Happy New Year! Yes, it has been a long time since my last post. Commitments from increased responsibilities at work and graduate school held my focus. I was still able to remain committed to my financial goals. I reviewed my accomplishments for 2008 and updated my financial goals for 2009. I managed to complete most of my goals for 2008.

2008 Goals:

We finally have some breathing room due to our emergency house fund. It allowed us to pay an unexpected tax payment and a car insurance deductible without a major financial crisis.

DH and I were able to take a romantic bed and breakfast trip paid fully with cash for our anniversary!

Didn't stress about paying our life and car insurance. We finally started saving the money every month before the bill was due. Sounds silly but what a light bulb moment!

Used cash money to pay for new wood floors. The current housing crisis led to us finding a great contractor at an affordable price! This wouldn't have been possible prior to the housing bust.

Stayed under or within budget for utilities,groceries and miscellaneous categories. The only exception was the gas budget.

Stayed away from buying wants and used our funds for needs. This was specially true during the holidays. Paid cash for gifts!

We finally have eleven months living expenses saved! Working on twelve months for 2009.

Thank you for all of the good advice that was put to good use for my family financial future!