The sacrifices we are going to have to make this year

In addition to just spending less, no more dolls and no more credit card use, we have some pretty big sacrifices we have had to accept in order to do this.

Sure, we are cutting back on our cable, and (after a pretty heated debate) my husband has compromised giving up his Texas server, and trying to set it up at home. We have to order less delivery, and we never ate out or went to movies anyway (s0mething I instituted during that first year, which just stuck. The last movie we saw in a theater was the most recent Harry Potter, and I think that is the only theatre movie we saw last year).

But we had some bigger plans for this year.

No Dog. At least, not as soon as I had hoped. I wasn't planning on getting a dog until after new year sometime, just because of my personal schedule right now. That doesn't mean I was going to go out Jan 2 and get a dog... I wasn't sure when I would be ready again, or when the right dog would be there for me, but I have been looking and did plan to get a dog again at some point. I don't know that I can promise NO dog in 2010, but I have budgeted a rather large "pet fund" partly due to all the pet bills we have been experiencing. I don't expect to have as many animal emergencies now, but I do have our kitty on pet insurance. It is expensive, but it more than paid for itself this year. I don't expect that to be the case again until she gets older, but I have learned the pet insurance lesson. So perhaps once that fund has gotten large, and barring any emergencies, we will use it for a new dog. It'll be a few months at least.

No 5th year anniversary in Hawaii trip. We have been planning this forever. Since before we got married. We couldn't swing Hawaii for our honeymoon, but for SURE we would be able to do it for our 5th anniversary (which is in August). Nope. It has been very hard coming to terms with the fact that we will not be doing this. Maybe for our 6th we will have our s**t together and actually have saved for this trip? While it is disappointing, it is a relief to know I won't have the weight of adding another several thousand dollars onto our credit cards this fall.

No baby. The whole baby thing is so big it probably deserves its own post. Its own blog. I will try to be concise. While I have many reservations about bring a child into this world, particularly one with our combined genetic makeup, the fact that I do not feel we can afford a child is pretty much my biggest excuse. However, we aren't getting any younger here. I have a family medical history of problematic pregnancies, and I have my own medical issues that will probably make getting pregnant difficult. So, I had it in my head we would start trying this spring (when I was past my first 90-days at work, and the baby, if easily concieved, would come at least a year after I started my job.) Because I think it will take a while to get pregnant, and because I don't want to be ninety at my child's high school graduation, I figured we should start trying sooner rather than later, to allow time to try to do it naturally, and possibly time to try alternative methods or adoption, which can also take a lot of time (and be expensive). I have put this on hold. Again, we can reevaluate our situation in the fall and see how close to out-of-debt and savings goals we are, but I cannot imagine adding the possible financial and medical complications of a pregnancy on top of trying to get out of debt. And how much better will I feel bringing in a baby I know I can afford to support?