February Budget Review & March Goals

Wow, February sure went fast! You can read over my goals for February here.

So here's the overview:
Goal #1 - I paid all but 2 mortgages on time. Didn't quite make the goal, but I got close. When you have 12+ to pay, it can be hard to keep on top of it. I used to have them all on auto pay, but with the economy the way it is, I had to take them off because we didn't always have enough at the 1st of each month.

Goal #2 - I did pay $1000 to the MasterCard. Only $1500 left to pay it off all personal debt! Goal #3 - I didn't start working on the taxes. I really hate this task every year. It stresses me out. Maybe next month?

Goal #4 - we have decided to send Aspen to a local public school at least for now so we don't need to save for tuition right now. And drum roll please.......

Goal#5 - was the best goal of all, planning a mini-vacation! We called our mileage cards and to our shock, found out that we have enough points to go to Hawaii, not only that, we had enough left over to pay for our entire hotel stay! So far we are going to Hawaii for 5 nights, 6 days for $60 booking fee. Sweet!

I spent $262.05 on groceries, $12.05 over my $250 budget with an average savings of 60%. We stayed within our $250 eating out budget, but just barely, and spent $60 over on household items (we had to buy a new DVD player unexpectedly). I never got around to opening a separate checking account for my husband to have access to by debit card, so he did end up spending a little on credit cards for some fishing gear and a guy's night out. Not terrible, but I hope to open the account next month for him. I also received a rebate check for $25.42 from ebates.com that I put into savings. Not bad for Christmas shopping I would have done anyway!

March Goals

1. Send $1500 to Citi MasterCard - That will pay it off the balance of personal charges on the card, and we will be free from personal credit card debt! Our business still owes money to two credit cards so that will be the next challenge for us to tackle.

2. Pay all mortgages on time. See #6

3. Get tax and account info to our accountant. I really (really, really) hate this task and put it off every year. Maybe if it's in one of my goals, it will actually get done :)

4. Put $500 into savings for new-to-us car.

5. Pay off all current business charges on credit cards and send an extra $500 to the card with the lowest balance.

6. Enter mortgages and other monthly payments into online banking system to simplify the bill payment system. I'm hoping that if I do that, it will help me to pay the bills on time and not forget some of them. Since I now work the one day I used to do all the finances for the business, I have had trouble fitting that into everything else that is going on. I have been forgetting which bills I paid when, writing checks but then forgetting to send them out, forgetting to write down who's paid rent, there's weeks and weeks of unopened mail, and on and on it goes. You should see our office. It looks like a bomb has exploded in there! My next goal should be to organize the office, but I don't want to completely set myself up for failure. Baby steps, shall we?


I will be filling our cash envelops with $250 for groceries, $250 for eating out (this will be tight because I already have a girl's night plus two birthday parties on the calendar for the month), and $200 for household items.

Erika