Things I Did On Friday That Actually Made Friday Feel Like A Monday?

-dishes
-put away laundry
-file bills
-homework
-clean up kitchen
-file 2006 taxes online

Things I Did On Friday That Actually Made Friday Feel Like A Saturday On The Beach In Cabo?

-file 2006 taxes online and fall off my chair looking a federal return that ended in "-ousands"

Let me tell you, H&R Block, you have made my week a little better, a little brighter, a little richer. Thanks to you we will be able to go out and --- oh wait, you thought we were going to SPEND that money? No, you have given us a glorious trip to the bank and an even more glorious moment as I write a check to Fully.Pay.Off. the credit card that is the bane of my existence.

DEBT-FREE IN 2007.

Obviously, I'm not including student loans in my DEBT-FREE IN 2007 goals (more like 2027) but hey, you can consolidate those bitches and put them on the back burner until your kids head off to college. Anyways, paying off our stupid credit cards has been our number one goal since we got married with a load of debt that included the DJ, the down payment on the reception hall, various wedding-and-honeymoon-related expenses, and probably some clothes I now never wear. It's amazing to me how many people our age have debt. Like serious, in over our heads and still throwing the plastic around type of debt. How did we all get in this mess?! Luckily, Joshua and I are now being blinded by the light at the end of the tunnel (thank you for holding onto our money, Mr. Federal Government, but we'll take it from here!) but in the 1.7 years we've been married, we've only used the cards maybe twice, and we still haven't been able to pay them off.

I think the problem is that we (the debt-bearing generation) have other priorities and see the future as so limitless that we don't think being in debt is a huge problem. Joshua and I have bled thousands of dollars from our checking account on Starbucks, Citizens jeans, music equipment, plane tickets, sushi, wine...all those hip and urban expenses have easily distracted us from crawling out of the debt hole. We rationalize this by the fact that I will have a job in a year and double our income (ps -CAN'T FREAKING WAIT FOR THAT) and since we will be comfortably financially secure THEN, the debt isn't a big deal NOW.

I'm over this myth. I packed up all our 2006 bills a few weeks ago, and organized them in snazzy blue file folders from Target (again, a must-buy!) and in doing so, I took a good look at where our money went that year. And it went to interest. I could have bought multiple pairs of my favorite,oh so expensive jeans. Joshua could have bought a new bass, we could have INVESTED or SAVED hundreds. But instead, we merrily sent it all off in interest and wondered why our balances weren't really coming down that much.

And I am done with that. I hate being indebted, I hate owing people (or emotionless, soulless corporations!) money. So we have decided to be done with that particular shenanigan.

Let's see...with all the money we save in credit card payments, we will have so much more to spend!

And there's another problem.