Just got back from a whirlwind trip to NY to see a bunch of friends I never get to see, and now I'm looking at JetBlue Getaway packages, and I'm realizing how much I really like to travel and how much the debt payments I have to make are putting a damper on this. Maybe, counter-intuitively, this is what I actually need as motivation--small trips that give me a little taste of adventure and make me mad about my inability to go on bigger adventures.
I feel like I don't really have any motivating factor to get rid of debt aside from the vague, unconcrete notion of not being in debt. I've just always been in debt as an adult, so it's kind of just become the way life is. And I don't have kids as motivation to be better for them. So maybe this can be a motivation. I'm thinking of starting a visual "destination board" or something, with pictures of like DW and tropical islands and Yellowstone and Paris, and going on like day/overnight trips that are relatively cheap.
Making some goals, making some plans...
That's what really kicked me into gear, both in terms of paying off debt and in getting a better handle on the budget/wasted money in the more general sense. There's too much I want to do in the next few years to keep pissing money away on coffee drinks, fast food, and interest payments!
We're not going bare bones while we work on it. We're just thinking more consciously about our spending. I just got back from a week of camping for the county fair, in a cabin at a "campground resort". A tent on the fairgrounds or staying home and commuting would have been cheaper but not a positive/enjoyable experience (DD is in 4H and had to be there for events on 5 of 6 days), so the spending was worth it. Being at the nice resort meant having an outdoor kitchen and grill so I could cook to save money, we only did a handful of rides at the carnival on kids' day when they were all a dollar each, and we enjoyed a lot of free activities at both the fair and the campground - basically we spent where it mattered and saved where it didn't. We're going on a similarly budget trip when we pick DD up from camp rather than drive the 7+ hours round trip all in one day. But having those goals and things to look forward to, both big and small, help us stay focused in a way a more abstract desire to be out of debt doesn't.
Planning the big adventures, even if it is for a long way off, helps too. DH doesn't have any vacation time to take until next June, which helps with the self-discipline of not trying to rush the process, but I am working on plans to check off a couple of wish list trips in 2016 and 2017. And knowing that's coming up, even with the long time horizon, is another motivating factor because it'll be a lot easier to take our family of 5 to the UK if we're not making credit card or student loan payments while saving for the trip!
ETA: I'm on an anti-paper crusade so instead of a physical pin board as inspiration I've created Pinterest boards for several dream destinations and started saving links to hotels, attractions, restaurants, and other miscellany as I come across them from travel newsletters, Facebook posts, magazines and such.
Dh has been working the past few weekends which is icky now but I know I'll appreciate it more come Christmas. All we ever do is work, clean, do laundry and scrimp every penny. Maybe I'll take ds15 for the day on Sunday. That boy could spend all day on a boogie board.
