How Bulk shopping saves us a bundle

You know when ever I talk to people about the fact that we do our shopping in bulk we get a lot of the same responses.

"Does it really save you money?"
"I just don't have the money to do that"
"Where would I put it all!"
"I don't have the time!"

So I thought I would share my responses with you all.

"Does it really save you money?" Why yes it does! Part of it is that we have a super sized family compared to the "normal" American family. When you have more than 2 children stuff just gets eaten faster! I could buy 4 boxes of cereal at $4 a pop or 1 giant box for $6...you do the math! Even if you don't have a super sized family buying in bulk is still feasible. We buy he giant cans of tomatoes, you know the ones that look like they are supposed to be used in school cafeterias? Well even with 7 mouths to feed I can't use a entire can of those suckers! I instead package it down into 1c. servings and drop them in the freezer. One 14.5 can of crushed tomatoes is about $1 on sale, One ginormous can of crushed tomatoes is $3. I can typically get 20 one cup portions out of the huge can. That is a HUGE savings!

Another way it saves us money is that buy buying in bulk we typically end up with a little more than we needed. I can get a great deal on 7lb packages of ground beef for example but if I only need 6lbs for that month I freeze the extra pound for later. After 2-3 mths of this type of stockpiling you find you have enough in your freezer and pantry to allow you to skip grocery shopping for several weeks! It is a wonderful feeling to realize "Hey I don't have to go to the grocery store this month!"

"I just don't have the money to do that" We didn't start out with any more in the grocery budget than we normally used. I just decided to use it differently. I decided instead of spending it 4 times a month I would spend it once. I found my local costco, made a detailed list of what we needed for that month and went to town! Over time we were able to adjust our budget so that all of our months grocery budget came out of the first paycheck of the month giving me even more wiggle room. You know what we have found though? We spend LESS buying in bulk, about $200 a month less!

"Where would I put it all!" As I stated in a previous post we don't live in a McMansion, far far from it! We have a small chest freezer, a pantry, and a cabinet in our hallway for over flow. That is it! We found that by going to once a month shopping we tend to buy more whole foods instead of processed foods. Flour instead of french bread, popcorn instead of cookies, etc.

"I don't have the time!" I have found it doesn't take me any longer to pic up a 25lb bag of flour than it does to pick up a 5lb bag. A little harder on my back maybe but not on my schedule. Actually I find it SAVES me time because I do one major shop a month then a quick dash in every other week for milk and fruit instead of 4 major shopping trips.

End of month grocery breakdown.

This week unfortunately we went over our budgeted amount for groceries. We over spent this month by $80.45. When we take into account that we did some freezer shopping this month (total of $53.44) if this had been a normal month without putting anything in the freezer for the future we would have overspent by $27.01. I am not happy about it BUT we have had a new diet development over here this week. I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes which means I have to limit my carb intake. This means that along with looking at the prices of things I also have to look at the carb count. So we spent a little more to get the lower carb item that I can eat without causing any health issues.

Grocery Breakdown
Breakfast:
$17.05

Lunch:
$25.82

Dinner:
$4.36

Household:
$28.60

Junk/Snack foods:
$14.93

Baking:
$4.51

Dairy:
$14.10

Fruit:
$19.13

Total with surcharge: $140.80
Total Coupons used: $13.00
Total out of pocket: $127.80

Getting ready for baby #5!

As you can tell by the ticker over on the right we are expecting to add a new little one to our family in a few weeks! It is super exciting but has also been challenge since we are expecting our first little boy! We knew we didn't want to break the bank this time since getting ready for twins from scratch a year ago was such a financial drain. So we got creative and tried to get everything we needed for our new little man for the least amount of $$$ possible. At a certain point it became a challenge, and you know how I like challenges!

So here we go!

First up we have every budgets downfall; diapers. There is no way around it you are going to have to diaper your little one. I personally choose to cloth diaper my little ones. It is cheaper in the long run, better for the environment, and better for the babies bottom. This time around we will be using our newborn covers and prefolds in the beginning again, but we also knew we were going to need more diapers for him as he grows since I am also diapering the twins still. So we decided to go ahead and get the bigger diapers while they were on sale. We went with BumGenius 4.0's. They are adjustable for 7-35lbs meaning you buy the diaper ONCE and use it till potty training....really there isn't a better deal out there! Total spent : $196 with shipping.

