I've been reading some other's financial goals for 2009, and have decided that is something I should set for us this year. Since we recently had a baby and I quit my job, it is important that I budget our money well. I have great motivation to do this because I want to stay home with our precious baby girl as long as I can. I feel like I am getting the hang of motherhood, so I can be on top of getting good deals and spending less on food now. So, here are some of my goals for 2009. They are pretty basic right now, but I will work on them through the year!
- Spend only $300 a month on food / groceries (this includes eating out)
- Save $1,000 in our Christmas Club account (this is an important time of year for us and I enjoy being able to do things for others)
- Have a "no spend" month. We will only spend money on bills, gas, and milk. I haven't decided which month this will be yet. I will need to pick a month with no birthdays and nothing major planned for us. The money we save will be used to pay off some debt and beef up our savings a little more for emergencies.
- Work on a budget for all spending and stick to it!
- Start consistently putting money in our daughter's college fund. (not sure the amount yet)
- Find a creative way to provide some extra income each month (I am looking into opening an Etsy store and selling some things on Craig's list / Local Sales Network)
These are just a few of my goals for 2009. I'm hoping to be able to stay home all year with our daughter. We'll see how it goes! Head over to Money Saving Mom to see what other's 2009 goals are!
2 comments:
It doesn't have to be a no birthday month. If you can find gifts ahead of time, you can set the gifts aside. You can have items for cake in the pantry (in fact you probably already do).
We have been living on our food storage for 2 years now, and last month I just made a three layer chocolate mousse cake for a child's birthday from items I had on hand (I substituted evaporated milk and gelatin for the cream). Even if you want to make a cheesecake, you can buy cream cheese on sale and keep it in the fridge for months (it's fine way past the "best by" date), and use evaporate milk for the cream (or use canned cream).
If you have powdered milk on hand, you can use that for baking. I love milk; I used to buy 16 gallons at a time. We changed what we ate (no cold cereal, for one) when we started living on our food storage. I miss milk (it's not in the budget; most food isn't anymore) but when I'm cooking I use powdered and evaported milk. It's pretty easy; I just mix up a cup (or 3) at a time, depending on what I'm making.
Oh, and I'd like to add that staying home is a wonderful goal!
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