Last week my husband come home early from work on Tuesday. He had hurt his back and it was getting worse throughout his work day (he does a lot of bending and lifting) So he went to a chiropractor and he first thought it might be a separated disk. The next day on Xrays it showed that he had a tear on his vertebrae. So needless to say he was going to be off of work for atleast a week. He isn't as lucky as me in that I have Sick leave for things like this. He has vacation time but who wants to use vacation time for something like that. I knew from watching Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman to have an emergency fund for things like this but in keeping up with Saving Advice these last few years I have learned about so many other things people do like slush funds and short term savings vs long term savings. We have been saving in our slush fund and we are going to be able to make it through this time without having to get into our emergency fund. I wouldn't have a problem getting into our emergency fund if we needed it, but it is very nice to still have it in tact after a little setback and be able to use the emergency fund for more serious situations.

Thanks to Jeffrey and Nate for maintaining this wonderul site that we have. Thanks to all the bloggers who share their successes and misfortunes because we truly learn valuable life lessons from everyone that shares their daily lives and struggles. Lastly thanks to those that are so willing and helpful to answer people in the forums who may have no clues on budgeting and investing and yet so many of you do your best to lead them in the right way. I am so glad to be a part of this wonderful community.

This weekend I looked back at our numbers in Oct through December. On average in those months we were spending $1400 on Food and Gas (this includes Groceries and Eating Out) Sheeeesh! That is pitiful!

I have always known the numbers were horrible and figured we could do much better. I do have a commute but most of that number is Food. This month we decided that we would not eat out near as much and try to get our grocery budget under control. Total so far this month has been $445 (this includes everything except fixed bills.....Food, Gas, Meds, Allowance for DS, etc...) BIG DIFFERENCE. Just with us being somewhat conscious I think we are going to save around $600 - $700 this month.

Another thing we are doing this month is NO CREDIT CARDS. I am not against credit card use in any way. As a matter of fact I have always used them and paid them off each month. But sometimes we still just seem to spend easier with a credit card and sometimes it is tough to make that high payment. I have only put one thing on the credit card this month and that was lawn care service we receive and we pay for it annually. (It is a fertilizing service to help with weeds) We are debating getting rid of it to save money as well.

I am proud of us so far this month. We have always typically been good about not having too much debt and trying to save as much money as possible but this month has shown me that we can do even better when we put our minds to it.


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Snowflakes so far:

$52.92 (was sent to hubby's bike payment)

This includes:

1.53 reconciling our checking account
2.54 interest on checking
5.58 interest on savings
3.62 extra budgeted for electricty/h20
4.00 extra budgeted for phone
13.65 reimbursement from work on some doughnuts
6.00 52 week challenge
16.00 8 No spend days

So we were having dinner last night and talking about how we have only eaten out one time this month (which normally would be atleast 4 - 6 times by now) and we were telling my son (age 6) that we were watching our money closer. I didn't want him to be scared in any way that we didn't have money...just that we weren't spending unnecessarily...and told him that. He looks at me and says "Mom, I know you are daddy are like Mr Krabs" LOL (I'm sure most of you know that Mr. Krabs is the money hoarding business man on Spongebob Squarepants) I thought wow kids realize more than we think they do.
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On to money we had 2 NSDs over the weekend which is rare for us. So I was very proud of that. One of our downfalls has always been our grocery bill so we are really trying to work on that and have been doing pretty good so far this month. I hope we can keep it up.

Also we received our electric and water bill and it came in about $3.50 less than expected so I will be adding that little snowflake to hubby's bike payment.

2013 Goals

1) Fully Fund Roth for both 2012 and 2013

2) Trip to Disney World $3000

3) Add $2000 to emergency fund

4) Pay off my hubby's bike that he had to have last year

5) Pay extra $6000 to mortgage

This will be the most goals that I have ever attempted at one time and also the first time to really write down specific goals. I remember reading a blog post from monkeymama I believe and she said it is probably best atleast for her to focus on one goal at a time. I have been debating over that for a while. I have decided I agree with that statement. You get to see your debt or goals accomplished quicker which is so important. It sometimes seems like a slow go if you are working on all goals at once.

I picked up the snowflake ideas from creditcardfree and a couple others and decided that this year I want to do that to pay toward my hubby's bike. So far snowflakes include:

5.58 interest from savings
13.65 reimbursement from work
8.00 4 NSD
3.00 52 weekly challenge
1.53 just a little exta money in checkng
2.54 interest from checking

Total snowflakes for 2013: 34.30

So now I have to decide how this will be added...bi-weekly, monthly, or other time frame. Since it is such a smll amount just not sure how I will do this yet. Suggestions welcome. What would you do?

I am new to blogging but not new to SA! I do believe I am addicted to SA. Have been a lurker and poster for a while. I have however never had a blog. I have loved reading everyone's blogs thus far and figured a blog of my own may help me to be more accountable in meeting our goals.

In my next post I plan to list my goals for 2013! I will also try to share things my husband and I have done to pay off debts in the past so maybe I can help others.