Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a happy and safe New Year’s Eve. My family stayed in, with some snacks and movies. What did your family do?

Our goals for this year are:

1. Save a deposit for a rental.
2. Save to have our recently wrecked family vehicle repaired.
3. Start an Emergency Fund.
4. Pay our monthly bills, ON TIME.
5. Start paying off debt.

When I look at this list, all I see are dollar signs. A lot of dollar signs. 2015 is going to be the year we turn our financial situation around. I don’t know if we will be able to achieve all of these things in 1 year, but no matter what, we will be at least working on them. I refuse to let 2015 be as financially difficult as 2014 was, for all of the wrong reasons. 2015 will be difficult, but it will be beneficial in our future.

To start our year off right, yesterday, January 1^st, I started following Dave Ramsey’s system. The first thing I did was subscribe to his “Total Money Makeover” newsletter, and I am eagerly waiting for the first article to arrive in my inbox.Then I went to his website, and read “The Seven Baby Steps”. He also has many many many other articles I plan on reading, and suggest you do too.

The Seven Baby Steps are:

1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund.
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball.
3. 3 – 6 months of expenses in savings.
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRA’s and pre-tax retirement.
5. College funding for children.
6. Pay off home early.
7. Build wealth and give!

A lot of these steps seem easier said than done, especially with our financial situation right now. It’s discouraging when #6 is “Pay off home early” when we are currently renting a bedroom, not even an apartment or house. We would love to have extra money in the bank. Having an extra $1,000 would be huge for us. It’s going to be hard, especially since we need to save a deposit so we can move into a rental, save to get our wrecked vehicle fixed, etc. But I know we can do it. It’s going to take some time, but as long as we keep working towards this goal, we will eventually get there. I will keep you posted on our progress.

Some of the ways I plan on working towards Step 1, to save $1,000 is to:

• Have a budget, and stick to it. (I have created a very thorough budget spreadsheet, that I will be sharing in the near future).
• With our rather strange current living situation, of renting a bedroom and not having a kitchen to cook in, we have been eating out far too much. I am going to look for more foods we can eat at home, that don’t need to be cooked or refrigerated.  
• Since we live several miles out of town, I plan on saving gas by planning our errands wisely, so we only have to drive into town once and not take several trips into town for things.
• I need to plan ahead and make smart purchases. To not buy any unnecessary items. I will only go to the store with a list, and stick to it. No list, no trips to the store. No extra items that were not on my list. Planning ahead is a way to stay ahead, in my opinion.
• Coupons and sales will be my first form of currency. For things like toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, and any other items such as those that we may need.  
• Have a garage sale when the weather warms up. My mom has been graciously housing a lot of our items over the years in her garage that I am sure we could get rid of. We haven’t used any of the items in several years, so I think it’s safe to say it’s time to let them go.
• Get my small craft business I tried to start last year up and running. I started it, but only sold a few items, then got discouraged. I spent a lot of money on supplies. I need to use them.
• Take online surveys, to earn a couple extra dollars here and there. Every penny helps.
• Continue to collect all of our change, roll it, and cash it in at the bank. This is something we have always done. The last house we moved in to, a couple hundred dollars of our deposit was from our rolled change.
• Continue to save our plastic, glass and metal recycling items, and turn them in for cash at our local Recycling Center.
• The 52 Week Challenge. This is my backup/in addition to plan, for saving (over) $1,000.

Have any of you followed Dave Ramsey’s "Seven Baby Steps"? If so, which step are you on and what was the journey like for your family?  Also what our your families financial goals for this year? I would love to know.