Setting Goals

Budgets and financial goals, sort of like the chicken and the egg.  Do budgets drive your goals or do goals decide your budget?  For me, I set my goals and then my budget to accomplish my goals.  I have always been one to set goals, where I have failed in the past is not writing down my goals and not checking my progress towards meeting the goal.  Setting your goals, writing them down, and monitoring your progress is the path to meeting your goals.

Your goals can be simple,  in one year I want to pay down debt by $520 and establish an emergency fund by $520.  This equals $10 per week for each.  For some you'll look at your budget and have no idea where you are going to find $20 per week.  It may be hard to do, but if you look and are committed you will find it.  One way is to look at cutting out eating out expenses-if you spend $25 per week on lunches, start packing your lunch using left overs or even buying additional groceries from the store.  My guess is that you will be able to save $10 per week just making that change.  Another area is to use coupons and combine with grocery sales.   These should be able to save you something toward your weekly goal.  There are sites on the web that combine weekly sales with coupons for your, so you spend minimal time.  Some of my favorite sites are www.couponmom.com; www.southernsavers.com; and iheartpublix.com.

My cutting this expense, and putting aside your savings toward your goal of savings and/or debt reduction; you will see progress in now time.