BUDGET-forgive me for I have spent....

Even as anal retentive as I am about the rigid budget we need to follow to pay down our debt I to falter once in a while. I must confess that not only did I buy a magazine from the grocery store check out line but I went to McDonald's this week. I know you are saying ?fast food? instead of the budget BUT I was weak to the smell of French fries. I am not much for fried foods but I believe those were the best darn fries I have eaten in a long time! One of the lessons I have learned with living on a rigid budget is that I historically spent a lot of money without enough thought. I always believed I lived rather conservative but I realize now that I really wasn't that conservative. I would watch the price of items but I still put many impulse items in the cart. Looking at the 27 bottles of nail polish I have might help draw attention to that fact. Considering I am not a freak of nature with forty fingers or toes that could be painted weekly I would say that I wasn't very conservative with my polish purchasing. I might have been conservative with the price but not of the quantity. Seriously, a year ago I would not have given a second thought to how many I had. Hard to believe things can change so quickly. I am not glad at the circumstances that created the need for this new awareness of how money is spent but I am grateful that I am more aware now and I now know that we can make it on just one income. I have also learned through this that there are a lot of things one can live without and still be fine. The one thing we had to give up lately is the microwave. Our microwave went out and it is not in the budget to go buy a new one right now. We decided that before we are going to dip into the emergency fund money for a new one we would see how well we can do without one. Shockingly enough we are doing alright. Apparently it is not a staple item for our existence since in the last two weeks we have only missed it twice. I am not saying it wouldn't be nice to have one for some things (like popcorn) but I'm saying it's not worth dipping into emergency funds for it. Oh, and one side note - I like popcorn but it is hardly worth making a dirty pan. ha ha Can you tell today I am working on seeing positives in this black hole of debt we are trying to dig out of? Just like the little train - I think I can I think I can!!!!
Man, I hope I still have a bottle of wine left that I got for my birthday cause I think it may be a staple for my existence this cold and rainy Saturday night................