So I did some arithmetic over coffee this morning, before getting ready for work, and it looks like if everything holds steady for the next little while, at worst I will be out of credit-card debt by next march, and with a little more effort, it’s even possible I might actually be totally out of debt by the end of the year!

I think I’m going to make that my goal. I’ll keep on brownbagging lunch and avoiding using my car ($4/gal in the city for the premium gas my car drinks!) and doing errands on foot and .. well, I’m not going to give up my magic laundry fairies (because they really do improve the quality of my life, and I think that’s worth safeguarding), but I did cut back from the magic pick-up and bring-back fairies (who turned out to be not so very talented at the bringing back thing, though in fairness they were good at the picking up) to the drop-off and take-away fairies, which saves twenty bucks or so a month. Maybe I can give up Netflix (though I hate to, but that would be $25/mo!). Anyways, I’m going to make it my goal to continue to be a complete cheapskate for the rest of the year and try really, really hard to get it all paid off by then, because if I do, I can increase my 401(k) contributions at open enrollment in December, to use up the extra money I’ll have once my credit cards are paid off. And really, that would make me feel really really badass. :) From exhaustingly endebted to responsibly saving, in 6 months or less! (Well, actually it’s been about 6 years at this point, but I’m pointedly ignoring the past.)

I’ll have to do some more math tonight and figure out exactly what I’ll have to cut out of my budget to make room for this kind of money. But I’m feeling really cheerful and energized. Who would think that doing compound interest calculations over your first cup of coffee on a Tuesday would turn out to be a good thing?

Giving things up may be good for the soul, but I’m still sad to send my Santa Bike (so called because it’s green with red reflective tape on the tubes) off to its new owner.

Nonetheless: it’s done, its new owner was happy to get it, and I know it’ll be better off with someone who can use it. Besides, I already have one bike and I don’t need two.

Farewell, Santa Bike. Don’t get stolen.

Today is 22 days since I last had a cigarette.

Of course, I haven’t actually been to a pub since then, so. Y’know.

So here’s what I think the whole thing has gone thus far:
Days 0, 1 – No real difference
Days 3-7 – An unending chant in the background of my mind about “I want a cigarette,” of varying intensities from bearable to “seriously, get out of arm’s reach because I am going to choke someone and you look really handy right now.”
Days 8-15 – The chant is still there and still irritating, but it’s become somewhat boring and now I’m determined to beat the stupid chant because, dammit, I’m more stubborn than (uh, myself) cigarettes.
Days 16-19 – The chant fades so now you mostly only seriously want cigarettes when you have habit triggers—drinking, meals, your morning routine, etc. First reaction to someone irritating you is no longer “I want a cigarette like WHOA,” but it still kicks in if they continue to stress you out.
Days 20-22 – “That dude in the elevator really stinks like smoke.”

So. Now that I’m thinking about it, yeah, I want a cigarette. But! I wasn’t, until I sat down to write this. I guess that’s good. Mostly I think I’m just pleased about the approximately $80-90 I have not spent on cigarettes in the past three weeks (at $8/pop here—yay sin taxes!).

I have a ridiculously complicated Excel spreadsheet that I use to play out payment plan scenarios and keep track of progress with this. It took me an entire Sunday, several months ago, to create it and come up with a game plan for repaying the debt—but it was totally worth it as now I pretty much just have a checklist to go down, which is nice.

I’d say I have paid off about 26-28% of the total outstanding debt since August. This is pretty notable progress especially since for the past few years until this point, I had thought I was “working on it” but I never seemed to get anywhere, at all. So now I can see the numbers actually going down, to which all I have to say is: Yay!