Any financial/budget/spending resolutions for the New Year

[eliza61]

Anyone have specific budget/spending/financial goals set for 2015??

I've got 3 but only one is concrete so not sure how well I'll do.

1) I want to stop measuring "value" by dollar amount only.

2) I am determine to stop stressing about what will happen when I'm 90 financially. all it's doing is adding lines across my forehead.

3) pay off my car note by July. I've only got 3K remaining so it's totally doable.


Happy New Year's everyone. Hope it is a prosperous one.

 

[megveg]

My goal in 2015 is to pay my car off by the end of December!

 

[Marionnette]

My goal is to get our financial paperwork together:

• Review/revise our wills.
• Create a durable power of attorney.
• Create a living revocable trust.

Now that the children are all adults, the wills need to be changed to reflect that. The other documents are entirely new for us but I think that we should have them drawn up to protect each other.

 

[tarheel618]

Anyone have specific budget/spending/financial goals set for 2015??

I've got 3 but only one is concrete so not sure how well I'll do.

1) I want to stop measuring "value" by dollar amount only.

2) I am determine to stop stressing about what will happen when I'm 90 financially. all it's doing is adding lines across my forehead.

3) pay off my car note by July. I've only got 3K remaining so it's totally doable.


Happy New Year's everyone. Hope it is a prosperous one.

Love number one- I need to do that too

1. So Your number 1
2. Reduce my debt
3 Pay off car
4. Save a down payment for my husband a new (used) car- His is at the 12 year mark so it will need replaced in the near future

 

[havaneselover]

1) Give up soda and put the savings ($40/month) toward the kids' college funds (for room and board--tuition is covered).

2) Max out my HSA. I believe both of my children will need braces soon. I maxed out in 2014. If I max out in 2015 and 2016 I think I'm set.

3) Increase IRA contribution 2 percentage points in March (when I get my raise). This gets me to a total of 13% with my employer match. I need to continue increasing this until I can max it out annually. I was home for 8 years with my kids pre-divorce, so I'm playing catch up.

4) Start saving for a 2017 trip to Universal--this will be our first trip to Universal and my kids are big Harry Potter fans.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I don't do resolutions, but here's one:

Do not buy a house this year. They are expensive. Go to Disney instead.

 

[Sydney2977]

1. Complete the house re-finance so we will have a lower rate, lower monthly payments, and pay the house off five years earlier.

2. Have the master bath re-modeled and then use tax returns from this year and next plus extra savings from mortgage to have it paid off in 18 months so as not to ever pay interest. (I know technically this goes into 2016 but...)

3. Pay off the two mattress sets we purchased in Nov. 2014 by Nov. 2015 without having to pay interest.

4. Save enough to pay ahead of time for our Nov. WDW trip!!!

 

[superme80]

1) Pay cash for a trip to Disneyland with my family
2)Pay cash for a Girl's Trip to Disneyland
3)Pay for Lego camp for my oldest son
4)Pay cash for a new to me mini van. We need the room.
5)Increase savings and retirement



This can all be accomplished if I stick to a GROCERY BUDGET! I swear get me in the grocery store and I lose my mind! I love that place! I need to plan for the week and shop accordingly!

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

1) payoff at least 2 credit cards while lowering the balance on the remaining 2

2) start paying back the unsubsidized parent plus loans we are taking out (even if I just put away $10 a week to do a monthly payment)

3) save for a new dishwasher and pay for it in cash

 

[tasha99]

1. Pay an extra $15K on my house over my mortgage (trying to pay this off in 10 years or so)
2. Fully fund my Roth IRA
3. Pay daughter's tuition (she graduates in the fall, thank God)
4. Pay cash for a family trip to WDW in September
5. Save for a new roof, which I think I will need in a year or two

 

[greentea]

1. Pay off my student loan (have been making double payments on it for a few years and just put some of spouse's bonus toward it, so it's getting close!)
2. Sell our second car (that we just paid off... transportation needs changed suddenly and we no longer need it) and divide those funds between emergency fund, student loans/other car loan, and savings.
3. Hopefully make a big dent in the remaining car loan and spouse's student loan once I'm able to reallocate the money that was going into my double payments.
4. Go on vacation for F&W in the fall!

My hope is that by the end of 2016 we have no more car payment and no more student loans. That will be an amazing feeling.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

1) increase income (should happen for me, WILL for DW) without increasing spending.

1a) increase IRA contributions

 

[NeverlandClub23]

1) Pay off my house (this will take a lot of focus and determination)
2) Sell 2 of our 4 cars. Although they are all paid off, this will help with goal #1 and 2 people do not need 4 cars.
3) Stop going out to eat so much. This will also help with goal #1.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's a healthy, happy, successful 2015!

