Author: Cheryl
•3:37 PM

Well its October, my favorite month of the year, and since it is the beginning of the month its time for the monthly financial checkup. An event hosted by Money Saving Mom.

I joined the event in September, so these were the goals I set for the 4 months left and my updates on them.


Short Term Financial Goals for 2008


1.) Pay off first credit card. Balance is $721.80. I have to start with the smallest one. Yes, scary that is my smallest one. But knocking off the smallest one gives me a boost to keep going. DONE!! I paid this card off and cancelled it, thank you very much, back in mid-September thanks to some extra from a paycheck and part of our NJ Saver Rebate. We are already on to the next card and have sent one payment to that.

So amended goal #1 will now be 1a) Pay off second credit card.

2.) Going with goal #1. To not use any more credit cards. As of today I take them all out of my wallet. DONE!!! I did take them all out, and cut them up, as you can see above. We haven't touched one since that day we started the plan.

3.) Christmas kept under control. My husband I used to spend a pretty penny on each other for Christmas. We have no kids, so we felt okay to spoil each other. Problem is that money could have went to our debt instead. I want to cut our Christmas budget by 75% (sorry honey, got to be done). Well my birthday is Saturday and I have found ways to cut down drastically on the budget on that, much to the dismay of my husband. I did approach the cutting down of Xmas presents this year to hubby. He was not happy at all with just one present each, so I think we finally decided on smaller monetary limit and how many you can get with that is up to each other.

4.) Drastically cut eating out. This is where me and hubby blow through the most money. $40 here, $60 there. When we have a fridge and freezer full of stuff I get very cheaply we are still prone to go out several times a week. All of that money needs to go to our debt. We have definitely cut down on eating out. We went from going out to dinner a few nights a week, to last week we only had a donut and latte on a Saturday, and called it our big date together. We also both pack our lunches for work, but I have been doing this for years.

Adding two new financial accomplishments I did since last month.

5.) Opening a savings account and start an emergency fund. DONE. I opened it about 3 weeks ago. Not that much in there yet. But having an amount from my paycheck directly deposited into this account. It is an account that is not easy to touch and doesn't have an ATM or debit card. So that is great for us.

6.) Switch auto insurance companies. DONE. I have always had a feeling that I was paying way too much but just didn't want to deal with the pain of switching. My boss actually told me about her recent switch and her savings. So I contacted her agent, who was awesome. And my new policy starts on 10/9 and I am going to save $400 a year on our new policy now with the same coverage. Yahoo!

7.) Get a part time job on top of my full time job for extra money for debt. I just had a horrible experience with a part time job I started two weeks ago. So that ended shortly after it began. I have been looking since and have applied a few places. I am going to try some more this weekend. Hopefully something pans out soon.


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1 comments:

On October 6, 2008 at 7:34 AM , Billy and Maggie said...

Wow your goals are wonderful. I can so relate to your urge to be debt free and your a real inspiration. When we come back from our trip to getting Olivia we are going to be doing the same. I've been scouring the paper looking for something to do between the boys school hours. Every little bit helps! I let Bill know I am going to be a coupon clipping freak!!

Sorry to hear about your part-time job not working out. When we see each other again maybe we can trade war stories. I had a job for all of 2 days in the same field. Really was like being on another planet.