This is me too, with both money and also weight loss when I work on it. Don't start slipping, we can do this! I read somewhere that you wouldn't slash your other 3 tires if 1 went flat, so why would you do sabotage your diet/budget/whatever your goals are because you got a little off track? I scream this in my head often
I just paid off two cards to zero and opened up ANOTHER high limit card (really hoping to up our number of active accounts and lower utilization ahead of wanting to buy a house in a year or two) and read that zero balances for months on end is NOT necessarily good either. So instead of leaving them at zero, what I did was move Netflix to one, and Hulu to the other. I used one today to get gas. Later I will use one to get dinner for my kids and I (planned expense, my husband is out of town for work for 2 days). Sorry tangent rolled off one way....
So look at it this way, the CC card company and credit reporting agencies will see you spending and that's good and as long as you pay it off with your van fund, you'll have it back paid off again. I'm no expert but that sounds like playing the game, right? I hope you at least scored yourself some points/rewards! ALSO YAY for good news from the orthopedic surgeon! I will keep my fingers crossed for more good news in a week that it has not shifted!