Spending fast

45 has become a magical number around here for me. Dan's deployment is supposed to be 450 days so 45 is 10%. On my countdown donut that I have on the computer we hit the 10% mark recently. At 10% is when the donut legend changed from "A long, long way to go," to "Still a long, long way to go." That's progress. As pathetic as it sounds, soon I hit the longest I have ever been continously away from Dan. We were apart for almost four months last year but he came home one weekend a month.

So back on subject. The magical 45. 45 days is 10% . The next 45 days will get me to 20%. In 45 days we have 3 paychecks. In these 45 days, I am on a spending fast. Absolutely no unneedful spending. It is the commissary and gas for the next three paychecks. The only loopholes will be, I will be going out tomorrow to get the last of the stuff the kids want for their Valentine's parties. DD wants to buy this year and Innie wants to make. I had already gotten everything to make when DD decided she really wanted some Hello Kitty Valentine's. At this stage, I am with the time saver for a few dollars. So anything that the children "need" for school is on the exception list. Anything that brakes and can't wait will go onto the exception list. Like today I discovered shingle damage on the roof from the storms. I am not going to wait on that one, either.

We will also be cutting back on the out to eat, and how much I pay for babysitting. Once a month we go out to eat at Appleby's on the kid free night to check off one more month down and one less to go until Daddy comes back. We also work really hard on our table manners and behaving in a restaurant. We started it this last summer on the first Monday of the month, Manners Monday. But alliteration went out the door for free kids meals on Tuesday. So that stays. On the other days, there will be fast food at the maximum of once a week.

I have been having a lot of FRG meetings lately and just a lot of things taking me away from the kids. So that will change also. I will only get a sitter at maximum once a week. Although, this week I already have her booked for twice but that was before I made these new goals. Once for going out with girls on Valentine's Day and the other time for going to the cannery, I'll be spending money there but food storage doesn't go in the shopping category, it's all food.

So my 45 days has already started. I know its weird but I can't say when it started or when its over by exact date since I linked it to Dan's deployment. There is this thing called OpSec. It means keep your mouth shut about where your husband is, when he went out, when he is coming home. Loose lips and all that. So just know that it has already begun.

So far so good. No real temptation yet. Tomorrow when I go to Target will be the real test. Can I get out of there with just Hello Kitty? I'll let you know.

One last thing, the point. I am not just trying to torture myself. We have been working really hard to get out of debt and another milestone is just around the corner if I put in the effort. Some of you may know of the added financial benefits of being deployed and I am not going to blow it on purses and itunes. When Dan gets home all that money goes away. I don't want to be in any habit that makes life difficult for us when his pay goes back to normal. In fact, I want to have put so much into debt that it will be like we have gotten a huge raise, purely off of the obligations that we have paid off. And we want to take two really cool vacations. One when he comes home for R&R and then other when he comes home.