Sunday, January 20, 2008

Updating the Budget for a New Year Can Be Full of Surprises

After a great wrap up to 2007, 2008 is looking more difficult to keep momentum. Last year I paid off two credit cards, one of which has been a thorn in my side for 5 years. This was a lesson on paying more than your minimum balance. This month I sent off the payment that officially brought my student loan debt below the $10,000 mark. Big Yeah!

The bad news, I keep reworking my budget, but I'm still seeing a $400 per month short fall. Part of it is that I'm putting away $200 per month into my Flexible Spending Account for medical savings. I'm looking at other ways to earn money rather than cut back on my savings or debt repayment plan. I'm even contemplating opening a new credit card to transfer the balance to a 0% interest rate. I don't really want to increase temptation, but it would be beneficial and keeps gnawing at the back of my brain.

In all of this planning the one thing that keeps coming up the biggest savings is not spending. I'm going to start keeping daily tally of money I can put towards debt at the bottom of each post. The one draw back is that I may need to dip into this savings to meet the short fall. I will include those expenses in the post as well.

Today, I spent $12 on groceries that will make lunches for the upcoming week as well as breakfast. I only have 1/2 tank of gas until the 31st, so I will need to make sure I don't take any unnecessary trips. My bills are paid for this month, but I wasn't able to save anything. Most of this is because I was on vacation and didn't work any overtime. It will be a challenge, but nothing too uncomfortable.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stay focused...
You are capable of whatever you set your mind to do!