Doing the moral thing can really suck

What's the first thing you want to do when your husband hasn't taken a day off in about 3 weeks to work straight overtime... and your paycheck comes in? Is it:
a) go shopping
b) go shopping
-or-
c) send money to the credit card company

Yeah.. 'a' and 'b' are my top two picks too... and i nearly did just that until I forced myself to calm down and do the right thing. One of our big resolutions for this year is to work really hard to pay off, or as much as we can, our credit cards. Oh the money we could have each month in our pockets if it weren't for nearly 6 years of poverty when we first got married... such is life! Now that we're in a much better position, we have been dedicated to paying off our debts. I've tried to not complain on here about how much my dear poor husband has been working lately (some of you have probably heard a whine or two in real life though...) because I am trying to focus on the positives of it. It IS hard, we DO miss him, and being alone with the kids almost 24/7 isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to be a stay at home mom when Madison was born... but the good news is God has really blessed us with Clayton's job. Due to Federal grant money he has the ability to go out and work almost as much overtime as he wants. If you know my husband you'll know that working is what he's good at. So, on his days off he's out for about 11/12 hours busting his behind to bring home a nice big paycheck... and when that paycheck comes in all I can think of is all of the places I want to go out to eat, all of the clothes the kids "need", and how long I've been wanting to go out and get some new tennis shoes. Then I try to chill out and remind myself why it is he's working so hard. Why it is I'm getting gray hair at the age of 24 from being a "single mom".... to pay off debt. It's hard to deal with suddenly having a budget at WalMart when we've really not had one in the past 3 or 4 years.. but saving money is a must in order to send any free money straight to the Visa man's hand. This coming paycheck we think we'll be able to totally pay off another card... two down, 4 to go. (and WHY do we have so many stupid credit cards? I say we cut down to TWO after we're done paying them off! sheesh!) So we are at least making progress... slow and steady definitely isn't the way to go when paying "the man." We tried that method all last year. Nope... when half of what you send goes to interest.. it could nearly make you cry. So, we're trying to throw a few hundred dollars to the lowest balanced card each month to see an actual dent in it in a faster fashion. Wish us luck! Clayton's like a rock when it comes to not spending money. I say that's b/c he's at work all of the time. *tee hee* He has no desire to do anything but sit at home when he does decide to take an oh so well deserved day off. Me, on the other hand... whole 'nother story...
So, I'm trying to focus on my morals and doing what I know is the right thing. I keep my focus on the bigger house I want to save up for, throwing even more money into the retirement fund and our mutual funds. That's a better way to use money! Having more money doesn't hurt any ministry opertunities that might come up for us either. Unfortunantely, money really does make the world go round!