BecomingFrugal.com

Okay so I admit I have been seriously slacking on setting solid long and short term goals for myself. This past year I just sort of kept the goals in mind while trying to save money to achieve them, but since I’m a numbers kind of girl, I’ve decided I need to set real numeric goals for myself.  Here’s a first stab at some goals I’m hoping to accomplish this year:

Long term (one  year goal)

• Pay off my car. As of this month I still owe just over 14,000.
• Do not go into any consumer debt (I paid off my cc’s last year and I am determined to only use them when I need to and pay the balance in full each month)
• Reduce clutter in my home
• Lose 20 pounds (a year is plenty of time to do this, but I want to do it slow and steady to keep it off!)

Okay that’s it for long term goals so far, it might  not sound like much, but the first one is a whopper! Here are the short term (monthly goals) I am setting to accomplish the year long goals:

• Reduce grocery bill from 500/month to 400/month
• Spend less on eating out (limiting myself to 100/month) Sounds like a lot I know, but sadly I’ve been spending more on this.
• Make homemade items when possible (gifts, cleaners, etc)
• Walk at least a mile a day
• reduce my misc. spending. (limiting to 200 a month, I have a home which always seems to need something!)

Well, to other frugals I know I am an amature, these amounts I’ve set would be a piece of cake to many frugals, but for me it’s a second step toward becoming more frugal.  In case you’re wondering, here are some goals I reached last year:

• Reduced grocery budget from 600 to under 500
• paid off all credit cards
• brought lunch at least a day or two a week (I used to eat out for lunch daily)
• Quit a stressful but high paying job for a lower paying job and made it work financially

Those were small goals I set when I first started my journey, but reaching them has really motivated me and convinced me that I can get out of debt and live more simply to live better!

Last month I decided to start trying the envelope method of budgeting (it’s as  simple as it sounds, put your budgeted amount of cash in an envelope for a particular category and only spend out of that for the month) and didn’t quite make it work. But I am not giving up, I shall conquer this budget thing once and for all!

My goal is to finally stick to a budget every month so that I can more predictably save money and pay off debt.   Here goes another try for August!

Okay these need some refinement, but hey, I have to start somewhere!

Frugal steps to accomplish:

1. Budget better
2. Keep track of what i’m spending and where
3. Couponing
4. Meal Planning
5. Spend Less (eating out less, buying stuff i don’t really need)
6. De-Clutter (gotta get rid of some of this junk I’ve accumulated!)

Okay, that’s a start, I’ll refine these in the days to come.  I need to plan just enough ahead to keep me looking toward the future, but not so far that I become overwhelmed and give up.