financial goals for 2012

So yesterday I shared my personal goals with you for the new year and today I'll share my financial goals!  THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment on How Much Do You Spend on Groceries?  That was a huge help.  We've decided to combine our Eating Out line item with our Grocery line item and have just a single budget for Food.  I think this will help keep our spending in check.  Last year we were just shy of spending $16,000 on food and household items.  Doesn't that seem extreme?  No wonder I'm gaining weight!   Our goal this year is to spend $1,000 month on all food and household items/toiletries. 

Not to get off track too much but I didn't write an official post of a 2011 "Recap".  Our family was pretty close to reaching our financial goals last year though.   We began 2011 with our main goal being to save 15% of our income.  In March though our plans changed when we had to replace my car.  Financially speaking, I'm very proud of the fact that we paid cash for the car but at the end of the year instead of saving 15% towards retirement we continued at a 6% savings rate.  I have to keep reminding myself and Mr. Steady that instead of extra money in the retirement account, we have that "money" in the garage.   Also we had a few unplanned expenses (dog surgery and son surgery) and went way over budget on a few things, but overall we stayed close to our budget.  We went over budget by 3%.

But now to my 2012 goals.  We have our budget for the year in place and Mr. Steady and I are both very pleased.  We continue to strive to keep costs low on things that are unimportant to us so that we can allocate money to the  areas that we think are important.  

So - here are my goals for the year:

1.  Stick to a budget.  This will require a lot of discipline.  I'll need to say "No" sometimes to certain things, but I also will need remember that I can say "Yes" to things that are in the budget.  Oftentimes when my boys ask for something my knee jerk reaction is to say, "No...we don't have the money to do that."  But a lot of times we do have the money budgeted and we can do what they're asking as long as we're smart with our choices.  Know what I mean?

2.  Continue to log expenses.  I have a very fancy way of doing this.  I track all of my expenses on paper and at the end of the money I add them up with a calculator.  Then...I transfer them on the an Excel spreadsheet!  I've tried many other ways that promise to be more efficient, but this is the only thing that works for me.

My elaborate accounting system.

3.  Use cash only for food purchases.  My plan is to get cash out at the beginning of each month and use only it for trips to the grocery store and for eating out.

and the main goal of the year...

4.  Save 26% of our gross income.  Both Mr. Steady and I are at a place in our lives right now where we are very motivated to save money.  To do this, we will have to be diligent with #1, #2, and #3.  Blogging certainly helps to keep me focused and reading everyone's blogs helps keep me motivated also.  Things like Carla's January Spend-Less Challenge really help me stay on track with my spending!

So, those are my financial goals for the year.  The key is to remembering them and holding myself accountable!  My plan is to do this my posting a Weekend Update where I review my goal and what steps I'm taking to accomplish them.