Cool idea! Thanks!

For once I did something right... financially speaking

Happy 2013! I've now gone three entire days without clothes shopping [pats self on back]. Those pesky, tempting sale catalogs are sitting in the recycle bin where they belong...next task will be to call and get them stopped.

The regular mortgage payment processed to bring the total to $55,003.22. Made the first prepayment of the year to bring it down to $54,773.22. Hello, fifty-four-thousandses!! Nice to break a K mark right out of the gate!

Progress on the other "debts" has begun:
"Quick draw" efund debt now down to: $1250

Onward!!

Just had an unforeseen windfall of additional pay and decided to put it towards the "quick draw efund debt." That pushes it down to $796 already, hooray! If I snowflake a bit more to that payment each month -- 265 instead of 250 -- I think I can zero out that "debt" by the middle of April. In turn, that means I can shift the extra money over to the "car debt" category, starting in May!

apparently I read AND type too quickly.... You cannot make another post so soon after your last.

what is the quick draw? Maybe I missed it.

Made the second prepayment of January to bring the balance down to $54,400. The bank now thinks I'll be finished by December 2026.

In other news, my savings has been a bit slowed by the decision to adopt a young cat, but once the vet bill is finished with, I don't anticipate a big explosion in cat-related expenses. Still missing my dearly departed dog, but this sweet little kitty is surprisingly good company!

I love my little kitty to death... she is great fun and always entertaining.

The auto-deposits for my various efund savings goals don't take place as quickly as the mortgage payment, so here's yet another post.

quick-draw efund debt: $796
big backup fund debt: $3390

In other news, I now have $6.35 in the 52-week challenge account, and I have not bought any clothing for 19 days! In fact, I took a bunch of things to consignment, sold some others to a second-hand store, and donated yet more to Goodwill. I'm trying to decide what to do with the $13.20 I have earned so far by selling my excess clothing. Suggestions?

The only parts of my winter wardrobe not yet streamlined are outerwear (gloves/hats/scarves) and -- surprise! -- sweaters. It feels great to walk into my closet and look at the rod and see only the stuff I actually wear. But I also catch myself thinking I have room to shop now, and mentally slapping my own wrist. The catalog recycling project is going well so far, so I've been able to resist temptation. And I cleared the cookies from my browser, so I'm no longer getting ads from clothing store websites I've visited in the past. To keep me inspired, I've been reading blog posts about the minimalist chic of French women. I may not be French, but having a capsule-esque wardrobe and therefore much less Stuff sounds great to me...

Use the money to add to one of your funds that you've drawn down recently.

Congrats on getting rid of some of your clutter clothing. I need to do the same thing. It sucks getting fat and things no longer fit.

I decided to make 2013 "the year of living clothelessly." Which is not to say that I'm going to be walking around nude, but rather that I'm not going to buy any clothes. Except that I'm down to just two pairs of warm-weather socks, but I have $50 left over in my clothes budget from last year, so I'll use some of that to buy more socks.

I recently looked over my expenditures in 2012 and 2013, and had to adjust my perception of myself as someone who hardly ever buys clothes. From January through August 2012 I only spent $174 on clothing, which isn't too bad, but then I went and spent another $700 from August through December, most of it on two jackets that I didn't need but I'm really happy to have. I looked back at my expenses in 2012 and discovered that I spent even more on clothing that year, $1,200. Perception, meet reality.

This was such a shocker to me that I decided to see if I could go for a whole year without buying any clothes at all: I want to adjust reality to meet perception rather than the other way around.

You are braver than I, Brad! I don't think I could forgive myself if I added it all up. I'm just going no-purchase for 2013 to make a point to myself!

Ah, I missed your goals on the previous page where you said you'd be going on a clothing fast this year too! Maybe we can help keep ourselves accountable on that front.

I'm going to need all the help I can get. I think shopping became an emotional outlet when I wasn't paying attention, and now I'm going through withdrawal symptoms. 22 days so far...must...not...read...catalogs...must...not...click...emails...

I'd recommend you unsubscribe from the emails. You can always get them back next year or whenever. The fabulous sale they're advertising isn't going to save you anywhere near as much money as not buying anything.

If you don't want to go that far, set up a shopping folder and auto-file into it. I've done this. The ads/coupons are there for when I decide I need something, but I don't see them in my inbox and let them decide for me that I need something.