Tightening the Purse Straps

This month is going to be hard--a sort of hard like we have yet to feel. On our path to financial peace, I've cancelled ALL credit cards, which, for us, have always acted as a sort of emergency pull. Now they're gone. Well, use-proof anyway--they all still carry their balances until that FINAL payment.

What is different at this juncture is they have been closed. We've paid them off plenty of times in the past, carrying a zero balance for months, only to run them back up to the limit before the next tax season when we'd pay them off again.

I've noticed the pattern and refuse to mindlessly forfeit any more of my money to this dreadful cycle. They had to go--for good.

This forces us to live within our means, to be at peace within the minimal proceeds of our work. As I trek through this next month and possibly the next, I must be mindful that this is NOT forever. This is not my point of destination. I am more than that which I cannot afford.

I still have many outlets open to me for financial means. If ever I finish my master's thesis, I will have my M.S. (finally) and this alone affords me some level of hirability. In two short weeks, I will be certified in yoga teaching and can move forward, exploring the teaching opportunities available to me. Perhaps a studio of my own in the next few years...hmmm.

My point is, take a deep breath Tina. This will challenge every part of you. This will break you down in those moments when you feel despondent, when the hope appears to have been sucked from every molecule that sustains you. Hold on. You have certainly survived more than this and a month or two of rationing is not that which will take you down when you are so much more than the sum of your earnings.