Progress

There's a light at the end of our debt tunnel.
Unfortunately, it's a CFL, so it's still a little dim.
But it's definitely better than the deep, dark cave we seemed to be facing a few months ago.
Probably the greatest boost to digging ourselves out of debt has been our new attention to detail. We are tracking absolutely every single penny we spend. Then, Michael and I are sitting together in front of our spreadsheets, sometimes for hours at a time, planning, discussing, and working together to dig us out of our hole.
All this, and we haven't even been fighting about our decisions.
It's all about attitude.
We both want to get out of this mess, admittedly of our own making, and eliminate the constant worry and stress that debt causes.
The second greatest boost to our debt reduction was the bonus dh got from work. We were almost positive that it would be eliminated this year, so it was a welcome and much needed surprise that the company still delivered. Now, I'm not talking million dollar Wall Street broker bonuses here. But it was enough to pad our meager savings account and pay off a whopping $11,000 credit card balance, my son's spring tuition, a new kennel and dog treats for Ivy, and a few other dibs and dabs we owed here and there.
This still leaves us with our car loan, a second mortgage (used to make our old house liveable), and two credit cards with uncomfortably large balances, but we can see that each month we're going to be able to make strides on our dual goals of savings and debt reduction. We've also renewed investing in dh's 401K, though we've definitely shifted our stock/bond ration to a much more conservative mix.
It isn't easy being on a strict budget like we are. Sometimes I feel as if I'm almost strangling as I weigh a purchase against the actual cash I have left for the week. But I realize I should have been doing this for the last 15 years and welcome the self-discipline I'm developing.
We are on track for being completely out of debt in about 2 years and I've never been so excited. There's still a long road to travel, but I'm much more hopeful that we'll actually get there.
Whew!