Financial Shape-Up 2008, February

All in all February was a good month. We had 4 main financial goals for February:
1. To sit down and write out a budget.
It is very impotant to have a budget so you know where your money is going and if you are overspending in certain areas, or need to reduce spending.
2. To pay cash for groceries.
I find this very helpful. I withdraw as much money as I need for 2 weeks worth of groceries. It is very easy when swiping a debit card to not pay attention to the amount of money you are spending.
3.To reduce our credit card debt.
We were able to pay a large amount off of one of our cards this month. Hooray!
4. To write down everything we spent and what we spent it on.
I find this helpful to check and see if your budget is reasonable and if you need to make adjustments anywhere. This can also alert you to spending that you forgot to add into your budget. (like netflix)

We did have some extra expenses for February. Nick needed glasses and the upstairs bathtub started leaking, so we didn't end the month as well as I had hoped, but I am very pleased with how far we have come in one short month.

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