I haven't been totally serious about repaying the debts lately. It just seems that life gets in the way.

I have, however, seen an improvement in my/our relationship with money. I read a lot. In fact, I'm one of those people that constantly has 4 or 5 or 6 books going at the same time - usually at least 2 non-fiction + 2 fictions at once. :) Anyway - I've really been looking at what I want out of life and how to make my life more stress-free.

So - I've been relaxing a little bit with the money. Not in a bad way - just not necessarily watching every single penny. And like I mentioned in the last entry - more money has been coming our way.

In two weeks (from today!) we are off to Vegas for our first vacation in 8 years. That feels AMAZING - and we paid/are paying CASH for it. Yes, that could have gone a long way towards paying down debt...and yes, I am using the "we deserve it" caveat which can be so dangerous. But...to each his own. We have a plan to get at least $3500 gone by the end of the year. We are working on online stuff as well as freelance stuff. We are looking at more classes for me to bump me up the payscale.

At the moment, we are still hovering at that $13,500 mark. I would be ecstatic to see that below $10,000 by Jan 1, 2008. In fact, I'm going to make an "official" goal - to be below $12,000 by Jan 1, 2008 (then I'll be wonderfully surprised if we're below $10,000). :) This is in addition to the goal of at least $750 in savings by the same date.

To do this, we will:
*Sell as much on ebay as we can
*Get serious about selling on etsy, too!
*Advertise the sewing business more
*Summer school for me!
*Look into low-cost 3 credit options for me this summer - to get up the payscale for the Sept paycheck change
*Possibly a rummage sale, but I doubt it - we just don't have that much rummage-y stuff this year
*Craigslist for some of the bigger things we have around the house (not much, really)
*Get some of the antiques that aren't really ebay-able to Mom's antique booth - let her keep 20% or so. :)
*Look into freelancing on education stuff
*Writing

Wow, what a list!