We’re not dead. We’re feeling much better! I’ve ignored this blog for about 14 months now, but it’s time to get back on track.  We’ve totally blown our debt reduction goals.  Some in part to unforeseen expenses, but a lot due to over spending.  But we have made progress.  We have a little more than $1,200 in credit card debt left to pay, a couple medical bills, and then we will be debt free save the mortgage, but that should be paid off within 10 years even without any extra going towards it (bi-weekly payments rock.)

So my resolution for March is to post to this blog more.  Which, considering one post in 14 months, shouldn’t be too time consuming!

Tweet This Post

Uncategorized credit card debt, debt reduction, Goals, zombies

If you are a numbers nerd, you’re going to be constantly tweaking your budget numbers, and if your spouse (assuming you have one) is not also a numbers nerd, it will drive them crazy.  It’s very important that you sit down with them and discuss the amounts for each category, and not make heavy handed decisions on what should be spent.  I was adamant that we should be able to get by on $250 a paycheck for groceries, easily.  My wife was sure we couldn’t.  So the first budget, we ran out of grocery money before the end of the second week.  What do you do then?  You blow your budget and that money has to come from somewhere else.

It’s one thing to estimate how much to budget for a category until you get some data, but it is another to force a category to be lower than you need to spend. Not that you want to spend, that you need to spend.  Some categories are pretty inviolable: your rent or mortgage, insurance, gas for your car, etc.  But others can vary, such as restaurants, clothing, blow.  If you cut too deep, your better half will resent it, and either resent you, or ignore your stupid budget  that isn’t workable.  If you don’t put any money into clothing for too long, somebody is going to need shoes and, once again, you will have blown your budget.  We actually set up a separate category for shoes (there’s five of us) that we save each paycheck and build up. Quicken’s savings goals work pretty well for this.

Communication and give and take in the budget are important.  If it’s all one-sided, you are destined to fail.

Tweet This Post

Uncategorized Budget, Goals

Since everyone else seems to be posting them, here are our goals for 2009.  I hope that by putting these out for the world to see, that we might be more inspired to work towards them.

1. Get organized.
   Our house and lives are still severely disorganized, and it definitely costs us money.  I needed a hex wrench a month ago, and, even though I know I own two sets, I could find neither and ended up going and buying another set.  What a waste.  Even more annoying, I just found a set I didn’t even know I had in a box of junk I bought at an auction.
2. Get all of our credit card debt paid off.
   This should be pretty straight forward if things go well.  You can track our progress on the gauge on the right.
3. Have $10,000 of our Emergency Fund saved.
   If we get our credit card debt paid off, we should be able to make this.
4. Lose 20 pounds (each of us).
   My wife has made incredible progress losing weight, I have made none.  I might have to try the grapefruit & fish oil diet again.
5. Go to the Liberty Bowl parade.
   Our two middle children are going to play in the marching band in the parade, and our oldest son lives near there, so we would like to make this Christmas.
6. Entertain more.
   We built a deck in our back yard two years ago and used it quite a bit that summer.  This past summer, I think we used it once to entertain, and we really missed it.

What are your goals for this year?

Tweet This Post

Uncategorized Emergency Fund, Goals