Gathering ideas for the New year and goals

[Amys1st]

So every year for the past 5 or so years, I set a goal for myself to accomplish the following year. Whether its frugal, decluttering organization or saving, what are your plans?

I am currently loosing weight as you can see by my siggy and that has made a dent in my lunch money! But the dent is in my favor because I do not frequent fast food places or sit down places. I also eat less at meals.

But I still need to set a goal for this year.

Share your goal for saving, being frugal etc. I might consider the no spend challenges in the new year, but I want other ideas first.

[Scribe]

I am going to be focusing intensively on my finances in 2008, with the goal of getting completely out of credit card debt by 2009. It's going to be tough, but I think I can do it.

[asianyoushi]

we are gonna *try* to get all of our credit cards paid off and closed or just paid off by august 08.

and i need to loose 15 pounds.

[rachelmarie]

Our financial goal for 2008 are to significantly reduce our credit card debt - some way, some how. I'd also like to keep track of all our spending to see how much money we waste away on nothing (eating out, grabbing a coffee here and there, etc.).

I'm planning on committing to the Compact. I tried last year and did alright for a couple months then slowly got back into the habit of spending. I'd really like to last at least 6 months this time. I imagine we'll save a lot of money this way that can go toward paying off our cc debt!

[Ruthiegirl]

I was just looking over my goals.

Have a baby (I am 36 weeks pregnant)

Get my body moving again

Refill emergency fund Done!

Pay off home equity loan Working on this

Pay off credit card

Pay off washer and dryer

That should get me through to June. At this point, I will need to re-evaulate where our goals stand.

[christy005]

My goals for 2008 are primarily financial.

I'd like to have my credit cards paid off completely by June.

We want to work on getting my DH's credit cards significantly lowered, and paid off in 2009.

I'd like to save up for a down payment for a house and start a college fund for Matthew, once my credit cards are paid off.

[SugarAndSun]

1. Commit to The Compact.
2. Pay off all credit card debt.
3. Never charge on a credit card.
4. Get a job.

Not necessarily in that order.

[KariM]

Financial goals:

1. Open a Christmas Club account - currently planning $50/month which should take care of all gift giving, postage, holiday food, and charitable contributions.

2. Start working early to prepare items for the Holiday Helpers thread (sewing, etc)

3. Increase our savings. Goal is $300/month into savings account.

[crunchy_mama]

1) finish the house (we are rebuilding and still have lots of odds and ends to do) I would like this done by april (the 1 yr anniversary of the house fire)
2) increase retirement saving from 12-15%, switch allocations to bring down the 401k to employee match and put the rest into a Roth acct.
3) Go through all baby \ kid clothes keep what we love and organize it, get rid of rest
4) go through shed and basement and stuff from the fire clearing out shed for dh's use
5) set up saving acct for Christmas next year, would like to make it about $500
6) would like to tone up and get in better shape before getting prego again
7) grow, can, and freeze most of the produce that we will need for the winter

that's all I can think of for now, next year will be very busy trying to get our lives back to order

[avaylee]

slightly off-topic

Originally Posted by rachelmarie

I'm planning on committing to the Compact. I tried last year and did alright for a couple months then slowly got back into the habit of spending. I'd really like to last at least 6 months this time. I imagine we'll save a lot of money this way that can go toward paying off our cc debt!

Not to hijack, but what is "the Compact"? Another poster mentioned it as well.

{back to your regularly scheduled thread}

We're currently evaluating our goals. So far
- pay off CC by Sept 2008
- start college fund for DD ($25/month to start)
- get emergency fund back up to three months living expenses (currently at one month)
- me becoming a full-time SAHM (i.e. quitting my job)

[Amys1st]

There are a few threads going here on compacting, I suggest you check them out!

So far for me since my OP,
I want to finish my weight loss goal,
audit our groceries and see where we can cut or save
have a better tracking system for this
pay cash for groceries and set aside a set amount each and every month for them to see where the money is going. We live frugal and pretty debt free, but I want to get to a better cash system. We use the ccs, but pay them off each and every month.

[mommyddeville]

I'd love to see this bumped to the top about once a month. . . I need to remember my goals for 2008.

1) Pay off credit cards, car, and home equity loan by 2009. That sounds really irresponsible to get into that position, but we had to replace our sewer line with no warning. We had to take out a home equity loan for it. YUCK!

2) Stay healthy for this pregnancy. I've had horrible health problems in my previous 2 pregnancies, so I'm being more proactive about my health this time.

