I had a revelation today when I came across a blog about taking steps towards financial freedom. For the past 6 months or so, my husband and I have been talking about paying off our credit card debt. That’s good. It’s just that we never get around to it.

When I read The Simple Dollar, I found that I could relate to Trent’s experiences with financial struggle almost verbatim. The impulse buys, the failures to establish good saving habits early on in life, the desire to appear wealthy and maintain the yuppie lifestyle — I’ve been there and quite honestly, I’m still there.

I’m tired. My husband is tired. He picked up a second job last April so we could “pay off our bills more quickly.” We agreed that we would only need to tough it out for 6 months. But all we’ve done is used the extra cash for extravagant purchases: fancy clothes, home furnishings, renovation projects, and luxury purses. We weren’t used to having so much cash at our disposal that we basically went nuts and lost track of our long-term goal and paid only the minimum payments on our credit cards. While we’re not at the “meltdown” point that Trent described, we are still at square one, eight months later.

So, since it is the season for New Year’s Resolutions, my resolution is to be debt-free before 2009. I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons; the obvious one being accountability. But I also hope that my story, should it be a successful one, may be a source of hope and inspiration for others like me: up to their eyebrows in debt and desperate for help to get both feet back on solid ground.

I admit, I am a little scared that people who know me personally will find this site and discover my secret. But I’m a firm believe that truth sets us free from whatever binds us; I have definitely been slave to materialism. I also think that so much more suffer from the same experiences with materialism and debt mismanagement than do not. I want you to know that you’re not alone, and I hope some of you will assure me that I’m not alone either. So let’s get down to business…

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