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Whew!

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Am I ever glad that 2016 is over!  Those last few weeks were absolutely brutal!

Now that things have settled down between the flood and the death in our family, I feel like I can finally get past just surviving, and can start thriving!  As part of thriving, I have been rereading several of the wonderful comments from readers and I am readjusting my plans in regards to budgeting, savings and debt reduction.

I am starting from square one.

As a result of all that we have been through the last few weeks, our savings have been  nearly demolished, so I am going to go back to basics in many ways.    I think this will also help hubby have a better idea of where the money really goes, and I am hoping it will also help me with the emotional aspect of spending.  My goals for January include:

–Tracking every penny spent this month in order to create an accurate budget.  Luckily, our credit union just rolled out a free money tracking and budgeting program for members, so hopefully it will be relatively painless.

–Find ways to increase income

–Decrease outgoing costs

–Pay for an upcoming trip for a wedding with “found” money…or stay home!  I already got a start on this by selling a rocking chair we no longer used on a facebook  classifieds site.

The thing that is still up in the air is how I should tackle the dwindling emergency fund.   We have $200 a month transferred to savings automatically by hubby’s employer.   Should I just let that accumulate naturally over time or should I push to get an emergency fund built before tackling the debt head on?    What are your thoughts?

 


5 Comments

  • Reply Kili |

    Oh wow that Sounds like a tough Couple of weeks. I guess it might be a Good Idea to build Up The emergency Fund at least a Little bit

  • Reply Juhli |

    Sounds like a tough time – but you did have an emergency fund and I bet that made a huge difference so I would focus on building it back up to your known minimum so when life throws something else at you the money you need will be there.

  • Reply Walnut |

    Continuing to save $200 per paid period seems like a great plan. I think tracking your spending down to the penny will help you get a good handle on what a realistic budget will look like for 2017. Also, you’ll need to treat yourselves gently if there was an abrupt death in the family. Allow yourselves to to feel grief and express your sadness as it’ll come in waves when you least expect it.

  • Reply Michele Cooper |

    I think you should examine your expenses and use it to develop an emergency fund goal. Check for yourself how much can you save each month and identify unnecessary leaks and budget overdoing. If you use cash mostly, you can start collecting change even one and five dollar bills in a jar. You can take out the jar cash at the end of each month and add to your emergency fund.

  • Reply Donnie Gardner |

    Sorry to hear about your lose and the rough year. 2017 should be a great one for you! I believe it! I wanted to mention Dave Ramsey’s EveryDollar.Com budgeting tool. I use it everyday and its awesome to track expenses and income. I attribute this app to me being able to payoff my house. No joke, its the real deal when it comes to personal finance. When you’re able to know exactly where every penny goes in the month you have real power over your finances. I hope this helps. Have a great 2017!!!!

So, what do you think ?