Budgets

Thanks to budgeting, we have some big news coming up next month. We've been able to cut our day-to-day spending in order to set (and meet) some goals.

After we got married, I was amazed at how easy it was to spend every last penny we made (and no, the information above is not mine, I wish it were). We weren't getting any closer to coming up with an emergency fund, and we were only making minimum payments on our student loans.

To be honest, I don't think I could have done it without mint.com. Their site is really user friendly, and allows me to keep up with pending and posted income and expenditures. It was a fun game trying to make sure that our net income met certain goals each week.

Here's our schedule
January - save up for big news and save up for half of our small emergency fund
February - save up even more for big news and other half of small emergency fund (while also paying to have my car fixed).
March to May - pay off small student loan
May 2012 to May 2013 - pay off big student loan


We stayed on track in January, and hopefully we'll be able to do even better in February! I'll let you know!

2012

New Years Resolutions:

1. I know... I know, I always say I will... but for real, I'm going to blog more (and post the 4 drafts that I haven't actually posted for January).
2. By the end of the year, I want to make sure the house is clean before I go to bed.
3. Learn to eat right - I got into great shape for my wedding, and then decided I would relax a little with my food. Here I am 15 lbs heavier and eating sweets all day long. That's something that I'm going to change.
4. Save enough money for an emergency fund and pay off half of our student loans.
5. Finish my Thank You cards for the wedding. They're coming!
6. Take more photos.
7. Take control of my career.