Well..

So much for that. We did get back into debt over the past two weeks. It wasn't for a car, white gold jewelry or furniture. It was for an investment, something we will only ever buy one of. We got a 2012 travel trailer & believe me, we'll use the hell out of it, since our favorite warm weather activity is camping. I've spent the last week & a half getting it stocked & ready for our first camping trip in it, which is still about 13 days away. We're so excited to actually have a comfortable place to sleep (and it's a nice pillowtop mattress on our bed!) and a fridge and a nice stove to cook on. We're really happy with our decision & I'm thrilled that we have a chance to start rebuilding our credit in a more responsible way this time around.

Growing Up?

It's funny. We filed bankruptcy over a year ago & have managed to stay debt free since then, other than buying Troy's car from a friend of his & a few medical bills. This wasn't our first bankruptcy, we filed for our first one 11 years ago & within a year we were back in debt. We seem to have learned a lot from that experience, being in debt now really scares me, in a way it never did before. I just remember the suffocating feeling every month when it came time to pay the bills & never having any money to enjoy.

I'm nervous about getting back into debt to get another car, even though I know that it will, in fact, save us money on gas over time. I've been very diligent about keeping everything paid & throwing away credit card applications when they come in. I want no more stupid debt in our lives or easy "money" options. I think buying a car is different, at least it's an investment. I was thrilled that we saved money & bought furniture, that really felt like one of the first adult things we've done in a long time.

Our monthly bills are under control for the first time in years, we don't find ourselves struggling & hoping to find Wholesale Insurance deals or anything. Yes, we pay for our health insurance (for the first time ever!) & have 2 auto policies (one is full coverage), but we manage to pay those off six months at a time. We're able to budget most everything we really want to do, like going to Sedona, completely without credit cards, or save up for it if we have enough time to plan ahead. I know we can afford to do this without too much pain, even with Rhi's bills on top of everything else, I just need to let go, breathe & make a plan.

Slowly Healing

My foot is finally almost done healing from the Litha stake incident, it's at the point where it's itching uncontrollably now, so I know I'll be as good as new soon (other than the scar).

Things have been somewhat odd this summer, as far as our friends go. Jason is out of work right now, so he's been around a lot, but depressed while he is. Ryan's been hyper-focused on his other group of friends & trying to get a girlfriend, so he isn't around much. It's like we can't even manage to plan a camping trip where everyone's schedules match up anymore. It's kind of making me sad.

In other stuff, I love my Zune & all, but I have been finding myself checking out ipods lately, just because of touch screens & bigger memory capacity, but I'm still undecided. It's not like I have a ton of extra money lying around at the moment anyway.

We're thinking of getting me a second car, one that is good on gas for running around, since my XTerra isn't, at all. It's great for camping and all of that, where we have to carry a bunch of stuff & need high ground clearance, but I burn through so much gas running around town that it's becoming a big burden. I want something small & still sporty, so we'll see what I can find around here that we may be able to get financing for, it may not even be something we can think about doing yet.