The final week of January has been a rough one for us, on many different levels. Today is Thursday and I can see a small light at the end of the tunnel at least for this week. Both our electric and water bill will be extremely high for February so I am already working the budget numbers to accommodate the extra amounts.

Since I am not totally positive on what things I want to monitor this year I am going with a list method of goals and may decide to add or delete a few as the weeks go on.

Financial- We are attempting to use a cash only method for the first six month of the year in order to get us some better financial balance.

• Total paid to credit card debit $1050 total reduction in credit card debit $415
• Grocery budget $160- Total spent $200. This is still $275 less than budget.. I will be increasing the February budget to $300.
• Gas budget- $280- Spent $235
• Kid/Summer expenses : $85
• Earned $170- this is indeed a much lower amount but this is the expectation until at least March.

Personal- This is truly where I am add or change several things

• Blogging- 15 for the month. I am going to set a goal for 20 but realize that is probably not realistic.
• Reading The Bible – 31 days complete!
• Exercise- 7 total days for the month.  Again setting a goal for 15 but not sure if that is realistic or not.