Eleven

2011 seems like some futuristic date that has nothing to do with the life I'm living. But... it's not and it is and time keeps marching on.
I'm having an uberhard time settling on some goals for this year. I feel like things are slipping out my control again. But I don't think they really are. I think I'm just lazy.
My biggest issues are: having to end the nice break from the snowball and jump back into the crazy debt attack. The four months of being more relaxed about our money was glorious! It was the first time we have ever not had to worry about making ends meet. Ends met and there was plenty left over to screw around with. Yes, we probably should've paid more debt and/or invested something somewhere but this was so frickin' nice, I don't regret it for a second. Now here we are: lower paying job, student loans out of grace. Bleh. Which brings me to the next issue: our mouths. *sigh* We have been skipping the dentist pretty much our entire adult lives. We went right before and right after we got married and that was it. We either had no money, no time, or both. But mid-December, Billy broke a tooth, essentially, on a rib. We could avoid the dentist no longer. So far, we've gotten through an intense consultation and a root canal. Thursday will bring two crowns into the picture.
SO. The plan is... to get Billy's mouth in tip-top shape while I start getting regular cleanings. While Billy's mouth is in progress, my teeth repair will be put on hold. Once Billy is done and paid for, I'll start getting fillings and filings and whatever.
Here's the rub: The consultation was $187. The root canal was $2500-ish. The crowns... I don't even know yet. We're putting all of this on.... a credit card. *sigh* Here we go again?? Not if I can help it. Here's the thing. We've paid $187 and a $400 down payment on the work so far. We scraped together some extra funds and that left us with $326 left on the credit card plus a bill still coming from the root canal that will be broken into payments. The debt snowball is being paused and all extra money is being diverted into the dental fund/paying off whatever has already racked up. The problem is I'm not sure if I should put our emergency fund in play since I know everything already surpasses what we have in the EF and there's so much more to come. Plus we're contending with lower pay and student loans. PLUS we have two empty buffer accounts: gifts & travel. PLUS I'm seriously floundering in terms of grocery deals; I'm out of practice and now it's becoming a necessity again. GRRR!!! I really gotta step it up and not fall full force into those bad habits again.
I think I'm trying to do too much at once again thus I freeze and stop doing anything. My list of things to do include: get back into the frugality routine, start preschool with Keiren, get hardcore into potty training, get my sleep in check, get my eating and exercising routine going, get back into the house cleaning routine, all while trying to maintain the other stuff (financials, personal time, etc.) I'm freezing!!!
THIS IS YOUR JOB. YOU JUST HAVE TO DO IT!