2006 Frugal New Years Goal!

**Shell** · 12-12-2005, 06:33 PM

Can you believe it is almost 2006??? Wow!!!! Have you set any frugal goals for the new year? I'm going to start thinking of mine and get back to you. I'd love to hear your frugal goals for the new year.

**Mojjo** · 12-12-2005, 08:11 PM

I want to get down to eating out to our once a month family date.
I would also like to get better about meal planning around loss leaders and eating out of the pantry.

**bee9984** · 12-12-2005, 11:25 PM

I have been meaning to do this but I havn't seemed to get our goals written down as of yet.

(1) Start our emergency fund

(2) Build our freedom account back up, We were late starting this and needed what we had for a hotwater tank, car tires, the vet etc.

(3) have a veggie garden and reap the rewards

I have one but didn't plant anything this past summer now I could kick myself.

(4) Get better with knowing where our money goes not wondering where it went. We are doing well with the bills, groceries etc but some categories we need to get better with.

(5) Get rid of clutter in our home.

(6) Keep on track with all of the changes we have made in 2005

(7) Learn how to sew. I want to make my own curtains etc for our home this year.

**beckanoah** · 12-12-2005, 11:30 PM

I have several goals.

1)Get out from under credit card debt
2)Start emergency fund
3)10,000 to 15,000 for downpayment on house
4) 5,000 to 10,000 for house furniture, and 1st years utiities
5)Prepare to stock up pantry, including shpping loss leaders (even if I have to move it)
6)Budget to afford DD's private school (hopefully)
7)Find a new job...actually that's #1

More to come, I'm sure...good thread!

**favesis37** · 12-13-2005, 01:14 AM

DECLUTTER MY HOUSE!!!!!!
try to make double payments on the van to get out from under it
pay off one more small loan

**jzkitten** · 12-13-2005, 01:38 AM

~Declutter house
~Declutter and empty out 2 storage buildings
~Start emergency fund
~Save for a downpayment on a house

I'll probably think of more later!

**Valerie in WA** · 12-13-2005, 02:25 AM

I hope to be able to remodel the kitchen AND payoff the credit card by the end of 2006. It'll be squeaky tight if I do it.

I'm going to enlarge my garden.

I'd like to do more OAMC.

I want less 'exceptions' in my finances ("Well, I'm doing great on groceries, except this birthday or holiday that I'm buying extra for..." etc). This seems to happen every month. I need to get a handle on it and either eliminate it or be prepared for it.

This is indirectly a matter of frugality; a happy healthy mama is better equiped to run the household frugally. So saying, I am... FOR SURE going to have time for crafts (sewing/quilting/knitting/x-stitch) at least twice a week. And HOPEFULLY - depending on sitter availability - I'm going to have a four hour block of time to myself, once a month. I've never had that in the almost 7 years I've been a mom. It's time.

I still want to reduce my errands (both in terms of time and mileage). I've found a lot of thing that I didn't anticpate that needed to be done when all I really wanted to do was stay home. I'm going to work on better planning. I'm not sure if that's me or that's life, but I"m going to try.

**Scattymum** · 12-13-2005, 03:04 AM

my frugal goals
1.continue meal planning, cooking from scratch and hanging washing
2. reduce food bills even more by shopping around and keeping an eye out for good deals and using coupons
3. grow some of my own food this year - I have been really bad about this.
4. keep that EF growing!

5. Declutter my house and in doing so hopefully be much more organised - this is an area I really lack in

, hopefully sell some of the stuff on ebay to pay off a few bits, and if I'm not fighting with the clutter and trying to clean I will have more time to give to other things
6. Make more use of the library
7. be more careful about swiping my store points cards ( I have a card ( not a credit card!) for 3 different shops and amass points each time I shop - these points are converted into money at the end of the year - I got about 100 Euro worth of money vouchers this year by doing this - will be more next year!!)
8. make more use of free entertainment
9. keep my gift pile stocked
10. make more time for crafts
11.reduce the utility bills further
12 use the car less, I have got out of the habit of walking to school, need to get back into this for frugal and exersise reasons
...
I'm sure I will think of more things to add over the next week or so..I'm going to print my lists off and put them where I can see them to keep me motivated!

**RuthNY** · 12-13-2005, 08:15 AM

I am going to try to save $1000 per month. That will leave me about $800 to live on thru the month. For one person with a goal and a plan that should be enough.
That is my one financial goal for 2006.

**daddys3chicks** · 12-13-2005, 08:19 AM

~declutter my house
~plan a better garden
~build emergency fund
~save for vacation and new car

**Pepper** · 12-13-2005, 11:02 AM

1. Save for a new vehicle

2. Start an EF

3. Grow vegetables

4. Make more crafts and sell them rather than give them away!!

5. More Organization around the house

**thrifty gal** · 12-13-2005, 11:54 AM

My Frugal Goals for 2006:

~Cut eating out to once per week
~Track our expenses for the entire year
~Get house in order
~Make everything we use stretch
~Get back to paying ourselves first
~Pay off our remaining ccs
~Begin an Emergeny Fund

Dh and I are working on building a home, so we have to be completely frugal in 2006. Our goal to have it built will never come true if we don't work as hard as we can to save every penny. So, I'm hoping for a very productive year.

Good luck to all.

**owiebrain** · 12-13-2005, 11:59 AM

1. Move into the new house! It's incredibly energy efficient so propane and electricity bills should go down.

2. Cut down the grocery bill much more. Since I'll have an oven, I can do much more cooking from scratch which should enable me to lower the grocery bill easily.

3. Enlarge the stockpile/pantry since I'll have more room.

4. Get the rainwater catchment and water filtration system set up quickly so we can quit wasting gas and time hauling water from town.

5. Get my sewing machines cleaned up and set up so I can finally start sewing again.

6. Get all of the little piddly loans we owe on paid off, as well as the credit cards.

7. Get the garden more productive. (This year was a horrible gardening year, especially with having a new baby at the beginning of the season.)

8. Get even more garden produce put up for the winter.

9. Continue to raise/trade for our meat.

10. Continue to use as much free materials as we can in finishing the house.

11. Move the greenhouse up to the new house so I can grow fresh produce in it next winter. (Couldn't this year because of having to move it.)

12. Everything we have to buy new, we'll buy *good* quality so it will last forever. Sometimes cheap is not really all that cheap in the long run.

**alabamagirl** · 12-13-2005, 12:36 PM

Pay off my credit card by March 1st - because I will be RETIRING April 1, 2006!!! I'll have to reevaluate financial goals after retirement.

**midwestgal** · 12-13-2005, 02:05 PM

Hopefully, we will have sold our home on the west coast by sometime early in 2006! The market has definitely slowed down here.

Move to the Midwest and downsize, paying cash for a home.

Look for a teaching job there with benefits so that we are not paying for our own health insurance. This is knocking a big hole in our monthly budget! My DH's work requires that we buy our own plan. ($500/month and it's not very good! We each have a personal deductible of $2,500, so it seems we pay for everything anyway!)

Email and write letters more to keep the long distance phone charges down.

Save, save, save! I would like to see us live on about $20,000-23,000/year. This includes property taxes. In Wisconsin, this easily runs about $6,000/year.

Take some vacations to the east coast and Texas to see 2 of our children. Either drive or look for rock bottom airfare.

Build up my pantry.

Get back to knitting.

Keep up my exercise program (daily stationary bike at home) Try to cut down on the goodies. (That's hard for me. I love to bake.)

Try to do everything with thanksgiving!