Mon-ay, Mon-ay, Mon-ay, Mon-ay...Mon-ay...

First, I know, it has been a few weeks and I am sorry for that. Life just got a little complicated and chaotic. It continues to be, but I have found my way through dealing with most of it. More on that later.

I've been told that one of the main causes for frustration, arguments, and marital destruction is caused by issues of money. Yikes! That does not sound like fun, especially when two people are coming into marriage with a substantial amount of credit card debt, student loans, car loans, a mortgage, and you still have wedding expenses to pay off. Yes, finances have been a hot topic of discussion in our household over the past few months, but so far we've been doing an alright job of paying our bills and paying down our debt. It hasn't been easy though and there is still quite a bit of room for improvement.

Through the help of the money that we received as gifts from our wedding (thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!) and what I have received from my tax return, we've been able to pay off almost half of our credit card debt. Whahoo! We had a big celebration this month when we paid off one of our high interest cards! It was very exciting. We still have whatever money we receive from Noah's tax refund coming our way, so that will bring us down to having about half of our debt paid off.

The next few months are going to be tough, but my hope is that together we can accept the challenge and use it as a great opportunity for growth. What makes is especially difficult is that Noah and I love eating out and going out with friends. We have figured out how we can save money doing that (restaurants.com, groupon.com, livingsocial.com, etc.), but even then, I feel like we need to do more if we are going to reach our goal of getting our credit card debt paid off in a year.

We have found that mint.com has been great at helping us set budgets and track where all of our money is being spent. It has kept us accountable, and for the most part, we haven't been spending too much more than what we have budgeted for ourselves, but we are still working on that. It doesn't help that the price of gas is going up A LOT and that groceries are also becoming more expensive, but I've been watching the show Extreme Couponing and I have picked up on a few things that will help us save some money on groceries. It still amazes me though how one woman spent over $800 in the grocery store and walked away only paying $10.00! That is CRAZY extreme couponing!!

So, we are one card down and three to go. We can do it, right? I'm wondering what has helped you and your family in situations like this? What tools have you used to help budget and/or pay off debt? Would you have any advice for us?

Our goal is to get this paid off in a year and save up enough for a vacation as a little incentive. This will be quite the challenge, but I'm really hoping we can pull it off. Send some prayers our way. :)