Second half of the year goals

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-10-2003
Second half of the year goals
16
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 7:53am

As a follow up to Marie's email regarding how far you've come, I thought it would be a good time to see what your goals are for the


Bex -

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-10-2003
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 8:00am

I'll start:


First and foremost, pay of the CC!! I made a payment yesterday so it should be down to just under $3700. In this way, I'm going to keep on keeping on.


2) Save up enough cash to pay my school fees. I don't know if this is feasible or not. The one course fee is small (less then $300 from what I can tell) but the big one may fall into the $2000 + range. I just don't know if I can save up that much before it kicks in. Even if I have half of it, I will be happy.


3) Lose those extra lbs like I have been trying to do all


Bex -

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 9:09am

Great idea!

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-22-2008
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 9:25am

Great thread!


My goals for the rest of 2009 are:


* I am buying my first home, closing on it in August. having gone through what I have gone through over the years with being so far in debt I never thought I would work my way out of it, this is a huge step for me. So, number one goal is get a budget on paper. I have never had a budget!


* next up, and even more important is living under my means. Way under, I hope.


* I want to continue to save. I have got myself so worked up over not being able to handle all this new financial responsibility, I am afraid I am going to mess it up. So, I am trying to prepare for all the unknowns that may happen. Hopefully a healthy savings can get me through.


* track my new bills and monthly spending. Once I know the real time costs, I will adjust my budget accordingly.


* and lastly, Christmas spending. I have a budget category for this also. I love the holidays and I love to spoil my loved ones. This year, I really want to stay under budget.


It will interesting to see at the end of 2009 where we are all at with our goals! Here's to success - cheers!

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-28-2008
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 9:36am

Great thread!


Well, still unemployed but we have been managing, thanks to hubby's good job. But we still have a end of the year goal. And that is to see my ticker at $0.00 by the end of the year...The payments are $481; so elminating that will be a huge chunk. Plus the Christmas shopping has already begun. I like to be done early...so we will see. Good Luck everyone

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 9:41am

I have $375 in tuition to the music school Connor attends due in September and another $375 due in December. We pay quarterly.


Vet bill in Sept for cat $180 estimated.


I'd also like to save up at least one more quarter's tuition to the Conservatory for Connor.

Avatar for sohappilyme
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 11:04am

My debt actually dropped out of the 70s and into the 60s yesterday when I made payments. To be perfectly honest, it would have been a THRILLING end of the year goal! We started over 92k and made it to 69k in a little over 6 months - HOLY COW! I'm so freaking excited! When you operate 2k in the red each month, that just totally makes your day!

The second half of the year means more Christmas shopping than snowflaking for me, but I'd love to see my flakes hit 20k. I have over 5k to go to get there so I don't know that it'll happen but I'm gonna try! My original goal for the year was 6k.

Debt-wise, I'm at $69,880 and I'd like to see 62k. That puts me at 30k paid off for the year. What's not to love about that? =c)

Sarah


sahm, wahm, homeschooling mom to

Sarah
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 2:44pm

Second half of year....


Pay off 2008 tax debt.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 3:14pm

Great follow-up indeed, teammate!


Ok, here goes:



  1. Pay off Target card - $1248 left

  2. Pay off HSBC - bigger ones are showing up now, $4k left on that

  3. Pay off Capitol One: $3k

  4. Get business launched - date is September 29, using as much cash as possible

  5. Get DD's senior pictures ($500)

  6. Get DD's athletic fees paid

  7. Keep DD's birthday under $400

  8. Keep Christmas in



iVillage Member
Registered: 12-12-2004
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 3:33pm

Second half of year goals:


l) Pay off at least one of the CC"s, and perhaps DH's.


2) Put finances on mint.com or a better spreadsheet.


3) Continue experimenting with shopping at different places to get good deals, i.e., Target, HOme Depot, local farmer's markets, 99 cent stores.


4) Begin a small exercise program to maintain weight loss. :):)


5) Review month to month statements more thoroughly to check on spending habits.


6) Hopefully, being able to start paying off DH's car earlier.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2004
Thu, 07-09-2009 - 5:01pm

Although I've been throwing money at my debt, I haven't had a plan that was actually 'planned' - it was more of a desperate series of actions. Since I don't have a plan I feel panicky a lot of the time and it's not fair to the kids or myself to live like this.

My goals are:

continue to not use cc's at all (has been working since Jan.)

create a budget that pays all bills with extra going into cc's, an Efund and discretionary fund

tweak the budget so it works (I hear this can take a month or two)

have the baby efund ($1000 seems to be the prevailing amt.)

have the baby discretionary fund (for example money to buy presents for attending bday parties, school supplies, sports costs as they come up rather than having to take it out of $ assigned to monthly expenses...)

get and stay organized, empty out the storage bin and send that monthly pymt into either the efund or discretionary fund until $1000., then send it to cc debt

keep getting repair estimates and stay calm as they come in - I've been hiding from the fact that my house is in serious need, like falling down porches, a chimney that lost 10 or so bricks in a wind storm, four broken windows, many leaks in the roof magnified by the wind storm etc. I hid because I have no way to pay to get the repairs done, but I've decided to at least get the estimates and create a "to do in order" list. I don't love this house anymore BUT I've done the research and there's no place else the kids and I can afford to live so I'd better make sure it doesn't fall down on us more than it already has.

Rereading this gives me butterflies. This is what I want to accomplish (and more too) but maybe it's too much? I'm not sure I can keep from falling apart if I set a goal or too many goals that I don't make. The 'FAILURE' thing seems to send be back into funk-dom only to re-emerge that much worse off later.

So, what do ya think? Keep it this way and try not to freak if I fall short, or scale back some?

Lissa

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