Thankfulness Day 11: Being Responsible is Hard...

Back in August we wrote about our financial goals for the year, and let me just say it hasn't been as easy to stay on track as I thought!

We might be able to get the car paid off by Thanksgiving as originally planned. We had to replace the water softener system in our house, which set us back by a few thousand dollars.

We don't think we'll be able to get our camera by our planned date either. This time it's us choosing our priorities. Our mattress is really old, and Pete and I are so stiff, sore, and exhausted from sleeping on it. After lots of talking, we decided that our sleep and well being has to come in front of a camera, even if we miss out on getting some great pictures of family memories.

This decision was really hard for me; I feel like we've missed out on a lot of family moments because the camera is just not working very well. Our Halloween pictures came out extremely dark, and other things have come out blurry. But being rested has to be important, too, right?

Yesterday we went and looked at mattresses at two local stores. We found one we liked at one store for $600, and one that we loved at the other store for $2000.

Would we love to buy the $2000 one? Yes.

Could we get a mattress and the camera now? Yes, we definitely have the money for both things.

Are we going to get the $2000 mattress? Unfortunately, no.

Are we going to get both the mattress and camera now? Again, no.

We are soooo close to being debt free (minus the mortgage). We were debt free earlier this year, but then jumped right back into debt because we found something we just had to have right then and there. We don't want to do that again!

We do have the money in our account to buy both mattress and camera, but at what cost? All of our savings would be tapped. Money would be really tight, and we'd have to cut funds to some other areas of our budget, like food. Am I really willing to let myself or my children go hungry so I can have all my wants right now? That would be a big fat No.

Am I bummed? Definitely.

Am I being responsible? Yes...but it's not easy!

Day #11: I am thankful that Pete and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and know when to make those hard choices; even though they're not easy to make, it will benefit our family in the long run.

Oh, and I'm thankful for flexible financial goals too :)


Have you had to make any hard financial decisions lately?