Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Quick Goal Update

Wow...A lot has happened over the past couple of days...
  • I got our tickets for Atlanta (one of the goals on my list)
  • I got tickets to see Dave Ramsey in Atlanta!!!! (another goal on the list. I'm psyched. Plus I think it's cool that when you order tickets for his events online you can only use a debit card, not a credit card.
  • Hubby is paying down his credit card at a rate of $1000 per month. Before he would just make the minimum payment because he though he would always have debt. Now he sees a light at the end of the tunnel. By March of next year we should be totally debt free except for the house.
  • Also got our tickets for Connecticut (another goal on the list. Coincidentally they have a World Poker Tour tournament while we will be there. I thought we would have to go back in March to reach that part of the goal but I'm glad we can knock off both of these goals at the same time. Note that hubby doesn't pay the thousands of dollars to play in the WPT, he does the qualifier tournaments at $50 a couple of times to try to earn his $10,000 entry).
  • I cut down our cable bill today. Another kudos to hubby because we cut his Filipino channel package which was something big for him to give up because he really likes those shows but cutting our cable bill in half was more important. So now we pay $90 for phone, cable TV, and internet. Which can still be considered a lot but it is much better than what we were paying.
  • I'm trying to figure out how to cram travel to Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Portland, OR, and Stehekin into my tiny budget. We want to go to these places before the weather gets rainy.
  • My big project for the next month is to monetize my blogs and websites. I have a half dozen hobby sites that really need to earn me some money!
  • Our travels in the fall will keep us out of town for a month and eight days. I need to organize my work life. Yikes.
  • I'm going to try and not eat out for the next two months because once we start traveling, we will be eating out a lot. By not eating out at all in August and September, we should save some money that could go towards our trip.
  • Go parasailing is on the goal list. Yesterday in downtown Seattle, I saw that a company actually does parasailing there. I'm wondering if it is better to go parasailing here rather than in a foreign country where the safety laws may not be as stringent. Hubby looked worried when I said that parasailing is on the list. He doesn't like heights.
  • All of our airline tickets were paid for with cash (debit card). This is a first. Before we used to use credit then have to pay back the bills long after we got back from vacation. I love having cash on hand to spend on our goals! Also, I booked through Orbitz. Although I thought the prices were good, apparently if the prices for the tickets we bought go down even further, we get a refund for the price difference. Cool.

2 comments:

  1. I am so glad to hear of your good progress on your goals! And, I'm glad to read that you are doing those things that really interest you even though they require the expenditure of money. Instead of remaining static for fear of spending money, you are wisely saving and spending your money. I'm sure there are many people who are encouraged by your example, including me :-)

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  2. Thanks Karen! It was frustrating when I first wrote the goals (back in April) because I didn't have the money to make any of them happen. Slowly we are able to start tacking more and more goals, and since I have a list of goals in front of me, it seems like the opportunity to do things on the list just show up out of nowhere!

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