Our financial goals and a No/Low Spend Challenge for January

One of the main areas I want to focus on this year, is our family finances. I feel that we were in a better place financially at the end of 2012, but still not in a good place. We still have credit card debt. We have student loan debt (although with our income we are not paying on these right now). We have a tiny emergency fund ($1000). We are not where we want to be.

This year I will work on getting us to an even better place!

As a review here are my financial goals for 2014:

FOR OUR FAMILY FINANCES:

• I will pay off half our credit card debt this year. Right now our current credit card debt is $7596.34. I will pay off $3798.17 by the end of December 2104. (I hope to make a huge chunk of this with our tax money….)
• I will NOT use the credit card to pay any of Rebecca’s or Jacob’s (starting in August) school tuition.
•  I will keep track of daily expenses to see where our money is going.
•  I will go to cash for every day expenses except gas for the vehicles.
• I will complete a 52 week money saving challenge.
• I also have a HUGE goal that I want to fund, but don’t want to say right now what it is until I figure out more details. 

I said that I had resources set up to help me achieve these. During the year, I will be following along with Precious and her Money Saving Challenge. For the month of January I will be following along with Carla on her “Low-No Spend January Challenge.” I think this goes along perfectly with our family decision to go to all cash for expenses.

For January, then my goals for the No/LOW spend challenge will look like this:

1. $100 a week for both groceries, household and health and beauty products. Our freezer is pretty full, thanks to the ¼ hog we got for Christmas. I think this is totally doable. Our spending on groceries and household stuff skyrocketed in November and December with extra spending and impulse buying…time to reign it in. Whatever is left each week will be divided into ½ in savings and ½ to debt repayment. 
2. No eating out. We are putting this as a family goal. We have already warned the kids that we will not be getting fast food in January. We will not turn down eating out if someone is treating our family, such as my in-laws taking the whole family out, but we will NOT be spending money on eating out.) 
3. I would like to have 15 no spend days. I found a resource that I will use to track our spending and hopefully help me get a better grip on where our money is going. 
4. I am going to try to do the 52 week money challenge. I am still trying to decide which version I would like to do. I will update when I decide.

So there you have it for what I hope to accomplish in January 2014 to help toward my financial goals for the year and to complete Carla's Challenge. I hope come and tell each week what I have done to save money, earn money, or get our family in better financial position.

What about you? Have you set any financial goals for your family? Are you participating in any money challenges this year?