Sacrifice

As I put it in writing a few posts ago - this is going to be the year of sacrifice for the greater good of our family.  Big financial sacrifice in this coming year will bring us to our goal of financial freedom.

Unfortunately, the sacrifice will be taking along with it, what would have been one of the highlights of our year.

Let's backtrack a bit.  We "thought" we had a large portion of the money needed to do our Disneyland Half-Marathon in savings (in addition to our 6 months of expenses in savings).  Well, the day after Christmas we discovered that to safely make it over the mountain and through the woods, we would need new tires.  Now, unexpectedly needing new tires is exactly the reason for having an emergency fund, even if it hurt quite a bit to have to take money out of savings.  Unfortunately along with the new tires, it took away all of the money we had for vacation AND put us in a small deficit of our 6 months in savings.  Quite a day after Christmas blow for us!

To follow the guidelines we have set for ourselves, we will focus on getting back up to our savings benchmark along with paying down debt.  These are the financial priorities in our life.  But we also had a HUGE debate as to whether or not we should just take the money out of savings to go and have a couple days of fun - after all, we've worked really hard for this half-marathon.  Well, we were definitely being convicted with that thinking and that idea just isn't setting right.

So, unfortunately the talks of a going to Disneyland for our Half and 10K are off the table for this year :(   This has definitely come with a great deal of disappointment but it has also brought with it some peace!  We aren't going to dig further into our savings for a frivolous desire of the heart. How would it look if right out of the hatch in January of our "Year of Sacrifice" we throw all caution to the wind and do what we want.  Every decision comes with a price and we are making the decision that will be best for our future.

So - barring us winning the lottery - Disneyland is cancelled and you know what, it will be okay.  I am sure it will be bitter as January 22nd (registration day) comes and goes and Labor Day weekend (Race Day) comes and goes and we aren't there.

So, there is official announcement and why you probably won't be hearing anymore about that Disneyland Marathon.  Oh, and if you think we might give up and NOT complete our running goals now because our ultimate goal is now off the table - wrong!  We will continue to work hard and there will be other local races we sign up for. We didn't get this far to quit and we WILL run through Disneyland someday!  

Sometimes being an adult and making the "right" choice over a "fun" choice is hard ;)  Guess we're growing up :P