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Can we pretend that there's not been some ridiculous period of silence here? Can we pick up right where we left off? Can we go back to being friends?

Life is in full swing here in the mountain. With the immigration process behind us and both sets of feet firmly planted in the U.S., we're now navigating the waters of living together without knowing there's a return flight waiting somewhere around the corner. No more monthly flights out of the country. No more running two households. No more dog kennels. No more rental cars.

No more credit cards.

We made the decision this week to get out of debt. I tallied up everything, and we currently owe $119,000. It's time to pay this off and create a life for ourselves in which we don't have to raid the change jar to go grocery shopping or dig around under the cushions for gas money or play the fun little game in which we make sure there is at least $1 of available credit on a card so we can fill the gas tank before the credit card company realizes that the gas station only put a temporary charge on the card.

We're following Dave Ramsey's baby steps plan. This week we put together a budget, and I was surprised to find out that the most challenging part of it is allocating every single penny in the budget. I still don't think we managed to do it because some of my income is unpredictable. Eventually I landed on a system that is a three column chart. The left column is the type of debt. The far right column is the budgeted amount for the item. The middle column is what we will pay out of that particular paycheck. So far it's working.

Then we put together envelopes for our groceries, household items, gas, pet supplies, entertainment, and pocket money. The budgeted amount is on the front along with any notes. Since this is our first try, I had a few debit card incidents and had to adjust the amount of cash going into the envelope.

Eh.

We're trying.

I still have to go to the bank to withdraw the rest of the money for this cycle. I still need to order new checks. (Yep, new checks. I think it will be easy to cash a check than to go through the process of withdrawing a large sum and separating it.)

And you know what? For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have some control. I can breathe a little better. I'm even looking forward to pay day so I can watch the debt disappear.

Here we come, 2019. Here we come.
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