March Goals

After the recent success of my inlaws’ incredibly generous gift, I’m rather on a high. My husband and I realized that, for the first time in a long time, we would be able to use all of his paycheck when it hit our checking account via direct deposit. In other words, not one cent would be going to fill an overdraft, it would all be for us. Another bit of good news came this morning: when checking my expected maternity leave payment I realized that it was going to be almost €300 more than I had thought. That gives me lots of money to play with, and contrary to my old bad habits, it’s not going to be spent shopping. Well, not all of it.

Here are my goals for March 2008:

• Set up a separate bank account for my emergency fund. I already did this, yesterday, with ING. I deposited €500, while keeping €500 in our checking account for the unexpected car repair bill we will have to pay Thursday. So that’s what emergency funds are for!
• Deposit an additional €100 to said emergency fund.
• Nag my husband into signing up for the employer contribution savings plan at his work. Not that nagging him about this for the past six months has had an effect, but maybe he’ll be more willing to listen now that we have one less debt.
• Be better (read: start) at transferring my outstanding checks onto my monthly budget sheet, so that I am not hit with unexpected withdrawals.
• Earn €100 of ‘extra’ income. Last month I fell a bit short, at €85 and change, but I’m sure I can do better this month.
• Not eat out again until we get to the US. We had a bit of a splurge last weekend, and now we’re back to home cookin’ until the 20th. After that, it’s no holds barred!
• Post another 20 items (including multiples) at my Etsy shop, Kllycat’s Babycat Goods. I’ve already got a good start, with some adorable tooth fairy bags and some funky water resistant cloth diaper bags. They’ll go up later this week.
• Double my number of feed subscribers; last month my goal was to get to 20, and I exceeded that by 15. This month I want to get to 70. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve, so keep posted, or better yet, subscribed!