End of debt

I am so sick of owing money to credit cards and crap. I have owed money since around 1990 and none of it is 'good debt' like a house or investment loans. I don't own my house, I rent, and I want to build a house one day. First, I have to get out of debt.

As of right now S and I owe $20,555 and some change. When I met him I had debt left over from my marriage of about $5000, the rest is his. He also has student loans to pay off, it is not included in the above amount.

I made a deal with S after watching our spending for a year. We were putting $1500/month on the debts but only $500/month was being credited because we were spending $1000/month on the cards! I figured we would be lost without a firm goal in mind so we agreed that if we get the debt down to $14,000 by August of this year........we could buy a new couch! Now I know it's silly to accrue more debt as a reward, but I'm so sick of my ex-mother-in-law's couch in my house and I never seem to have the money to replace it. So. Knowing that the only way to get a new couch is to pay off a bunch of debt is quite the motivating factor for me. With S, well, he doesn't like debt, but I'm the one staring at the budget every month and arranging payments. Not that he doesn't help sometimes, but I prefer to do it all myself.

I can't wait for a new couch!