I guess I won't be a Tri-Fit Diva

It seems like everyone is feeling the financial pinch during these difficult times. Everyone is talking about the economic downturn that the nation is taking. We are approaching, if not currently in a, recession and there are whispers of a depression. I recently wrote about paying off one of my credit cards and that was a huge accomplishment. I have one credit card left to pay off, $3000, a very manageable amount of debt to pay off. So if we keep things as is, we as a family are doing okay and we will manage through these difficult times. We will just need to prioritize things and be smart about our finances.

As economic hard times seem inevitable, I have had to reassess my priorities and be more realistic about things. As you know, I have been training for the Women's Tri-Fitness Competition. As I have been looking at our finances, I have decided that this is not the right time for me to compete in the tri-fitness competition in July. The main factor being the cost, it costs $175 to register for the competition, which takes place in Las Vegas, so that also means costs for a hotel room, gas, and food. Plus, to get some training on the obstacle course would cost another $75. The reason why I wrote about the tri-fitness competition in the first place was because I was excited about the challenge and sharing it on my blog would make myself accountable to make the commitment. I am deeply upset that I have to give up, I really felt like I was making progress and I was training so hard for it. I don’t know if I will ever be able to do something like this again. I was set and ready to do it, I had until the end of the month to register at the pre-registration rate of $175 and fully make the commitment and I had even made a hotel reservation (luckily it is refundable). The only reason I have been putting off registering was money. Being in debt pay-off mode, I actually sat down to budget the cost of participating to aid me in my final decision.

$175 – pre-registration before March 30, $200 after
$215 – 2 nights at a hotel (that is at a group discounted rate)
$200 – food for 2 days
$250 – gas
$100 – miscellaneous costs (parking, taxi)
$75 – additional training costs (I was planning to go back to bootcamp training)

That is $1,015 in costs and that does not even include any drinks or gambling money while in Vegas, which would have been inevitable for us. That is a lot of money that we really didn't have to spend that probably would have ended up on our credit card (defeating the purpose of our debt pay off goals) and would be better spent toward reducing our credit card debt. Plus, the fact that for the 2 weeks before we will be in Hawaii on a family trip that has been booked and planned since last year (luckily airfare and hotel has already been paid for and I have been saving money for other costs). So sady, I will not be a tri-fit diva. I am so bummed out about this; I was crying writing the email to my bootcamp trainer. But I know that this is the right decision and by next year my consumer debt will be gone so maybe I can gear up to compete next year.

=^..^=