Day 392 and an update on 2009 goals

I'm behind on updating these, sorry! I felt so miserable on Saturday that I forgot all about it.

Goal #1: Continue our journey towards financial peace.
Have I mentioned that we paid off our American General Finance loan? LOL! Our baby EF is up to $370. I came up with an easier way for me to budget for the month. I've been using Dave Ramsey's forms printed off our CD from the class. They're great but the allocated spending form only has 4 weeks on it and I get paid all over the place throughout the month from parents. Just to give an example: one family pays me on the 1st for the whole month, another family pays me on the 20th for the upcoming month. One family pays me weekly on Friday, the two drop-in families pay me weekly on the first day they are here in the week. One family pays me twice a month on the 1st and 15th and another family pays a co-pay on her paydays (that happen to coincide with Tom's) and then I get a weekly deposit to my bank from her child care assistance on Tuesdays, except for weeks that they co-pay has covered completely. Confused yet? Yeah, me too. Anyway, I had a yearly planner given to me by my sister-in-law and I took a pencil and penciled in the dates that the bills are due, the dates that Tom gets paid, and the dates that I get paid along with an estimate of the amount. Then I went through and wrote down on each pay date what I was going to pay out of that check. It worked much easier for me. I still use Dave's forms to get me started so I don't accidentally forget anything, but for figuring each pay date, that works much easier for me!

Goal #2: Get more organized in my home and business.

Well part of the above goal transfers over to this goal. I am keeping my desk fairly neat and organized and I am keeping up with my receipts. I'm going to mark on the calendar to do them on Monday afternoons after Tom's paydays when I do most of our shopping. That way they don't pile up.

Goal #3: Have a more positive attitude.

This has been the hardest one for me! I have done terrible at writing in the Joy Journal and sometimes my attitude just stinks! How do those people with happy attitudes do it all the time???? Anyway, I'll keep working on it, and I'll keep you posted (good or bad! LOL).