Next up in our preparation for baby is meal prep. While nursing a baby those first few weeks there really isn't time to do a whole lot of cooking. You are tired and have your hands full with your new little bundle of joy. To counter act the urge to just get fast food or blow the grocery budget on convenience foods I decided to prepare a months worth of dinners and baked goods before hand. I know that sounds daunting in your third trimester but I have a a simple approach. I simply double a recipe that I am already making and then add one to the freezer. Simple. I don't have the exact amounts spent on the freezer meals right now since I am still cooking, but the amount will balance out of our May grocery budget so in reality the total cost is $0.

When sleep deprived and trying to make things easier for yourself digging around in a large chest freezer trying to figure out what you have on hand isn't my idea of fun any more than cooking is! To make my life easier I decided to keep a running log of what meals were in my freezer at any given moment. Since I am the worlds worst for losing any thing written on a piece of paper under the best of circumstances I knew it would be a bad idea when sleep deprived. To solve the this problem I decided to keep a running total of the meals on my white board. Now anyone can simply take a quick look at the board and see what we have available. Another plus is that it is simple to just wipe out a number and add the new amount when you use up a item. Total spent: $0

Next up we have the dreaded nursery. It is the drain of every budget. The crib, dresser, clothes, etc. It adds up FAST! Since we already had older children this was a piece of cake for me. Instead of buying a third crib that would only be needed for a few months till the twins go to a toddler bed we decided to use our co-sleeper for as long as possible. It also seemed silly to me to buy a dresser for a few months so we decided to use a plastic storage container with drawers from the playroom as our makeshift dresser. It works great and will be usable for years. The swing we already had from the twins, and I decided to just use a office chair that was not being used at the present for a place to sit and nurse the baby. It rocks just as well as a rocker, if we decide we need a rocker I can always move the one from the twins room that isn't being used. Now on to the costly items...clothes. There was no way around this one we needed boy clothes. With four older sisters I was up a creek on hand-me-downs. Where to find cheap boy clothes? A consignment store, thrift store, neighbors, etc are all options. I was very lucky when I joined my local mothers of multiples group that they have a 100% free clothing swap every 3 months. I took in all the clothes the twins had outgrown and traded them for a one years supply of boy clothes. This is a even better deal when you take into account that all the little girl clothes I traded I got for free from the swap when I was pregnant with the twins. Total for the nursery: $0

Lastly we have the carseat. When pregnant with the twins my mother was kind enough to buy us two matching girly carseats. They were adorable and I loved them, but pink isn't really a color I wanted for a little boy's carseat. Buying a new carseat wasn't an option either, those suckers are expensive!

Instead of buying a brand new carseat I decided to try and find a boy cover to go on one of the carseats we already had. I was lucky and found a WAHM who sold carseat covers on eBay for a reasonable amount. I was able to get this really cute one for $30.

I just couldn't resist the idea of a carseat cover that couldn't blow off in bad weather when I saw one online. It is a brilliant idea! I though know the limits of my sewing abilities and was not willing to give this one a try. Luckily my good friend is a wiz with the sewing machine and was able to make it for me for $35 with shipping. I am in love with it!

So there you go 100% prepared for baby #5 with only a total outlay of $261!

I am pretty happy with that total since we are having a new gender. Now to just get this little one here safe and sound so we can start enjoying the fruits of our labor!

February's Grocery Totals

It is that time once again where we total up how we did on our grocery budget. This month we used quite a bit less in coupons, but we also bought less groceries total this month.

Total spent on groceries: $200.20
Amount budgeted: $250
Total Remaining: $49.80

Coupons Used: $10.45

Now is also the time of the month when we decide what our next challenge is going to be. What will we challenge ourselves to do in March? I think March will be a savings account challenge.....

March's goal: $500 extra into our savings account for our upcoming overseas move.

Grocery Challenge Progress

We set a goal this month of cutting our grocery bill in half and only spending $250 for the entire month. So far we are doing pretty well. Stocking up on a extra 8lbs of chicken breasts while they were on sale sure isn't going to hurt! We also got our WIC checks changed over so the twins are now getting the soy milk they need so that will no longer be coming out of our budget. I also did a inventory of our chest freezer and we have 10 loafs of bread, and 9 boxes of waffles/pancakes all which were bought last month on sale, thus lowering our Breakfast and Lunch categories.

