My Money Blog

Holiday Expenses and New Year Resolutions

Here is a link to a great article I just read:

Simplify New Year's resolutions

It started with a story that I thought was interesting, about a couple who saved a little money each month and put it into a Christmas account to pay for the holidays.  We decided this past year to pay for everything by cash, so we didn't run up our debt purchasing holiday gifts.  It is such a relief this year not worrying about how to pay for the holiday that already past.  We didn't save all year long for it though, just the last couple of months.  I think we may try putting money aside each paycheck to save for the the 2009 holidays.

The rest of the article also talks about how to meet your resolution.  It was interesting - it mentioned writing down all of your goals, which really does work.  I read a study that said people who write down their goals are 90% more likely to accomplish them.  

New Year's Goals

So, I haven't been very good about writing here.  One of my goals for 2009 is to write on this blog regularly.  Let me give you an update about a couple of things since the last time I wrote:

I was looking for ways to cut my budget by $100.  Some of the methods I tried worked, and some did not. The biggest cut came from bundling my communication costs, and it worked quite well.  Embarq was running a promotion for free Satellite TV for a year.  I have always had cable, but this seemed too good to pass up.  Before I signed up, between cable, phone, and internet, I was spending around $190 a month. Now, I am spending $120 a month, a savings of $70.  The free TV was actually a $40 per month credit, so after a year, I will lose that.  It is still less than what I was paying before.

My electric bill has also dipped a bit, using some of the tips I gave in my post about saving money on my electric bill.  In the first month, my bill dropped from $280 to $230.  This month it was $150 - that fact that it was for December helped with that.  We don't really need to run the heat here in Florida!

Another one of my goals this year is to stop using my credit cards all together.  I will be starting that over the weekend; I need to make sure I have no automatic payments on any of them.  

So, simple, attainable goals always work best.  Here are our long-term goals for this year:

1.  Owe less at the end of the year than we do now.  (That should be easy)

2.  Increase our household income by 10%. (Not as easy)

3.  Decrease our budget by 10%.  

4.  Set monthly short-term financial goals, and meet them.

We'll see how this turns out.  The economy is pretty rough, and we are both teachers.  A few months ago, it seemed like being a teacher was a safe job, but with the massive budget cuts our state is facing, it isn't so safe anymore, especially because we both teach music.

Happy New Year!