2013

I typically do a new year's resolution post - I didn't get to do one this year yet.

Here is what I wanted to do on January 1, 2012:

1. Pay down the credit cards under $1000.00. Seriously. That is my biggest goal this year. I want to follow the principles of Dave Ramsey and the "Snowball" debt pay off theory. Pay the minimum on the rest and pay off the one that is the smallest (I think -- I'd have to review) and the take that payment and apply it to the next one until it's gone. Etc. 
2. I don't know if I will try to save anything this year or not -- I'm really going for the payoffs of our major debts this year. Credit cards are the worst, followed by the dang Saturn. 
3. Lose 15 - 20 lbs -- I'd like to get back to under 200 lbs. 
4. Finish all the construction projects in the house and move the two boys into one room late this year. Max will have to be sleeping through the night for this to work in my mind. So, I'm hoping in the fall, we will be able to do this and move to the bedroom downstairs. 
5. Get Ryan to use the regular toilet and get him out of diapers.

What did I accomplish?   Did not pay off the credit cards, not even a little - in fact, with poor money management, things got worse.   But, we survived.   #1 and #2 - not even a little

#3 - Well, I did lost 5 pounds right at the end of the year.   However, I gained 20 before that.   So, not even a little there, either.

#4 - they are in the same room, but construction projects are still moving around.   So, half done!

#5 - He uses the potty LIKE A BOSS

Potty training was huge to me, so that's a major accomplishment in my book, especially when it was done with a newborn in the house.


My major To-Do list for 2013:

1. Pick a way to budget and start to do it and HOPEFULLY, get off the using the credit card cycle.
2. Save an emergency fund that has 3 months of bills
3. Get back to 200 pounds by May 13 (Ryan's 4th Birthday) and back to 175 by December 20 (Max's 2nd Birthday) - I'm not totally sure of how realistic this is, but I am sure going to try.
4. Finish getting rid of all the miscellaneous stuff in the house
5. Start potty training Maxer - I'm not totally certain of this one, but it's worth a shot


There are other minor things that I would like to get done this year - finish all the weird miscellaneous projects in the house, get Max into the lower bunk and Ryan into the top bunk.   We really need to pull the drywall off of the bedroom and take a look at the roof - I think there is more leaking when it rains than we know about.



Starting resolution #1:

I have actually started this one already.   While looking through my Pinterest feed, I found a pin that someone had of a blog about budgeting for a family with an income of less than $30k a year.  I was reading and loving the advice.   Some how, I managed to stumble upon another blog at a website called YouNeedABudget.com, code name: Y-NAB.

I am currently in the middle of the trial for the software and am LOVING it.   It teaches you to budget the money you actually have.   This really works for me, because while my paychecks are fairly consistent, Jake's can be all over the place and I never know exactly how much we will have any given month.   Where YNAB tries to lead you to is to live in the current month on the money you made in the previous month.   Genius!   Maybe I'm just not that good with my own personal money, but I never had thought of anything like that before.   BTW, I'm not being paid for my endorsement or anything.   LOL

I just have struggled and struggled and struggled for a way for me to track what we are spending and why we never seem to be able to get ahead of the game at all - and this seems like the magic fix to me.   Well, "Magic".   I mean, we still have to plan and save and make sure that we aren't going hog wild, but I would really, really, REALLY like to get to the end of the year with no credit card debt and possible no car payments.   It's totally within the realm of possibilities, if we try and stay focused.

Happy New Year!