Our progress this month:

2/3: $30 for Soy milk (before the WIC change over)
2/7: $94.78 Groceries as listed in post below
2/10: $2.94 for WIC shopping (went over $0.94 on my WIC fruit and veg check and gave a $2 tip to the bagger)

Total left: $122.28

Our goal is to not go to the grocery store until the 14th when we get paid again. As you can see by our meal plan below I only worked out 6 dinners to get us through the 7 days till pay day. My plan was that the 7th day would be a leftover clean out dinner. It is pretty simple you serve all the odds and ends of leftovers at one meal. Everyone gets a different meal, your fridge gets some space, and your budget gets a little breathing room!

January's Results and February's Goal

So not sure if I listed our January's goal or not I think I may have been distracted ;) So here we go....

January's Goal: Find a extra $200 to put in our savings account. (Found money being money either from selling items or squeezed from other categories).

Results: $302 extra!

Also added up all the coupons we used this month:
Coupons used: $47!

{Happy dance!}

February's Goal: Cut our grocery budget from $500 to $250 for the month of February.

I figure since the first week of February's groceries were covered by January's pay thanks to the way our paychecks fell leaving only 3 weeks to cover we should be able to do it. Gonna be tight but that is the point of a challenge ;)

Meal Plan for week of January 16th

I tend to meal plan from Sunday to Saturday since I grocery shop on Saturdays so here is this coming weeks meal plan and grocery breakdown :)

Breakfasts:
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Cereal
*Scrambled Eggs
*Homemade Breakfast Burritos
*Milk

Lunches:
*Sandwiches (Turkey, Ham, or PB&J)
*Leftovers
*Fruit
*Milk

Dinner:
*BBQ Brisket and Pasta Salad
*Baked Shell Casserole
*Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
*Honey Rosemary Chicken with Broccoli
*Chicken, Rice and Egg Drop Soup
*Leftovers

Grocery Breakdown:

Breakfast:
$13.82

Lunch:
$5.95

Dinner:
$58.09

Dairy:
$16.85

Snacks/Junk Food:
$14.04

Household:
$20.43

Total (with Surcharge): $135.61
Coupons: $10.40
Total out of pocket: $125.21
**Fruit/Skim milk/etc. Covered by WIC**

Dinner costs were high this week because of having a extra mouth to feed due to having company staying with us. My goal was to have enough leftover from dinners to cover lunches as well. We shall see!!

Today's Haul

I spent today's nap time going from store to store to get the best deals based on our local flyers. Here is today's haul:

Here is the breakdown....

Target

$1 bread (white or wheat) I bought 9 loafs today to add to the 5 loafs I bought at the beginning of the sale. Making my haul 14 loafs at about $15 with tax. That is a savings of about $18. We go through about 1 loaf every 2 days so while I would like for this stockpile to last a while it should get us through till next month :) The nice lady at the checkout was a little in shock that I was buying so much bread. I explained that I will keep it in our freezer till it is needed, even then I think she thought I was nuts, lol!

NEX

24 double rolls of Charmin for $10 each. I bought 2 packs (48 rolls) for $20. That is $0.42 per roll while the next cheapest brand is $0.50 per roll. That gives me a savings of $4.00 total. Not huge but we are now set on Toilet paper for the rest of the month....maybe for Feb as well not totally sure how much TP we go through in a month.

VO5 Shampoo and Conditioner 2/$1.25. I bought 8 bottles for a total of $5. They are normally $0.75 each so I saved $2.00. Four bottles of shampoo and conditioner should last my kiddlets at least 6 months, so we are set there for a while.

Total Savings: $24

Not bad for a hour of my life....will be interesting to see what is on sale next week ;)

My first ever endeavor into shopping by flyers!

Well today was my first ever endeavor into shopping based of flyer sales. I have to admit I was a little nervous that I would get in there and get sucked into the dreaded consumer trap of "I have to have this unrelated item NOW" mentality, after all isn't that why they do the flyers to start with? To get you in the store so you buy more STUFF! For my first attempt I thought I would go small Target is having a bread sale this week and since that is the only thing on my list I figured it would be pretty easy to check out. Plus all my kiddos and my hubby were down for naps so who was going to miss me if I slipped out for a few minutes ;) I managed to walk directly to the bread section averting my eyes from all the pretty sparkly things I passed on my way to the very back center of the store. Once there low and behold there were signs for $1 bread I was in the right section and had read the flyer correctly....only one problem....there was no bread on the shelves! Ok I take that back there were 3 loafs on one of the 5 shelves, plus 2 more shoved in the wrong place making my haul 5 loafs of bread. Not quite the number I was looking for BUT the sale does run through the end of the week so I have a few more days to go back and grab some more.

