Attitude of debt reduction

My family has been working on resolving our debt for the past couple of years. I am really seeing than an attitude of debt reduction is making a huge difference. Digging out of our financial hole can stretch your emotional limits. To compensate for not spending, there are days when I want to fill my car with everything in the store. 

That was before we fully developed a debt reduction attitude. Temptation isn't as hard to fight now than it once was. We evaluate every purchase on a need versus want basis and keep our eyes on the end goal. Doing that has made me realize how much of our spending is on "wants" instead of "needs".  It's easier to walk away from "wants" when I evaluate. Notice that I said easier, not easy.

There is definitely an attitude that goes with debt reduction. In addition to evaluating our purchases we had to move from the "well maybe" mindset to a healthier "yes we can" attitude. This means cutting back, making extra money when we can and putting it directly on bills.

I'll be the first to say that paying bills first can be easier said than done. No matter what size payday you have there's a real temptation to spend, spend, spend. Advertising does its job by making me yearn to spend. It's hard not to buy an iPhone when all your friends have one. Yet, when I put that iPhone to the want versus need test it fails miserably. My dumb phone still works so why get rid of it?

That's where the attitude of debt reduction is carrying me through.  For most of my life I have believed that resolving our debt load would be impossible. Now, I an see how my attitude increases my family's ability to handle money more efficiently. Evaluating is still hard sometimes but it's working. That makes the struggle worth it.