Beginning Goals

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was thinking about my goals for the coming year… Why not wait til January, you ask? Usually the Christmas season is so hectic, I don’t have a chance to think about it much, and when New Year’s rolls around, if I haven’t thought out my goal setting, I’ll typically blurt out a goal or two when I’m a drink or two into my celebrating and either change my mind or forget them entirely by morning.

Plus, over Thanksgiving I have three full days to mull over things after all familial obligations have already been fulfilled. Usually I fill the DVD player with mindless movies, and veg out on the couch with my notebook and pen and doodle goal ideas, gift lists to buy, and a myriad of other lists that I hope will improve my life to a certain degree before the next year.

This weekend, my primary focus was on money. My husband and I try to budget, try to save, yet we always seem to be living paycheck-to-paycheck. Worse than that, sometimes we’re living a bit beyond paycheck-to-paycheck. So we’re juggling money, uncomfortably trying to get through the last few days of the month with not enough money to do it.

And I’ve decided this is not going to happen again. We are going to plug the leaks in our budget, create an emergency fund, and start saving for the future. I’d like to begin saving in January for Christmas next year, so when next year comes around, we have our budgeted amount already set aside and ready to go, without trying to figure out where the money’s going to come from.

I’d also like to start thinking ahead in terms of food storage. While both of our jobs are fairly stable and I don’t see anything happening to them in the immediate future, the way prices are rising it’s probably a good idea to have a contingency plan in effect. That way, if our cash flow is lowered for any reason, we won’t have to worry about food. Plus, eating scratch-cooked foods at home is a lot more economical than eating out.

Mainly, I’d like to feel secure in the knowledge that we could get through a crisis without having to rely on outside help. It’s great to know that help is available if necessary, but standing on our own two feet is priority right now.

So here’s this blog, a record of my goals, hopefully my progress, and my trials and setbacks if necessary in reaching those goals. Feel free to follow along, to join me on my path, to give me encouragement if you can, and feedback when I need it. Thank you for being here!