3) Save money for a new car and house. This will start after we pay off the credit cards and car. I also want to save 3 months of living expenses.

I need to write out all sorts of details for each of these. . . not just "do them."

[Stace]

My goals are very simple.

*Pay down credit card debt by at least half, more as finances allow.
*Lose weight after baby is born.
*Come up with a schedule for cleaning the house that I can stick to.
*Put at least $10 a week into savings account, more if finances allow. It's not much, I know, but it's better than nothing.

[MaddieMay]

We are preparing for a huge life change this year as we are moving overseas. (DH is military.) One of our goals is to travel as much as we possibly can-we plan on adding to our travel fund every two weeks, just like any of our other bills. We have wiggle room in our budget now, but I'd like to really sit down and analyze our spending to find more ways to send money to our travel fund. We haven't sat down as a couple in awhile to pour over exact dollar amounts, so I think this would be helpful.

Oh, and get pregnant! Funny how that was a goal for 2006 and 2007...maybe third year will be a charm! If accomplished, we'll start baby funds and college funds.

[nolansmummy]

My goals have more to do with organizing than financial
1. Get a system for bills, set up to automatically get paid

2.Lose this baby weight before dd is 1 (15 lost, 50 lbs to go)

3. set up a cleaning schedule i can work with

4.Finally get rid of all this extra stuff, sell on ebay, craigslist, tp, give away

5.Put some extra money in savings for an emergency fund (also have 10$/wk added on a regular basis, or more if able.

6.Get all A's next semester!!

[a2mama]

1. Commit to the Compact
2. build up, maintain, and NOT USE arm's length savings (this year, we had to use it twice to help catch up)
3. Keep more of my money (at least 30%) in the local economy (shop local independents first, locally owned franchises next, big box distant third)
4. Not have more than $25. in library fines this year. Total! Right now, my average is about $25 every 4 months. :


ps. i second the idea to keep this thread near the top at least monthly so we can check in with each other and ourselves

[Amys1st]

I agree we need to bump this all the time to remind us. I will do it if others also commit to it! I hate when I am just talking to myself on threads!

I love the goal of keeping your money local. We do that as much as possible and I want to do it more.

[Ellien C]

My church does a lovely "Burning Bowl" ceremony on New Year's eve. There is some meditation and you write down all the stuff you are willing to let go and get rid of. Then you bring it up and burn it in a bowl and release.

Then you meditate some more and write a letter to yourself about how you want to fill the space you've just made. And the church mails you the letter in June.

This is one of my favorite ceremonies of the whole year.

This year I would like to:

1)Finish projects. I've got a few things I owe people and I'd like to get that stuff wrapped up or give them their materials back and admit I won't be doing the project.

2) Take better care of myself. I need to go out a little more, find reliable babysitting, get a cleaning woman and plan to go to a "meal makers" kind of place periodically.

3) Meal planning would be a nice addition to.

4) I really need a cleaning person. That should be it's own goal!

[***Heather***]

Originally Posted by Ellien C

My church does a lovely "Burning Bowl" ceremony on New Year's eve. There is some meditation and you write down all the stuff you are willing to let go and get rid of. Then you bring it up and burn it in a bowl and release.

Then you meditate some more and write a letter to yourself about how you want to fill the space you've just made. And the church mails you the letter in June.

This is one of my favorite ceremonies of the whole year.

This year I would like to:

1)Finish projects. I've got a few things I owe people and I'd like to get that stuff wrapped up or give them their materials back and admit I won't be doing the project.

2) Take better care of myself. I need to go out a little more, find reliable babysitting, get a cleaning woman and plan to go to a "meal makers" kind of place periodically.

3) Meal planning would be a nice addition to.

4) I really need a cleaning person. That should be it's own goal!

What kind of church do you go to?! That sounds really nice!

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by KariM

Financial goals:

1. Open a Christmas Club account - currently planning $50/month which should take care of all gift giving, postage, holiday food, and charitable contributions.

I need to steal this goal!! Every year we are tight in December, this year has been the worst, and every year we say we won't do it again the next year..well here we are again. So that really needs to go on my goal list!!

Financial Goals:

• Keep current

• Save at least 200/month

• Get our $1000 emergency fund in place

• Get Christmas account open and continue to put $$ in it!

• No more credit cards

• Pay our cc's down

Other Goals:

• Join the compact

• Get my house in order

• Do more unschooling/activities with mmy ds

• Go Vegan (struggling right now to go Lacto-Vegetarian)