Almost There

[Cheryl]

I set a Goal in December 2008 to save 3,000 by end of June 2009. So far I have 645.28 to go. I am fairly confident I will be able to still meet my goal end of June. I could have already reached this goal in late April early May but I went on vacation in both of those months and needed to spend some money to have a little fun. Well worth it.

[Julia]

You seem to be on the right track with everything you are doing! Our new poster child for how to save!

[Cheryl]

LOL,ready? I have money go into my primary savings from payroll. I have money that goes auto from checking to my ING account twice a month and my secondary savings is manual. When I have residuals from the previous payroll added to the new payroll amount, I move that money to the secondary savings. I also have a PT job and I have been manually adding that income to my secondary savings. The money in my primary savings I have been using for my daughters Latchkey (before/after school care) payments. There was a time when her father was out of work for several months so that account was a blessing because I had to pick up his Latchkey payments as well.
I have tried the snowball method. My interest rates on the credit cards are so high that snowballing the payments still wasn't helping the debt go down fast enough. I'd have to make hugh lump sums to see a significant decrease in debt.

[Julia]

Debt-reduction-calculator.xlsCheryl, do you have an automatic withdraw to make the savings or your paycheck split? Or is this just shear determination on your part? (either way is impressive) In paying off your other debts, have you considered the Snowball method? I attached a really neat spreadsheet that helps in paying off debt and rolling over the payments. By changing the amount you pay a month by a few dollars, you may even reach your goal sooner!

[Cheryl]

It is emergency/move out of town money. Initially I said I wanted to save money to move, but I haven't started looking at jobs elsewhere out of Ohio. So I will call it emergency money. I started an emergency fund that has 1600.00 right now. I just wanted to challenge myself since I have been horrible with money the past 7 years. Now realizing what I can do if I set my goals I am going to tackle a credit card and then a student loan. Both are the same amount as my savings goal, so if I can save 3K in 6 months, then I should be able to do the same and pay off a card.

[Julia]

That is a hefty goal in a short time period! Do you have plans for it or is it more an emergency fund?