Total paid out (with my impulse chocolate bar purchase, I broke after all!) was $6.48 with tax.....price at the commissary before surcharge would have been $11.70 so in all I saved $5.22. Not exactly big bucks but it does all add up especially if I can get 5 more loafs and save $6.47 (without the dreaded candy bar, lol!). That would give me a months bread for $10.46 instead of $23.40. {Insert me doing a happy dance here!}

Paying for Resolutions 1 and 2....

So as I stated in my last post I have several resolutions going right now. My first two have to do with $$$ so I figured I would group them together for this post, after all I need to save some money to be able to pay for those resolutions so they might as well be together.

So first things first if I want to be able to save $10,000 and pay off $4,900 in debt all by June on $25,000 a year take home pay with soon to be 5 children as a stay at home mom I am going to need to be creative to say the least! So I thought I would catalog my endeavors so that I am better able to see if they are successful or not.

First item of business is the grocery budget, after all isn't that where most of us could probably cut? My budget for this month is $400 for 6 people....my method of attack? Well that would be coupons and cheap from scratch cooking :) Here is this weeks breakdown...

Meat: $11.29
Breakfast: $17.64
Lunch & Snacks: $ 22.62
Dairy Items: $30.76
Vegetables: $4.65
Dinner: $6.45
Fruit: $12.17
Cleaning and Paper Products: $16.34

Surcharge: $6.07
Total: $127.99
Coupons: -$8.05
Total out of pocket: $119.94

Total came out a little higher than I would have liked but Dairy should be less next week when the next months WIC comes in to play.

The next method of attack is trying to find great deals in the local flyers...this week I found some good deals in the NEX flyer and in the Target flyer. This weeks attempts at finding great deals:

Target:
*$1 Market Pantry Bread (Commissary bread is $2.36 per loaf)

NEX:
*Palmolive 3/$3
*VO5 Shampoo and Conditioner 2/$1.75
*Pepsi Family 3/$10 (commissary cases are $4.64 each)
*Charmin, 24 double rolls $10 (Commissaries cheapest is 9 rolls/4.99)

I will let you all know how this goes I am thinking there will be some bumps in the road while trying to find and get these deals.

Next thing I am looking for is to increase my coupon usage. So first things first is to find more coupons. I have several websites that I like to use and have gotten some great coupons for things I use quite a bit so that helps a bunch.
Coupon websites:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/Category.asp?c=175237
http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=HSPNCF4GHK42U
http://coupons.redplum.com/offers/default.aspx?Id=KrazyCouponLadyBlog&DefaultZipCode
http://www.grocerycouponnetwork.com/
http://www.afullcup.com/coupons/printables
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/print-coupons/
http://www.couponmom.com/printable-grocery-coupons-242

Next place I looked was in the Sunday paper...honestly don't think it was worth the $2. I did find some coupons but not enough to cover the cost of the paper, the flyers were nice but I could get them online for free. Don't think the paper will be happening next week! Live and learn ;)

Cheap and Easy meals

Several of my friends have commented in the last week about how I am able to make cheap and easy meals. One couldn't believe how little we spend at the grocery store while another wanted to know how I am able to make quick meals around babies schedules and soccer practice. Since there has been so much talk about this subject in my life this week I thought I would share some of my menu plan for this week.

Day 1: Spaghetti with Meat sauce and Garlic bread.

