financial challenge 2008

ok, so i'm spoiled. i get it now. i buy whatever the hell i want whenever the hell i want and it isn't right. i wonder where all my money goes and it's like HELLO!! you went shopping and dropped 3 bills at LB and went on a craft supply hoarding spree!!

my name is heather and i am a shopaholic. i have no savings. i live paycheck to paycheck.

whew. now that my confession is out of the way i can begin my road to financial recovery. i hope. i've had long talks about this with johnny so hopefully he's on board with some of the drastic but necessary financial decisions i have made.

first of all, we spend way way too much money eating at restaurants. partly out of convenience partly out of laziness. neither is acceptable. eating out should be a reward, not a daily exercise. i am still looking for that perfect online meal/grocery planning website and haven't found one yet so i have to come up with my own system - which i did based on previous experiences.

instead of trying to figure out every meal i need to prepare for each day i am going to use this method. the heather method. i will sort a specific number of recipes once a week into the following categories:

• 5 dinners
• 3 lunches
• 2 breakfasts
• 3 snacks
• 2 desserts
• 3 beverages

i won't have any specific meal planned for a specific night but i will only buy the items i need according to the recipes for the above meals per week. and to make this even tougher, i have placed a strict limit of $100.00 per week for groceries. oh shit i accidentally swallowed my gum....dammit. anyways i figure if i can plan out which meals to make every week then we can save some money and use the leftovers for eating out, maybe once a week. i am only planning to make 5 dinners because there will be a couple night per week where we need to eat leftovers or maybe i'm too tired to cook and i can just make some ramen noodles (the souped up korean style, not the top ramen crap).

the next financial step is to figure out how to invest in my roth IRA. i have no clue so i need to research and set up a system that automatically deposits a set amount every month.

i am also trying to cut down on the principle amount of my mortgage so starting february i am going to pay $200.00 above the mortgage amount every month to help cut down the principle. this will in turn cut down on my interest as well. it's a win-win but it's going to be tough.

all of this means NO shopping sprees. if i need a new pair of pants, it has to fall within the budget AFTER i've made the above mentioned payments. the good news is that I will have a couple of credit cards paid off soon so i'll hopefully have more cash.

i'll try to keep myself disciplined and post my failures here for all the world to see.

*update*

i have just taken care of item#2. the roth IRA. in a bold move, i transferred funds from my line of credit to my investment account at fidelity. i bought myself a mutual fund for $2500.00. holy sheet, man. my first real investment. it's got a very aggressive profile so hopefully it will grow fast. i am going to contribute $100 every month this year. maybe next year i can contribute more per month. anyways, i applied this contribution to the 2007 tax year so i can still contribute up to another $4,000 for 2008. now all i have to do is pay down my line of credit!!