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I need a goal

August 16th, 2007 at 02:45 pm

Thanks so much for all the nice comments everyone! I think this blog is going to be the perfect tool for me. I just can't go wrong with all this support here!

My first triumph...last night DH wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner and I talked him into staying home.

I think it would be appropriate for me to set some financial goals. Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to do that realistically as I mentioned previously we just bought a house. We didn't have a mortgage payment this first month so the budget is kind of out of whack. I also recently did a lot of switching credit card balances to take advantage of the 0% interest. I think things will be more clear next month when I have a mortgage payment and I'm sure of the credit card balances, their due dates, and minimum payments.

Our general rule is to make minimum payments on all our cards except for one. I know what you're thinking! What does she mean by "general"? Well, we were trying to save up for a house; we were determined to pay for our own closing costs so we dedicated pretty much all extra money to savings instead of the credit card.

My preliminary thoughts on a goal is I'd like to pay off one card balance by the end of the year. That balance is about $3,000. I don't think that would be too hard. I'd like to pay off our credit cards first, then my student loans, then the house. Our cars are paid off and we are lucky enough to be in a position where we don't need credit cards to pay for anything. So we're not accumulating more debt.

Our main obstacles include the price of our babysitter. There's not much I can do about that though. Also the temptation to buy things for our new house is much greater than I anticipated. We've had the same furniture since we were in college. My husband graduated in '95 and I in '97. That doesn't sound too bad until you factor in two children who've taken their toll on the furniture. Plus, it was used when we got it. Now that I'm writing this, for the first time I feel so shallow for wanting new furniture when I've got all this debt to pay off. WOW! I've decided to take one room at a time, and do my best to stay within my "household" budget each month of $175.

On another note, I rewatched "SuperSize Me" last night. Makes you not want to give your money to any fast food chain. I also ordered a book called "Not Buying it" off Half.com about a person who didn't buy anything for one full year. Ought to be interesting!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “I need a goal”

  1. jdedit2001 Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 03:03 pm 1187276586
    1187276586

    Congratulations on the house. I just became a home owner for the first time in May, so I can understand a lot of what you are saying about wanting to spend money on the new home. The first few months I spent a large amount on "household" items. This month I've decided I really need to dial back the spending and get things under control. I gave in to the urge for new furniture, and although I really like it, I think it was a splurge that I really didn't need.

    Best of luck to you.

    Jeanne

  2. mbkonef Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 06:21 pm 1187288477
    1187288477

    I read "Not Buying It" this past winter. While I enjoyed it, I found it too heavy on the politics for my taste and not really enough about finance etc. Anyway, if you don't like it, you could always resell it on Half.com. Perhaps if you make it a challenge to yourself to furnish/decorate frugally by going to garage sales, auctions etc. you can make it a sort of personal challenge and enjoy the process rather than feeling bad about what you cannot afford to buy right now. I know this works for me. We really could use new furniture in the family room but I refuse to just go out and buy new. In part cause I don't want to spend money that would be better put toward debt/emergency fund and in part cause it will just get beat up again by 4 kids, 2 large drooly dogs and 1 husband. (Okay, and me but I am easiest on it). Anyway, I am determined to find suitable alternatives to spending full price on new and am looking at it as a fun personal challenge rather than letting myself whine about what I cannot have right now. (Which I would still sometimes like to do).

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