I completed the dream list task and then completed the task after that which was to prioritize and put them into short term, medium term and long term goals. I am sure as time goes by this list will be adjusted and grow larger. It was nice to see everything down on paper and think it will do me good to go back a look over it and see how we are progressing. As for todays task I am calculating our cost of living. This will show us our spending and what we need to do about it. As for our spending freeze there were a few times we went off the list and that is because of poor planning. However this week I have been using the slow cooker more so that helps with having dinner done!

I just wanted to share this with everyone . Suze Orman 's new book Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe and Sound is on Oprah.com for free download. Here is the link: Free E Book
It's only available until January 15th so make sure you download it now! I think this will be my first "book" to read for the year. I'm sure I will learn something from it!

I am so far behind on my tasks from my mommysaver boot camp! I seriously need to work on my dreams task. I am hoping to have that done today, then I will double up on the tasks to catch me up.

It's the middle of January and I haven't even kept up with my monthly goals! We have gone off our approved spending list already! And really it's because of lack of planning and not having a meal plan for the week. Today I am going food shopping and will stick to my list. And the rest of the week have dinner planned out. Also I seriously need to get back into my gym routine! I just haven't felt like going, since the holidays.

On a more positive note, we are in the middle of refinancing! We got approved no problem! Now our mortgage broker is just waiting to hear back from another appraiser, the first two he called were giving low numbers. However I don't understand how the appraisers can give a number without seeing our house. I understand they compare it to the comparable homes in the area, but all the houses they are comparing are home with are either smaller or have a lot less land than us. And when you refinance most appraisers don't even come to the house?? If we are paying money I think they should at least come inside and look around! Anyway I just hope it appraises for what we need it too. But I am just happy we got approved and our payment will not be going up again!

I updated my 2009 goals!

• I want to read more often, at least 20 books this year
• Also I like the idea of no spend days from Saving 4 Later, I hope to have at least 100 of these!
• I want to reduce our credit card debt by 50%
  
• Refinance our home into a fixed rate
• Promote a unit up in Dove Chocolate Discoveries
• Update our net worth monthly
• Contribute more to our 401k - at least another 1%
• Get rid of things we don't use (hope to have a yard sale)

So that's it! I think they are all reachable goals! I actually think the hardest ones form me will be the no spend days and the reading! I just need to focus and it'll be alright :)

I feel like I am already falling behind on my tasks! I have been keeping up with my 5 things each day and I have to say that it makes life "brighter" Still haven't done the mission statement maybe we can all sit and do it this weekend. So on to the task for the day - it is a BIG one! Dream Your Ideal Life What would my ideal life look like in every possible way? Are there things I want to accomplish or experience? As a child our dreams really had no limitations why does it seem to stop as we get older? I can still dream , where do I want to be in 5, 10 or even 20 years? What kind of person do I want to be? What kind of life do I want for my family? All of these questions do not mean I am unhappy but I think we all can grow even the happiest of people :) So the actually task is to list 100, yes 100 dreams! They will include all areas of your life: personal, professional, financial, spiritual, and so on. This task will also take some time, but I am curious to see how many and what I come up with.

My task today is to create a family mission statement. A family mission statement will help us clarify and achieve our goals. So we need to create one together - kids included! Here was a sample one from the mommysavers board:

A Sample Family Mission Statement*
The mission of our family is...
to create a place of order, truth, love, happiness, and relaxation; and...
to provide opportunities for each person to become
responsibly independent and effectively interdependent,...
in order to achieve worthwhile purposes.
Our Family Mission
To love each other...
To help each other...
To believe in each other...
To wisely use our time, talents, and resources to bless others...
To worship together...
Forever.

So to develop our mission statement it will take a little bit of work and conversation. After we have one, we need to put it somewhere we can see it often and we will need to practice it. This a big task for me but I know we can get it done.

My day three task is to start a "5 things" notebook. Which is 5 things I am grateful for each day. Oprah has talked about it on her show and said it impacted her life after reading a book called Simple Abundance by Sarah ban Breathnach. So starting today I will be doing this, it will be a recap of all the good things from that day. Focus on the positive!! There is always a reason to smile; whether it's morning sunshine, the first sip of morning coffee, your child's laughter or my favorite is checking on the kids at night and seeing the sleep so soundly. Very simple things in life can bring us so much joy.

Yesterday was Day 2 of our boot camp from mommysavers. And our task was to figure out our net worth. What a shocker that was! We are worth ($11,388). Yikes! However one positive thing that came out of it was our house value, although it's not completely accurate we used zillow.com. According to zillow our house went up $80,000! I didn't used that increase in our net worth, I used a value that went up $50k. But we will definitely know soon what our appraised value is because we will be refinancing in a month. So that number will be accurate. But I couldn't believe how much it went up!

Here it is! This is the only things we are letting ourselves buy the next three weeks.

Groceries:

Milk, coffee, creamer, fruit/veggies (in season only), yogurt, chips & salsa, pasta, bread flour, meat and cheese.

Household:

Toilet paper, vinegar (cleaning)

Kids:

Diapers

Misc.

Gas

Son’s birthday present and birthday party

Our anniversary dinner

Prescriptions

$2 per week for red box movies

I hope everyone had a very Happy and Healthy 2009!!!

So today is Day one of our spending freeze! I have to say I am excited, nervous and anxious about it all. During these next three weeks we as family need to focus on needs vs wants. This I think will be ok for us. We know we need gas for the cars, diapers for the kids, etc. We don't need accessories for my outfits, to go out to dinner, buy the kids something form the store because it's cute. But we will have to learn discipline these next three weeks on our wants and needs.

Also we are going to learn to be resourceful! Waste not want not! We need to be resourceful when it comes to things we need in these next three weeks!

Another lesson we will be learning: delayed gratification! We need to "train" ourselves to wait for things, we don't need to go and buy it right away! And in learning this we will appreciate things we have much much more!

These next three weeks are going to be a big challenge for us and I am hoping we can do it. But I am nervous that we may fail. Only thing I can do is take it one day at a time.