A confession and explanation

August 3rd, 2008

Since this blog is called Confessions of a Northern Transplant I probably should post a confession every once in a while, right?

Like most Americans, we’re in debt. I’m not going to give the actual number, but let’s just say it includes credit cards, student loans for me and the husband, and our car. It’s been a source of consternation for a while now, but recently something clicked and I hardly feel stressed out by it.

Part of the click has been from joining a local group centered on debt reduction. The support there is amazing and I’m learning a lot by reading their perspectives. The other thing was to actually write down all our debt in one place. I used the Debt Snowball worksheet, calculated out the number of payments, and figured out the corresponding month for each last payment. And suddenly everything was OK.

Well, not exactly, but I feel a lot better about the situation. There is a clear destination now, and the road map is pretty clear. Even though all it took was some simple math to get to this point, it is amazing the difference already, in my mind and actions.

As the posts below show, I’m tracking our grocery expenses here, and what we eat. Although we already don’t spend a ton on our food, I think this is still a pretty visible way of tracking our spending and habits. Plus I know lots of people are curious how to spend less money on food and still eat well. Hopefully I can give people some ideas!

Entry Filed under: Money talks