I think it's exhausting for me in part because it's new. It's like having a new job and hoping that I'm good at it.
And maybe part of it is moving from debit card to cash. When I'm at the grocery store I try to pay very close attention to everything, mostly because I'm terrified of not having enough cash when I get to the register.
I'm hoping at some point it will fall into more of a routine and a way of life. I guess it's like when you decide to lose weight and suddenly you're reading lables and counting calories. I know this is going to be good for me and my family short and long-term.
That's true. It's not routine yet so it takes a lot of extra effort. It takes a while before it becomes routine. I feel like the debt got so high from neglect so to make it go away for good, I need to pay close attention to where money goes.
I do still use our SWA visa for everyday purchases and always pay that off every month. Actually I end up making a payment every few days so it never gets too high. We are good enough at that and know what's a usual purchase (gas for cars) and what's considered a splurge (like dinner out).
We try to stick with just 1-2 splurges per month or it will be a strain to pay at the end. We've been doing that for years with no problems but never heard of the debt snowball til I found this thread. It's so easy one you have a strategy.
In the past, once a bill was paid off, the $ would just swim around the checking acct instead of going toward another bill. It was never earmarked with a new purpose.
It wasn't "out of control" so we didn't stress out about it but once I added it all up and realized how much we actually pay toward debt, it made me realize it's time start saving that much instead of paying bills with it.
It took a while to get our snowball rolling. We refinanced at 3% which freed up another $260/month. Early on, we were still paying all those bills AND trying to put some away for a new roof then we had a big trip planned for last summer. After that I started our emergency fund. I stayed hopeful knowing that once those things were done, I could focus on paying off bills and growing our snowball. Once you get past the first few bills and see the snowball really grow, it gets easier.
I'm sort of a visual person and need to "see" it in front of me, not just ideas in my head so I found putting it all down in a Word document helps keep me from going astray.
I made a list of each paycheck for the next few months then beneath each one a list of the bills each check would cover. Then once they're paid off, I still keep it on the list but I change it to bold so I know it's part of the snowball.
Like this:
June 12 Jxxx Estimated: $xxxx
Jxxx's Kohls 65
My Kohls 65
Sears 25
My Venture 25
Reduced Sony 16+5xtra=201 $201 to Disney Visa
Truck 498.25
Sony 44
ING Xmas 25
Cushion 300-5 xtra=295
Total $1063.25 Remaining: $xxxx
June 19 Me $xxxx
Amazon 75
Refi 130=205 to Disney Visa
Electric/Gas ~350
Water ~82
ING Xmas 25
Cushion 300
Total: 962 Remaining: $xxxx
Since there's usually 4 pays per month, I color coded each week so the first pay of each month is purple, orange for 2nd week, etc. and it keeps repeating.
Then I keep another list of each bill/debt and beneath it, a list of all the payments that will be applied to it:
Disney Visa $1000
6/12 Jxxx's Kohls 65
6/12 My Kohls 65
6/12 Sears 25
6/12 My Venture 25
6/12 Reduced Sony min. 16
6/12 xtra 5
Pay: $201
Balance: $799
6/19 Amazon 75
6/19 Refi savings 130
Pay: $205
Balance: $594
6/26 Refi savings 130
6/26 Kxxx's Sax 37
Pay $167
Balance: $427
and so on til it's down to 0
Then once it's paid off, I can list Disney Visa beneath the next bill I attack, and bold it under the pay I would normally have paid my Disney visa, let's say the 2nd paycheck of the month. This way I make sure it gets added to the snowball & not lost.
This was a lot of work to establish but now I can just copy & paste to start up another month. It really keeps me on track and I know in advance how much each week to apply to debt and I can't talk myself out of it unless we're dealing with something unusual like when my car battery died. I can schedule payments for 3-4 weeks out and adjust if something comes up.
Of course this doesn't factor interest in there but it's a close enough. A lot of our debts were 0% promotions. Another thing I like about this is that I can look back and see how small the snowball payments were in the beginning and I can look ahead 6-12 months and see how much the snowball will grow. This is very motivating. 
HTH
ready to tackle our house painting project. I may not be checking in for a while but still counting down, only 4 more weeks until our next card is paid off.
I hope to be back on here a lot more often now that things are settling down.
