As my assignment is winding down and my car loan shrinks to a more manageable size. I sit here trying to come up with ways to take on the next hurdle.

Being able to continue paying those dreaded student loans while underemployed!

My next check will have overtime so I am happy for that. I can reach the goal of making another large car payment put away my usual percentages for retirement etc. And pay off the small amounts I've charged to the credit card including an appraisal for my jewelry and putting away the money so that they can be insured both for this and next year.

In crunching some numbers I've reduced my debt by 13K since I started actively tracking it in 2011. Also 5K of that debt was eliminated in the past 6 months. That makes me feel pretty amazing since I know that at least another 1K is coming off the car loan before this assignment ends. In celebration of this discovery I will be treating myself to the free coffee I earned by consuming way too much of it outside the home this week.

I'm sad I racked up another 100 in expenses this week but I will be making more of than that in OT. Plus some things have to be returned as they just didn't work out. Just have to pay the bill and plan more carefully next time. I'm also still down 2 pounds since being more mindful of what I consume. All in all I'd say that if I manage to stick to the path I've been on I will achieve success in more ways than one.

I'm pretty irritated at the moment. I went ahead and sent in that giant payment to my car loan and they processed it all messed up. They did it as a regular payment and added a late fee even though if it were actually a regular payment it would be processed early and I had not paid late on my last payment as it is an auto payment that processed already.

Has anything this crazy happened to any of you? Guess this is just a good sign that I am right to pay off this loan and be done with this bank. Back in December of last year I when I knew I couldn't do the payment on time I asked them to postpone the auto payment a week. They told me no problem not an issue. I logged in a month later and thinking everything had gone fine and not only had they not processed it but they slapped me with a late fee. I called to tell them the last rep said it was fine and they told me that person was mistaken and to just send in the payment by mail. They didn't apologize or anything.

Now this big payment is in and its over a year after the botched payment with the late fee, they said they are processing that late fee now because I had sent into extra money. I told the woman on the phone first of all that shouldn't have happened as I had received misinformation and secondly if that were true wouldn't you have processed it out of my first principal only payment that I almost made almost a year ago? The woman said everything should be fixed in 24 hours. I will wait 48 and call again if its still all messed up.

What craziness!

So I still think about the jewelry in the previous post, like daily. But no matter.

I have on my couch beside me a giant payment that is going to keep me on track toward paying off my car this year rather than a giant payment that is filling the gap in savings I would have caused by buying that jewelry.

It is really a big moment for me. In this paycheck I didn't have to pay any bills. It all went to my savings goals and spending money plus this payment.

Sending in this payment means that for the first time ever I will actually a bit of equity in my car. And it also means that I have not racked up credit card debt since paying it all of in November which is just fantastic.

As beautiful as the jewelry was I am just so happy right now. I was strong and stuck to the plan. I am on track to my goal and just took another step in the right direction. By the time the next paycheck rolls around I'll have a good idea of where I stand in my job.

I plan on making one more big payment and once that is done I will be able to pay off my car by the end of the year with regular payments and some small extras. I just feel light years ahead of where I was that first day at my first temp job out of college.

It certainly hasn't been an easy road for me but I wouldn't have it any other way. Everything that I did between here and there was only helped me become who I am now. And I really like where I am now.

Well I am hell bent on my car goal. But I went a little cuckoo for a while and tried to convince myself I should have/deserve an item that would have cost thousands.

Then I sat down and crunched the numbers. I would have had to wipe out one of my savings accounts and half of another to get a discount on the item or put it on a credit card and take on several hundred dollars of interest.

After the truth hitting me and realizing that I only realistically have another month or so of gainful employment if I am lucky I realized that I don't "deserve" anything. I choose what I want and I have worked so hard to get this this point financially. Why blow it all on a purchase that I cant comfortably afford.

I realized its a self-sabotage thing I do every time I am close to the end of an assignment. I do something that I shouldn't do financially and pay for it dearly while I am unemployed. Of course in the past few years its been not that bad in the last assignment I paid off a high interest credit card and then bought myself an item worth several hundred dollars when I could have had a wee bit more in savings.

This time I almost wiped out half my savings to get a item negating months of success saving and completely eliminating credit card debt.

I also thought to myself why on earth am I willing to wipe out my savings for this item and "make it up" in the last two checks, but unwilling to make large payments on my car/into savings and keep what I already have saved as well.

I crunched some numbers and I can affordably make two large payments out of my next two checks so that I am on track for paying off my car by the end of the year as per my goal and promise I made to myself at the beginning of the year. And I can do this just on the part time job income if I get no unemployment.

I was elated. If I had not gone crazy and tried to buy something I could not afford I would have probably never figured that I can reach my goal and keep my promise to myself.

This is not the first time this happened. At my last assignment I was about to start investing for equipment for a new hobby when I realized that for the money I was willing to sacrifice and spend on it I could actually pay off my high interest credit card.

I think that move now almost two years ago pushed me in the direction that I am in now. Every success comes with that one first step forward.

Rather than condemn and chastise myself for wanting that item I am just going to shelve the idea and stay on track. Who knows maybe in a year I can afford it? Or maybe I'll just forget about it which is fine with me too.

Either way 2014 just got a whole lot brighter for the path eliminating debt and continuing to strive for financial independence.

This week was great. Not only did I eat healthy but I also lost a pound. And have plenty of grocery money left over in my wallet.

I think I will just keep this up. I'm going to take it one week at a time though. One night the husband ordered in so I don't count that. That salad I made a week ago is almost gone now. Feels great not to have wasted that. And the veggies will be mostly going into one dish tonight. It feels quite great to be doing something good for myself and financially saving me a bundle of cash.