My own personal financial debate

I've been wavering back and forth on making a financial decision for a while now, and I still haven't come to a concrete decision.

In November/December, I refinanced my house, and used additional equity to pay off two student loans and my car loan. I have no credit card debt, so that leaves two personal loans totally about $1,300.

With the refinance, I've cleared up a lot more money in my monthly budget. I know that the most important things I need to be doing with that money is saving for emergencies, as well as funding some irregular accounts. I also want to knock out those existing personal loans.

What I really want to do is buy new dining room furniture. Here's where I waver. The set I want is on sale now (and granted, has been for the last few months, even with supposed sale deadlines imposed in there). It's inexpensive, good quality, and a good fit for me. And my father keeps reminding me that it might not be there if I wait.

But, I don't have the cash right now. I need to take care of some other financial goals first. And I'd really like to get rid of the HELOC, though that's a bit daunting due to its size.

One minute I am certain I'm not buying anything else on credit, at all. The next - I'm ready to get the credit card and order the set.

I know what I should do, and I know what I want to do. Unfortunately, those two things are opposite.

Okay, decision time. (It helps that I've spent the last 20 minutes reading the forums at Dave Ramsey's web site).

I will not go into any more debt, for anything. Short of a complete catastrophic problem, I'm not doing it. No matter what. I've worked hard to get here, and I am not going backwards!

And, to appease my other half (the side that really wants that furniture), I'm going to add a Furniture freedom fund to my budget. That way, I'm saving towards that set. If I'm to have it, it will still be on sale when I have the cash. If not, I'll find something else.