April Goals wrap up

1. Budget our money better This has become increasingly difficult. I am only getting paid about $2 an hour for the babysitting I do & hubby has taken a huge hour cut, leading to a lay off. Thankfully he can collect unemployment it just takes a week to process & wait.
We haven't eaten out much at all, which is fine but I also have only done basic shopping so my creativity is being stretched!!! With 2 kids (sometimes 4) it isn't easy to make all things kid friendly. But in April we were able to make our scheduled debt payments & keep on top of all the bills. So it isn't nearly as bad as it has been in the past.

2. Pay down our debt We are still on the set schedule so we are -$480 on our loan & -$320 on other stuff.


3. Use savings, rebates & misc found money to fund our emergency fund. I haven't followed through on this one as much as I had hoped. But a bulk of it is sitting in the savings account I haven't built it up enough to send it to the ING account.

4. Blog daily. I will get better at this. I can't believe I haven't done much this week. Considering I have so much to write about!

5. Work on DIY project everyday. Well I haven't done a true project a day, but we have made great progress in other things. We have tilled the garden & started to prepare for planting in a couple weeks. The seedlings require constant attention. The bathroom is still in limbo & now thanks to the hidden stimulus rebate delay I say hidden because it never dawned on us that our actual direct deposit payment was rerouted to cover the cost of our filing, duh. So we didn't have a DIRECT deposit... THe check won't go out till June something. Which means that the last couple of purchases we need to make will have to wait. I guess I can't complain after all it's a boost. And money is money, it's just not coming for another month & a half. Not that it isn't already allocated pretty much to the dollar! Of course it does depend on how much comes :D.

6. Do better with cards for family & friends. Think I should just toss this one for the year & pick something else!!!

7. Focus on more MYO foods. I have had some good luck with the sourdough starters I made & the cornbread mix I made has proven to be yummy as a "shake n bake" replacement.

8. Eliminate more clutter Freecycle is so helpful. We also have a couple of local trade boards that I have used. We are also gearing up for big metal trash day, just not sure we have enough for a long haul to a scrap yard. But it's enough that it's getting on my nerves. Although we probably are the only people to have disassembled a washer before junking it...parts anyone. After all the motor, belt & pump were all in perfect condition and you never know when you might need a small HP motor!!!