Ok, so here I am like a week after getting my Internet disconnected.  Apparently I’ve been submitting my cable bills to be reimbursed by my work (I get my cable modem paid for since I work from home occasionally) and not ACTUALLY PAYING the bill.  Ok, so 3 months in a row of the same story and my connection goes dry on me.  Talk about a stupid thing to do on my part.

In the Financial Weeds

You know, this can be so disheartening.  I mean, I got my connection back yesterday and all but I was so annoyed at the whole situation I stopped keeping up with the finances on a daily basis.  Now I’ve got this huge pile of bills and a stack of receipts in front of me.  I’ve got my bank account open in another window and I see a bunch of debits there.

I think I’m going to have to just suck it up and practically start over.  Renew the budget, balances, log, etc.  Granted I did this once a month ago and it was going great, so it can’t be that hard to do again.  It’s amazing how you plan one thing out and it’s so great in your mind, then things go a totally different direction. 

Stick to the Plan

God is seriously testing me here.  I know that we’ve spent a little more than we probably would have if we’d been super-strict every single day.  Once you slip, that’s it.  It’s too easy to slip again and again and again.

OK, end of sob story.  Time to gather up my frustrations and trudge through the weeds one more time to get this show on the road once again.  I’m sure you’ve all been in similar situations where you just felt like you couldn’t get ahead.  The world just kicked you while you were down and all.  Well, time to suck it up and get back to beating that debt!

Also, I need to be super-meticulous with my online bill paying to make sure everything gets paid every month.  I’m seeing a place for making reminders.  I should set that up so they don’t go away until I actually make a payment for it.  I don’t know what I was thinking on this one.

Anyone else?

Feel free to share a sob story of your own.  I really wouldn’t mind hearing about someone else’s low moments when trying to kick-start their debt reduction.

Just a little house-keeping post to let everyone know what’s going on.

I’ve done some thinking on my posting schedule, and in order to reduce the kind of interruptions that happens when things don’t go as planned…I’m going to start publishing my posts on a one week delay.  I think this will benefit me enough to help me maintain a nice flow here without causing any confusion being that the days of the week will still line up.  I just don’t like how a couple of days can negatively affect my routine that I was just getting comfortable with.

Daily Journal Posts

So, for those that were wondering, my daily posts will pick up this next week again, but will be reflective of what was going on this week.  This will be where I benefit from the schedule the most I think.  If I’m not able to get on the site for one day, I don’t want that post to not happen at all.  And if I line up the days of the week to be the same things will still seem normal.

Resource page updates

I’ll still get these pages updated on the weekends before Monday.  I may do updates more often than that if I feel it’s needed, but for the most part I’ll just keep my local copies up to date and sync up on the weekends.

Regular posts

I’m hoping to do 1-2 regular posts a week on whatever topic happens to be on my mind.  This is the part of the blog that will probably resemble what everyone else does with a blog, but the topics will mostly be related to things that pertain to our situation.

So there it is, my expectations for posts on this blog.  If there are any questions or thoughts, I’m open to critique here.  After all, the majority of the reason for me to do this is accountability.  I feel like I need this blog to help keep me on track, and if I start falling behind you’re likely to be the first to know.  I’m also doing this for anyone else out there that’s struggling with the same things we are.  This is where the community feeling really comes into play with encouragement and sharing what works and what doesn’t for each of us.

Now, off to being Mr. Mom for a day! 

I’m having some issues with my monitor, (thanks Murphy!) so I’m behind a couple days now.  I’ll update as soon as I can get a loaner from a friend.  I’ve got a lot to say too.  Good and bad.  :-/

Until then!

[Update:  I’ve got a spare to use for awhile, and looks like the trouble-maker may still have signs of life after smacking it around a little.  I’ll describe things in more detail tomorrow.  I have some catching up to do for now.]

Welcome to the launch of the DebtBeater blog.  A blog focused on being a case study for a large family getting out of debt.  Yet another place where hopefully you can find something to relate to that can help you in your quest to beating down your debt as well.

I’m just getting things started around here, so please excuse the mess as I begin to populate pages and migrate from my local environment to the server.  Very soon I will be starting my daily journal for all to see, and begin my own quest toward debt freedom.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Mr. DebtBeater