Financial Shape in 2008

Money Saving Mom is asking for our Financial Shape in 2008 monthly check-up. Since I only stumbled upon her site recently I figured I would join in, since we were already setting and reaching goals for 2008.

Financial Goals for 2008

Fully Fund Emergency Fund by 2/1/08-
Completed on 1/31/08 YIPEE!!!!!

Fully Fund Orthodontics for Oldest-
Just completed this last week and just in time as she will get them next month. We are getting a discount for paying cash and it feels good knowing we don’t have to borrow for this. A word of wisdom for all those with little kids, braces are expensive. We live in a high cost area of the country so they are even higher here, but start saving for this when your kids are young. This can be a $3000-$6000 expense depending on the type of treatment.

Begin saving 10% of income into Roth IRA’s and TSP-
We opened the IRA’s this month and are contributing 10%. When we hit our IRA max later this year we will move the 10% into a TSP until 2009 and we can start the IRA up again.

Begin College Funding for Kids-
With six kids this one is a little overwhelming. I am praying for scholarships! Actually we opened on Educational Savings Account (ESA) for our oldest this month. We will open a new account every other month until each child has one. Our oldest child will receive a greater proportion of the funds, but each one will be getting something. We still need to sit down and figure out how much we are able to squeeze from the budget in this area for the long term.

Begin aggressive in saving for house and car-
This one has taken a back seat to our other goals for right now. Since we are in the military and move every 1 to 2 years we have no immediate plans to buy a house, but we do need to start saving more in this area. We have two cars that are in good shape, but if our family grows we will need to purchase a larger vehicle, so we need to start saving more in this area too. I would like to up these areas by at least 200% each in our budget.

Funding all of our expenses for the year-
We are on track for this one, as money automatically is withdrawn from our accounts for areas we are saving for, i.e. camping trip, homeschool convention, homeschool books, clothing, etc…

Vacation Funding -
We have decided to take a family vacation at the end of this year. Since it is a family vacation, all family members are contributing to this account. We are on track to meet our goal by October of ’08

Cutting Our Expenses-

This one is a bit more difficult for me because it requires lots of planning. In order to fully fund the kids ESA’s and also save aggressively for a house and a replacement car I need to cut some of our costs.

Groceries-
I am trying to cut $200 from our grocery budget this month. If I am able to reach this goal then I might try to cut another $100 over the next few months. I don’t think I will be able to get our total grocery budget under $500 for a family of eight and I don’t really want to. My husband enjoys meat with dinner every so often. .

Clothing -
This is an area that I am successfully slashing in our budget. I found a great thrift store by my house and was able to purchase all the winter items we needed this year from there for under $40 (snow pants, boots, church clothes, jeans) for six kids. I also plan to garage sale this summer to stock up on clothes and also birthday and Christmas gifts.

Gifts -
This is an area that seems to get away from me some years. I always stay in budget but I would like to cut costs in this area.

Finding extra sources of income-
This is an area that is contingent upon my husband recovering from his deployment injury. We have many great ideas we just need him to get healthy in order to implement them.

That is my financial check-up for January. I am excited about the progress we have made and determined to continue to find ways to spend less and save more.