• Ground Turkey: $2.75
• Spaghetti Sauce: $1.49
• Garlic Bread: $2.30

Total: $6.54

Day 2: BBQ Brisket with Veggies

• Brisket: $9.30
• BBQ Sauce: $0.89
• Veggies: Free (WIC)

Total: $10.19

Day 3: Fajitas with Salsa Rice

• Tortillas: $3.80
• Chicken: $3.76
• Bell Peppers: $1.44
• Onions: Pantry
• Fajita Seasoning: Pantry
• Rice: Pantry
• Salsa: Pantry

Total: $9.00

Day 4: Meatball Sammys

• Sub Sandwich bread: $3.29
• Meatballs:$2.29
• Mozzarella Cheese: Free (WIC)

Total: $5.58

Day 5: Pizza with Salad

• Pizza: $3.25
• Salad: $2.00

Total: $5.25

Day 6: Meatloaf with Mixed Veggies and Potatoes

• Ground turkey: $2.75
• Meatloaf Seasoning: $0.50
• Mixed Veggies: Free (WIC)
• Potatoes: $0.96

Total: $4.21

Day 7: Taco Soup

• Ground turkey: $2.75
• Beans: Free (WIC)
• Frozen Corn: Free (WIC)
• Tomatoes with Green Chilies: Pantry
• Taco seasoning: $0.50
• Ranch Dressing Mix: $1.11

Total: $4.36

So there you go this weeks dinners cost $45.13 which for the most part is pretty average for us for a week. Add into that our lunch costs for bread ($2.43 x 3 loafs =$7.29) and lunch meat/peanut butter ($5.98) plus random fruit ($8.43). Plus the kids waffles for breakfast ($1.75 x 5 boxes= $8.75). Adding all the numbers up and you get a weekly grocery total of $75.58

Now this is $75.58 for the essential groceries, my hubby does like to add in some chips, sodas, and other random junk food as well :) This gives us a total of about $85 a week.

2 Week Grocery Challenge

We did it! We made it two whole weeks with out grocery shopping :)

We still had 1 loaf of bread, 2 gallons of milk, and 1 jar of peanut butter left over from our bulk shopping trip two weeks ago. Since we are going to be having company sometime in the next few days I went ahead and did the grocery shopping for the next two weeks today. Two hundred dollars later and we are all stocked up for two more weeks. We spent a little more this time around since we needed to stock-up on meat as well.

Can we stick to this shopping challenge for this two week period while having guests?? We shall see :)

Twice a month grocery shopping.

I have blogged before about trying twice a week shopping, but was always hindered by the lack of freezer space. Now that I have my new chest freezer I am giving it a try again! I went to the store on Saturday and *think* I got everything we need for two weeks. My shopping cart was literally overflowing and I looked like a crazy lady trying to maneuver it through the store. Half the time I just gave up and left it parked at the end of aisles while I ran down to get something, it was just to much trouble to push! I don't know if I will ever be able to do once a month shopping just because I won't be able to get two overflowing shopping carts through the store! :)

So here is my partial grocery list for these coming two weeks....
6 Boxes of strudels for Hubby
10 Boxes of waffles for the kiddlets
6 Boxes of cereal
4 cases of Sprites
6 loafs of bread
3 Jars of Peanut butter
2 Packs of Toilet Paper
5 gallons of milk
4 Bags of chips
Plus all the odds and ends needed for dinners

Grand total came to $180.

I normally spend $120-150 per week on groceries so this is a MAJOR improvement. I was walking down the aisle with my little calculator adding everything up as I went to make sure I didn't go over $300, looks like I didn't need to worry ;)

I told my hubby when I had him add his wants to the grocery list that I refused to go back to the store for two weeks and to make sure he got the amounts he felt he needed. So now to stick to my word and not go back.

I will let you all know how it goes as the weeks progress :)

Freezers and loans :)

I have very exciting news to announce. In my ever continuing attempt to cut our grocery bill we have finally taken the plunge and bought a chest freezer! Now I know this isn't exactly stop the presses type of news but it is pretty exciting for me! I have wanted a chest freezer for years but had convinced myself that we couldn't afford to get one. For the last few months I have been socking away $40 towards my freezer fund. This month we finally took the plunge and bought it! We got a great deal thanks to the aafes website. I have cleared out a spot for it and re-organized my stockpile in preparation for its delivery...now to just wait on pins and needles for it to get here. Once it arrives I am going to attempt twice a month grocery shopping once again. I found when we did the twice a month grocery shopping in the past that it saved us a ton of money, the only problem was that we didn't have enough freezer space for all the meat and such. Our problem should definitely be solved now! I will be sure to keep you all updated on our progress!

