Time for my monthly assessment of our family’s finances. For those of you who are new readers we followed Dave Ramsey’s plan to get out of debt last year. We have completed baby steps’ 1, 2, and 3.

Financial Goals for 2008

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

Blessing Others -
10% of our income goes directly into the giving category. I would like to increase that amount so that we would be able to bless others when we have an opportunity. We had a few opportunities last month to bless others financially, I am looking for more opportunities this month.

Fully Fund Orthodontics for Oldest- Completed and paid for the braces in March in CASH!!!! We currently have $800 saved for the next child, so we are on track for another set of braces in a few years.

Begin saving 10% of income into Roth IRA’s and TSP-
My IRA will be fully funded next month. Then we will start putting $800 a month in my husband’s IRA to max it out by the end of the year.

Begin College Funding for Kids-
We will start funding this again in June. We are going with a 529.

Begin aggressive savings for house and car-
These are being funded at a slower pace than I would like. We have about $1000 in our car savings which would not replace a car for us at the moment. Fortunately we do not have the need for different vehicle at this moment.

Funding all of our expenses for the year-
I think I have finally found a balance for these areas. Many categories were severely over-funded, like clothing, haircuts, kids money. I have cut back in these areas and have increased our funding for the Homeschool Convention.

Vacation Funding -
We have saved over $800 for our family vacation for next year. Our goal is $2000, so we are almost half way there.

Cutting Our Expenses-
Since we have no debt and are saving about one third of our income, I feel like our expenses are pretty reasonable right now.

Groceries-
Last month I went over budget by about $8. There were a few unplanned trips to the store which hurt us in this category. This month I raised our budget to $600. We will be on vacation for 11 days so I am sure our grocery costs will rise since I won’t have access to the commissary.

Clothing - We have been continually blessed with beautiful hand-me-downs. Last month I cleaned out the kid’s closets and have about 10 bags for Goodwill and we passed several bags along to friends. We only need to fill in few gaps as far as purchasing clothes so I think we are doing well in this category.

Gifts -
I have decided that I am okay with the amount in this category every month. We love to be able to give gifts and if we can afford it, I want to continue.

Finding extra sources of income-
Still working on this one….

Tax Rebate-
We are trying to decide what to do with this money. Some of it will go to fund my IRA, and the rest will probably go towards purchasing a few things that we have been putting off because we would rather save money.

Can I say again how great it is to be DEBT FREE!

For those of you who are working towards this goal… you can do it! The sacrifices can be great but it is worth it in the end.

Check out Money Saving Mom for more financial check-ups.

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