so close I can taste it

I love my life, but I never would have imagined that when I turned 30 I would be working half a month to pay on student loans and credit cards (and that's only the minimum payment).....YIKES!.  Though I'm proud to say that this last year has been a driving force in my finances.  I've been taking charge and clearing out the negatives on my card balances and it feels so fantastic because I'm so close I can taste.  It will be wonderfully to finally be card free, so I can really focus on clearing out my student loans.  This however, wont be so easy to knock out, but at least I'll be able to start.  

The last few weeks I've lost track at really how close I am and haven't really made any goals on knocking out my debt, until tonight.  The funny thing is that I really need to give thanks to the pompous ass I was ranting about the other week in my post from my gym.  Though I do have to give him ups as his social skills are improving.  I happened to run into him Wednesday night after my workout since I decided to sleep in Wednesday morning to give my legs a little more recovery time.  He came over and informed me of a new promo that ended Friday.  He mentioned $27 a session and I was ready to pounce then, but after further discussion it turned out to be a package deal of 3 visits a month at $96.  It's a slight savings since a normal 1 hour session is $40, but once you add in the $96 contract fee it brings it back up.   I did tell him I would check my finances and get back to him tomorrow.  

 Once I got home and unpacked all my gear and prepped for breakfast I reviewed my finances.  I knew that there wasn't going to be any give as my day job only covers my basis bills.  However, after doing a little math and seeing what extra funds I would have if-when my evening job has hours again I was a little giddy.  After playing with the numbers I concluded that if I can work a minimum of 3 shifts a week I would be able to pay off my debt by December while still being able to take advantage of the personal trainer promo, and have a little extra.  

As much as I was excited about this, I knew that I didn't want to sign any contract before I actually had a steady income of extra hours so I decided to pass on the training for now.  It really doesn't matter how much I would like to take advantage of the training services at my gym I really can't until I have paid off my card debt.  Once that's done I can focus on my creating an amazingly toned body.  I just need to stay focused in clearing out my debt and not take on any new financial additions that would distract me from clearing it out sooner.  Plus, I can't think of a better treat after clearing out your financial debt then treating yourself to a personal trainer to begin your body transformation. 

Since it will take a few months before I can really enjoy treating myself to personal training I"m going to stick with the 12-week program that I'll be starting next week.  It's a great program and once I gather my goals and create deadlines for my progress, which will help me to stay focused I know I'll be rewarded by changes in my body definition.  I also really really need to take progress photos.  I'm so bad at this and I know if I just take them, I will be more positive and less likely to have the feeling of why bother, because I'm just going to fail.  The goal is to take them this weekend and then update each month for the next 3 months.