To stick with the 18-55 is suicide, but many of us survived 1 year, even more.
IMO if you are not ready to put down L money, stick to it and wait.
Even if yours is an hobby like for most of us, believe me: buying an L, even if it requires some more time, is definitely the right choice. Something inbetween will do it for a while, but soon you'll need something better
One day you'll stop modding your riceburner and you'll have plenty of spare cash to throw into a proper wide angle and a 70-200 F2.8 IS