On Jan 1, 2011 I posted these goals:
1) Have at least $2000 in my Emergency Fund
2) Have at least $5000 in the Wedding Fund *joint savings with fiancee
3) Have at least $7000 in RRSPs
4) Pay off Visa (for good, dammit!)
5) Have MasterCard down to at least $8000
6) Pay down Citi (no goal, because the interest is so high, but make regular monthly payments)
7) Not go over my budget more than $100 in any month
1) Right now its a FAIL. If I was 25% done towards this goal my EF would be sitting at $500, its currently sitting at $411.52 (I had to take some money out to cover my glasses). However, I have increased my contribution to $200/mth. 9 months X $200/mth = $1800 plus $411.52 = $2211.52 So, barring any major emergencies coming up between now and end of the year, I will still achieve this goal :)
2) ON TRACK. Actually, we will probably be closer to $6000. Right now this account is sitting at $1980 with me contributing $150/mth and fiance will start contributing $300/mth starting in April (was contribution $100/mth but now that he's debt free! he is upping his contributions). So, $150 X 9 =$1350 plus $300 X 9 = $2700 = $6030 plus interest :)
3) ON TRACK. Currently sitting at $5470.66 I am making $250/mth contributions X 9 = $2250 = $7720.66 I'm leaving the goal at $7000 because of market fluctuations. My RSPs are invested in mutual funds.
4) DONE!!! Paid off Visa on March 17th and CLOSED IT on March 18th :)
5) EXCEEDING When I wrote my goals I didn't know I was going to have this new job with the significant pay increase so I didn't know if I would be able to put big chunks on my debt. Well, my MasterCard is currently sitting at $8500 and I'm making $500/mth payments. $500 X 9 = $4500 = $4000 So I am now making this goal $5000 to account for interest and maybe a month where I can't make the extra payment. Of course, I will still try my hardest to exceed this goal :)
6) ON TRACK Well, since there was no goal per se on this one, I'm going to say I'm on track. Also, I made a $1098 extra payment in March and I am planning on throwing any extra money I make this year on this sucker (overtime, GST, surveys). I think I will now make the goal for this loan to be $5000 too.
7) COMPLETE and UDDER FAIL!!! I don't know why I put that as a goal, I should've known that there would be no way I could keep that. January I was over by $546.89, February $256.59; March $339.24!!! So, I don't know what I should do as a replacement goal. Or maybe I should just try harder? Now that I'm making more money and I've given myself more room for variable spending, maybe this is a possibility? Let's see at mid-year review :(
So, not too bad, 2 fails out of 7 but the first should actually not be a fail by the end of the year. I'm fairly content with this. I'm thinking next year I should add in no spend day goals and personal goals too. I may add them in starting mid-year. We'll see.
TTFN, Morgaine.
BTW, how are your yearly goals going so far? Are you on track?
Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThose are good questions. I know that in Jan and Feb I was making less money and I hadn't gotten used to making less so I spent the same. March was only half at the new rate so the first half was still over budget. The second half I went a little crazy because I got a lot of money at once and since I had been very cautious with my money up to that point I let myself go, but too much. I'm hoping April will even things out a bit, but after Friday and Saturday's financial fiasco (which will show on my weekly summary Monday) that I'm still overspending.
So, I think my biggest problem is still a lack of discipline. I see something I want, I buy it. Its something I'm working on, although after looking at my spending from the weekend, still not hard enough.
I am so grateful that I started this blog and have great bloggers like yourself to keep me accountable. I promise to try harder to keep myself within the budget I set forth for myself.
Thank you :) Morgaine
I saw your post, I've already made a few purchases this month that were not necessities. Not to say that I'm going to give up and not try to limit my spending for the rest of the month. Its something that I'm working on, I fail quite often, but I'm not giving up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support :)