365 Days and Counting

One year from today I will be debt free.

I say this partly to restate my goal. But I'm also manifesting it into being. :-)

I am kinda sorta freaking out. It's not so much about whether I'll be able to pay off the debt by 10/10/10, but I'm planning to move next year. In fact, I'm hoping to buy a place next year. That will affect things quite a bit. Actually, to be honest, I hope what happens is that my living expenses go down with the purchase. Still, before I sign on the dotted line for a new home, I have to find that new home. And I'll have moving expenses, including the bill to have the carpets in my current place professionally cleaned. It's part of my lease agreement and I don't want there to be any problem with getting back my almost $1,000 rent deposit.

There's also the grad school thing, which I'm having second (third, and fourth) thoughts about. For one, in the end, I'm not sure how much it will help me professionally. Also, the cost is a factor. It ain't cheap; if I can't get my current employer to help foot the bill, I'm going to have to pass. Also, there's the matter of my freedom. Part of why I want to be debt free is because I want to be able to do those things that give me joy -- yoga classes, pottery, travel ... If I'm in grad school, all I'll be doing is studying. And even that would be OK if what I was studying was what I wanted to be studying. So we'll see.

In other news, I've completely blown my October challenge. Once I started sliding, I just gave up. I had to buy some extras for a friend's birthday present the other day, and today I bought some black leggings and a $30 lipstick. (I know that sounds like a lot for a lipstick. It sounds that way because it is. But it's the exact same shade of a favorite lipstick by Clinique that Clinique made only for a limited time. And I love this shade. I've been trying to find a replacement for about five years, and today I discovered that Chanel makes a color virtually identical. It was worth $30 to me to have the lipstick.) Now that it's getting close to holiday season, perhaps I'll hold off on trying to do a challenge until January.

There was also some good news this week: I got another freelance gig. Yay! The job will be in December, but they went ahead and e-mailed me the contract and other forms yesterday. It will be some welcome extra money, certainly, especially since I'll likely get paid in January. We can always use extra cash after the holidays, yes?

So that's where I am 365 days away from my goal date.