Wow, I've been away for awhile. It took me a long time to catch up on everyone's journals and all the new posts in the discussion area.

As I promised myself before vacation, I'm going to try to make a renewed effort to get better about saving my money. I had a really bad June, money-wise. Went totally overboard on vacation, and basically just spent a ton of money. As a result, I'll need to do a lot of digging out in July.

I think I need to take Kashi's approach and look at my goals for 2005. The problem is that I didn't formally make any, so I suppose I should start now. The big thing hanging over my head is a Home Equity line with a $30,779 balance that we used to make an improvement on the house. Up until now, my approach has always been to put any extra money toward it at the end of the month. But as hubby pointed out last night, it's too easy to spend the money and have nothing leftover. So beginning in August, my goal is to put $1500 toward it each month, with an extra $5000 in September if an expected bonus materializes. That will knock it down $12,500 by the end of the year. It's definitely a stretch, especially toward the end of the year, because we have Christmas, both kids' birthdays, and auto insurance ($3200) due.

So how to reach the goal? I think getting more organized will be a big key for me. Reading over my past entries, I realize how much I've complained about my lack of organization and it needs to stop now. I'm going to spend the weekend giving this some thought, but my initial ideas are:

1) I need to go grocery shopping alone, and with a list. My kids cost me a boatload of money every time we go to the store. Also, I forget who recommended that she NOT look at the weekly sale paper because it ends up costing her more, and she should just write down what she needs. I think I'm going to try that, because I always get sucked in by the "great deals".

2) I need to get better about menu planning, including having some foods in the house that we can whip up quickly. If I had a dollar for every time I forgot to defrost something, was missing a key ingredient, etc., I'd be able to pay off all my debt!

3) I need to set a schedule for doing errands so I avoid fines, late fees, etc. and take advantage of the best deals. Our dry cleaner has a deal on Weds where you get 4 things cleaned for the price of 3. No coupons needed. If I have dry cleaning, I need to wait until I have at least four things, and I have to wait until Wednesday. Period. Library day will also be Wednesday. That way I can avoid all of those ridiculous late fees.

4) I need to get better about gift planning. The funny thing about birthdays is that they fall on the same day each year! It's not like they sneak up on me or anything. So on the first weekend of the month, I'm going to buy whatever gifts I need for that month. (Of course, if I see a really great deal and know I can use it down the road, I'll pick that up as well).

Finally, I need to keep a critical eye on all of my money, including utility bills, spending money, etc., to see where I'm wasting it and what I can do better. And as much as I really want the debt gone, I need to remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.