On another front we are down to our last debt, our car loan. I am proud to announce that in the last 3 months we have managed to pay $3,700 towards the principle! Talk about debt snowballing that is practically a debt snowman! Makes me ill to think that in the past all of that money would have been slipping through our fingers every month with nothing to show for it. If we are able to keep up the intensity and have no major Murphy moments in the near future we should have it paid off by the first of the year....2011 is looking like a good year to me! Then it is on to saving for a house :) Our major goal is to have at least 50% down on a house when hubby retires from the military in 15 years. That will also be the time when our children start leaving for college so hopefully we will be able to buy a smaller house than we would need now saving us even more money ;)

Pantry Challenge Update

So we are halfway through March and we are doing pretty well on our pantry challenge! So far we have spent $139 leaving us $161 for the rest of the month :)

It is truly amazing the difference you can make in your grocery bill simply by paying attention to what you have and not buying unnecessary items on a whim. Take last month for example I sent my husband to the store to get the items he couldn't live without for the month. He came home with $130 worth of pure junk....soft drinks, deli sliced cheese, toaster strudels, etc. The man couldn't find a bargain if he was locked in a room with it! When he told me how much he spent I about had a heart attack! Fast forward to this month and I sent him on the same shopping trip after having a talk with him about brand name items. This month he came home with an equal amount of junk but this time he spent $26...much better!

Our pantry is doing pretty well....I am going to need to get some more meat next week but other than that I think we are sitting pretty :) There are several items in my pantry that I am trying to figure out how to use such as cans of salmon (thanks WIC) and TONS of beans. I have managed to use up the majority of our surplus of 5 DOZEN eggs so at least I am making headway on one stockpile.

March Grocery Challenge

For the month of March I am challenging myself to do a pantry challenge. A pantry challenge is simply put a attempt to eat solely out of your pantry only buying fresh items as needed. Our pantry has become a little to stocked as of lately and if I try to get one more thing in my freezer it may explode! lol! S0 for me this is a great way to get everything cleaned out, learn some new recipes, and save some money.

For this month I am giving myself $300 instead of the usual $500 for groceries and toiletries.

3/5 Commissary $56
3/9 Commissary $27

$217 Left :)

2009 results and 2010 goals

Anyone who has read my blog knows that I am a supporter of simplifying our lives and steering away from this consumer driven madness we have found ourselves in. Do we really need all this stuff?? There are so many new and improved gadgets out there that if we upgraded every time a new option came available we would find ourselves in a never ending buying spiral, and sadly that is what has happened to many people. We as a society are so worried about keeping up with our neighbors that we don't stop and think what we really want and need.... It has been a year since we started this path to simplicity and while we do not in any way shape or form have it all figured out I thought I would share our success with you all.

In 2009 we were able to pay off:
Credit Cards: $12,000
Part of Student Loan : $6,000
TOTAL DEBT PAID: $18,000!!!

In 2010 we have paid off:
Rest of Student Loan: $2,500

As you can see we are well on our way to financial independence and I couldn't be happier with our results. How did we do it??? Simple we stopped buying STUFF! I am not talking about the basics our children still get clothing when they out grow something, we still buy plenty of food for our family (a little to much if the bathroom scale is any indication!), we go out as a family and enjoy ourselves. When I say stuff I mean the random junk that you don't need to survive or be happy the stuff that ends up in the closet collecting dust a month after you bought it. When we first looked at our spending habits a year ago I was shocked to see that we spent over $500 a month on stuff and I honestly couldn't tell you what we bought! By giving each other a allowance of $100 a month Bry and I are still able to buy the things we feel we need (outside of the necessities) while not breaking the bank. Once we started seeing that debt start to drop dramatically it was a feeling we couldn't explain and we were more than willing to find other ways to cut expenses so that we could watch it fall even faster :) Right now our debt payment is $1,245 a month and we as a family are not feeling the least bit pinched at that amount. We still have plenty to live on and are so much happier learning to live a more simple life :)

Our Goal for 2010 is to pay off our Van and be completely debt free!!! With our current debt repayment plan we should be debt free by February 2011 but of course we are going to work our butts off not to go into another new year with debt. We could pay it off a whole lot sooner but we are planning a trip home in June for my brothers wedding and as well all know people and relationships need to come before the almighty dollar so we will gladly add a few months to our debt repayment in order to pay cash to go home and see my baby brother walk down the aisle :)


2010 Goals:
*Pay off Van loan ($15,000)
*Attend Brothers wedding paying 100% cash ($5,000)

What about you all what are your goals for 2010 and how did you do in 2009?