less (better for my weight and wallet lol), driving much less, doing online surveys, and selling stuff on ebay. I have a ton of model horses I collected when I was little. They're really nice, but I have no use for them. They're just displayed on shelves and I could use the money. Some are worth $40 a piece so I'm gonna sell them. DH doesn't work b/c he gets disability (he's legally blind), but there's yard sales nearby every weekend so he's gonna start checking those out and doing lots of ebay sales. I reduced our blockbuster online plan to the cheapest one, and we don't have cable, so our only other bill is internet which we have no choices b/c there's only 1 provider around here. I'm determined to do it though. My goal is to have all of our credit cards paid off in 6 months and start paying back student loans after that. Then start saving for NYC (DH wants to live there when I finish school so he can get around easier - public transportation is much more prevalent). I already have $10 automatically drafted into savings each month from my checking account. I hope to have a nice security deposit/moving fund by the time I graduate. It will be tough but I know we can do it. I'm working Thanksgiving this year. We aren't going to do anything to celebrate it. Maybe I'll make us turkey lunch meat sandwiches or something lol. But at least I get paid double-time for working on Thanksgiving, woohoo!

DH and I are paying $710 a month in rent, not including electricity. I hate feeling like we're throwing away so much money each year when it could be going toward a home that we could rent out or sell down the road and recoup some of the expenses. I tried looking into the real estate market in the area, and unfortunately, living in the mountains in a popular tourist town means it's impossible to find a house for under $180,000. I did a home loan calculator online and it would cost at least $1200 a month for us and there's no way we could afford that. It's hard to find a decent sized apartment for less than what we pay in that area. The pluses of our particular apartment is that it's got 2 bathrooms (most in that price range have only 1), it has a bus stop right out front so I can ride it to class and not use gas to drive, and it's right next door to my place of employment which saves on gas as well. It just is frustrating thinking that each year we're throwing out over $8,500 that we'll never see again.

It's not like we're debt free either. We both owe on credit cards and student loans. I work 30 hours a week and have worked hard to get a big promotion and raise at work which is helpful... however, DH is on disability and can't work. His disability payments barely cover half the rent. I'm gonna have to really cut back on our spending. We have our electricity pretty steady around $50/month. We need to cut back on food expenses which I plan to do through coupons, comparison shopping, and other things. We don't have cable at all, but subscribe to Blockbuster Online, which I will be reducing down to the minimum. I'm going to try to apply for a new 0% credit card to transfer my balance to. Then I'm going to force myself to put that card in the freezer. I like having it for emergencies, but keeping it in my wallet makes it too tempting to use. I usually am scheduled 30 hours a week at work, which is the most I can manage with my class schedule, but I usually can squeeze in a few extra hours each week. I come in to work early, stay late, etc. This weekend I am on paid vacation, but got scheduled my full 30 hours at work, so I'll have extra time on my next paycheck which will be going straight to my credit card bills. Other than that, I'm going to try to reduce my power bill a bit more. I have to try to find CFL's for our ceiling fan lights - they take small candleabra bulbs and I'm having trouble finding energy efficient bulbs that fit. That and I will start leaving my money at home when I go to work. I usually buy unneeded things on my way home and it needs to stop.

Anyway sorry for the rambling, but it's time for me to get serious about getting my debt paid down before I can think about affording to buy a house.

It's nearing the holidays and I don't know about you, but I usually feel terrible that I can never give much to all of the charities in need. What I can give though is my time. Volunteer regularly and you are helping much more than you know. I also click daily on sites like ecologyfund.com, rainforest.care2.com, and thehungersite.com. All of these have multiple charity benefactors that receive donations paid for by sponsors that advertise on the site. Whenever you click the donation button daily, you are helping the charities in need. There are all sorts of charities too from helping the hungry, to helping prevent breast cancer, saving the rainforests, helping support animal shelters, and helping support needy children in other countries. Consider donating your time even if your wallet is feeling kind of light these days. Here's a complete list of click-to-donate sites by category:

Hunger:
1. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
2. http://www.hungerfighters.com/
3. (Click the wooden toy to feed the hungry in Poland)http://www.pajacyk.pl/

Breast Cancer:
1. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2...
2. http://breastcancer.care2.com/

Children:
1. (Health)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=5...
2. (Literacy)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=6...
3. (Children around the World)http://children.care2.com/

Animals:
1. (Shelter Animals)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3...
2. (Baby Seals in Canada)http://babyseals.care2.com/
3. (Ocean Animals)http://oceans.care2.com/
4. (Big Cats)http://bigcats.care2.com/
5. (Primates)http://primates.care2.com/
6. (Homeless Animals)http://pets.care2.com/

Earth:
1. (Rainforest)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4...
2. (Rainforest)http://rainforest.care2.com/
3. (Global Warming)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4...

Miscellaneous:
1. (Violence Against Women)http://stopviolence.care2.com/
2. (Rainforest, Endangered Animals, Pollution, US Wilderness, and more)http://ecologyfund.com/ecology/_ecology.html
3. (Poverty)http://www2.povertyfighters.com/
4. (Plant a Tree in Niagara - Click button at bottom right of page)http://www.landcareniagara.com/
5. (Click to help the poorest of the poor in Africa, Asia and Central America. Click on the red "geef gratis een gift voor een straatkind" link.)http://www.woordendaad.nl/Index.cfm?ApplicationServer=WIS