Shopping

The shopping continues . . .

I can't seem to stop. It's like getting a small taste of an old addiction has brought the addiction back. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating - but not by much.

For some reason I keep buying clothes, mostly for myself. I did need some new stuff, but I have most definitely moved beyond need.

I think I have been feeling a bit down lately, and like it or not, buying the new clothes cheers me up when I buy them, and cheers me up again when I wear them.

Then add to that that we just got my van out of the shop and the bill came to $850. I'm trying to decide if this money will come out of our debt snowball (again, as $1,000 came out of it to pay for my husband's car repairs last month) or if I should take it out of our savings account.

We currently have $10,600 in our savings account. That money has been earmarked for 1.) a new heating system - $5,000, 2.) braces for my DD - $2,000, and 3.) money to cover regular expenses during the months my husband gets low/no commission.

According to our current budget, here is how we hoped our savings would be at the end of 2008 and how we currently forecast it will be:

want/forecast
emergency fund: $1,000/$1,000
braces: $1,200/$1,200
future expenses: $2,000/$2000
vacation/sisters wedding: $4,000/$1,500
total: $8,200/$5,700

So, we already predict that our end of the year savings will be $2,500 less than we would like it to be. I've selected to say the shortfall will be in the vacation/sisters wedding category. Originally this category was for my sisters destination wedding this summer. Well the wedding is not likely to be this summer as they are not even officially engaged yet and they are having second thoughts about whether or not they want to make it a destination wedding. But it would be nice to have vacation money saved for next year.

Now that I have just written that all out is becoming pretty clear to me that the money for the car repair should probably come from savings and not our snowball. I guess it doesn't make much sense to save for some vague possible vacation when we are trying to get out of debt.

Well, this little bit of clarity has made me feel a little better. Maybe tomorrow I won't need to go shopping!