 

[aliceindisneyland]

1. Make a Fresh Start and keep up with YNAB. Receipts got the better of me over Christmas.
2. Meet with 3 mortgage brokers to find out exactly when and with how little cash we can buy a house. We did a short sale last November. I believe we need 75k (60k down and 15k closing costs) to buy a 300k home, but if we need less cash to buy....
3. Use up freezer and pantry items to spend as little as possible on groceries in January -- I am hoping to spend only $200.
4. Stop paying Stupid Tax: library fines, missed coupons, lazy takeout, etc.
5. Create income of at least $1500 a month so that we can hit our house down payment goal within 20 months (i.e., stop piddling and start writing.)
6. Tighten up on every budget category excepting groceries and Disneyland trips. We are willing to do without quite a lot (and have done) but I will not go without healthy food or Disneyland.

 

[barkley]

our big goal is savings.

we managed to pay off our mortgage last year, many years earlier than planned in large part due to a couple of tactics-

1. when we re-financed at a lower rate we had our credit union continue to take the higher payment amount each month with the extra applied to the principal,

and

2. any time we had any continuing income increase (as little as $10 per month) or expense decrease (again, as little as $5 or $10 per month)-we had our credit union increase the mortgage payment.

we are going to apply the same principle to savings in 2015. I went through all our expenses, increased some due to anticipated increases (groceries), decreased some (utility changes due to energy efficient appliance purchases) and set up a VERY reasonable monthly budget for our household. I've got a set amount going into our 'reserve' account (non monthly expenses like home/auto insurance which we pay every 6 months or once per year to save the $5 per month 'handling charge', propane which we get about twice a year, property taxes...), same for Christmas/birthdays, and the rest is going into the savings account. I'm planning on tracking how much I spend each month, and if there's anything left over it's going to get sent to savings.

I know there's likely to be months I may have to draw from savings (auto upkeep, higher than normal med co-pays...), but I'm hopeful that overall I can see more going into that account across a year than withdrawn.

 

[tvguy]

Absolutely none.

Youngest graduated from college week before last. For the first time in years we have no debt, no dependents. Retirement is on track. I have everything I need or want. House complete remodeled and re-roofed this year. I have enough money in the bank if I need a new heater/air conditioner, water heater or average priced car I can do it. Our bills are at the level that one pay check can cover them.

Kind of scary.

 

[kkmcan]

Here's some of our thoughts for budgeting in 2015:

1) Pay off furniture/new mattress. Been paying $100/month in order to avoid the interest charges which kick in in May. Right on schedule to pay it off.

2) Pay off cruise by march. Already have that money sitting in a savings account until pay off day.

3) Save $100/month towards fall Disneyland trip.

Next ones are home updates which we are choosing to do rather than buying a new home.

4) Lay a small brick extension next to our driveway for dd17 to park her car. Hopefully association will let us do this as we are constantly moving cars around so someone can get out of the garage.
5) Put in wood laminate flooring to replace 10 year old carpet-hopefully in the spring.
6) Buy stainless steel kitchen appliances
7) Would love to get our counters replaced with a beautiful quartz.

Dh did get a raise so we've also talked about raising our contributions to 401K by about $50/month.

 

[kkmcan]

Absolutely none.

Youngest graduated from college week before last. For the first time in years we have no debt, no dependents. Retirement is on track. I have everything I need or want. House complete remodeled and re-roofed this year. I have enough money in the bank if I need a new heater/air conditioner, water heater or average priced car I can do it. Our bills are at the level that one pay check can cover them.

Kind of scary.

Wow! That's amazing! I hope I can say this in about 8 years. DD is starting college next fall (community college, I think), we've got home repairs and possibly a newer vehicle to buy. UGH!

 

[texasroni75]

We are paying off our main vehicle in April. While it will be nice to have no car payments for a while, we are planning to set that amount aside each month anyway to upgrade to a newer/more efficient vehicle at the end of the year.

We are also considering a move at the end of 2015. We lease our home, and weren't too thrilled with the latest changes to our lease when we renewed it last month. We aren't ready to relocate just yet, so we renewed for now. But, these next few months will be spent doing research and making a decision. We have to give them 3 months notice, so we'll need to make a choice by September. Just in case, we are also setting aside $$ to cover a move.

My 2015 financial goals are to continue to be frugal, and save, save, save! Keeping receipts and making spreadsheets really helps us stay on track.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Absolutely none.

Youngest graduated from college week before last. For the first time in years we have no debt, no dependents. Retirement is on track. I have everything I need or want. House complete remodeled and re-roofed this year. I have enough money in the bank if I need a new heater/air conditioner, water heater or average priced car I can do it. Our bills are at the level that one pay check can cover them.

Kind of scary.

This is us too except our youngest finished college last May. DH has always wanted a lake house. Unfortunately I feel obligated to go along as he worked while I was a SAHM for many years and he never complained about supporting all five of us. My mom gave me the down payment and the grand a month it will end up costing us is way less than we have been paying in college and private school tuition over the last 26 years.