2013 Goals!

I will be going into super saver mode this year. I've picked up so many tips along the way, and I've been applying a bunch of them, but sometimes I slack off and get lazy. Here are the goals I've come up with for the upcoming year.

1. Pay off my mom and dad. I owe my parents $592. I'm not even sure what it's for...but it's going to be the first priority this year.

2. Continue saving 10% of my net paycheck each week to put towards a new car. My car is 12 years old, but I know I can make it last until I save up enough money to pay for a new one with cash.

3. Earn $1000 in "extra money" (and gift cards). I participate in a bunch of rewards programs, so I'm hoping between those, mail in rebates, selling unwanted items on ebay/craigslist, credit card rewards, mystery shopping and taking surveys I can rake in $1000 in extra cash and gift cards.

4. No spending money on clothing or shoes for myself. This will be a tough one, but I did an inventory of my closets and drawers and I have more than enough clothing. I am most likely getting a promotion at work in a few weeks. This will require a completely new set of uniforms, however, my agency will provide me with a purchase order that should cover the expense of all of my new uniforms and equipment. So while there will be some new clothing coming into my home, it won't be paid for by me.

5. Continue trying to make the majority of my meals at home. Treating myself to take out when I work a double shift seems to be a good compromise.

So that's it for the year. Clothing and eating out are where most of my discretionary money gets spent, so hopefully that will help out big time. What are your 2013 goals?

Review of 2012 Goals

I’m trying to get back into blogging. Although I didn’t post much of anything this past year, I was scrimping and saving just the same. Here’s how I did on my 2012 goals I set for myself in this post here.

11.       Have 3 “no spend days” each week. I’m not sure if I passed this one or not since I stopped keeping track about three weeks into January.  One thing I did learn over the past year, is if I make something too difficult, I won’t keep up with it. I tried to be so organized at the beginning of 2012 by creating a spreadsheet to keep track of what I was spending and saving, when I was exercising, how much water I was drinking each day…all that in addition to the spreadsheets I use to do my budget and keep track of my rebates. It was just too much. My guess is that I averaged 3 “no spend days” each week, but I don’t know for sure. FAIL.

22.   Get my emergency fund up to $10k. PASS!

33.       Pay off my mom and dad: I paid them down. I owed $1700 at the beginning of the year, and I’m down to a little over $600. This will be my first priority in 2013.

44.       Build a short term emergency fund of $1000. For a while this was a PASS! But I had to dip into it, and it only has $300 in it now. Second priority of 2013 is to get this back to $1000.

55.       Save for a new car. PASS! Once my emergency fund was up to $10k, I started putting 10% of my net paycheck into a separate savings account for a new car. I have over $3300 saved so far.

66.      Work out. PASS!  Again, I didn’t keep track of this, but I worked myself up to being able to run 6 miles over the summer (all at once…without stopping!) I also bought a few dumbbells, kettle bells and a yoga mat and did some weight lifting each week.

77.       This was a three part goal….Do a better job of eating more healthy: Pass! I all but gave up on drive thru food. I had a sundae from McDonalds once, but other than that, I didn’t get anything from McDonalds or Burger King all year. I did hit up a  Wendy’s one day and Taco Bell a few times, but that’s such an improvement over how often I was eating that stuff before. Drink more water and less soda. I all but gave up soda too. I think I averaged maybe one soda a month...again, way better than have 2-3 per day like I used to. I bought myself a Brita water pitcher for home and use the water cooler at work all the time. Bring lunch/dinner to work: Pass! I was pretty good about this most of the year. I allowed myself to get take out for one meal on days that I was working a double shift. There were definitely times that I was too lazy to pack something for work or didn’t have anything in the house to bring, but overall I did a pretty good job.

88.       Find a storage solution for the alcove in my dining room. Pass! I bought a buffet table last winter and I absolutely love it.