One of my goals this month was to create a filing system for all important personal and financial documents.

I'm proud to say I FINALLY did it. I got an expandable folder and labeled each section with each bill or type of information. It feels so good to have a system and some organization to my life. No more fumbling around when I am trying to find something. I honestly can't believe it took me this long to do it. I spent about 30minutes and now it's done!

I also made a list of every bill I owe. It's not that bad and I sorted it by smallest to highest. I believe I can pay it off by the end of this year. Well that's my goal. Gazelle!

I have been playing around with the idea of creating one for a while. I like the idea of having a central location for these documents because I do find myself stumbling around. And if there was ever an emergency what would I do?

So I came across this wonderful blog to help me get started. Thought I'd share.
http://simplemom.net/home-management-notebooks-are-a-great-idea/

I am going to tape a post it note to my debit card that says "I want to be debt free by 2010".

We'll see if this helps curb my misc. spending?

Today I spent about 6 hours in an excel training. Who knew there was THAT much to learn about excel. But apparently there is a lot to do with that program and I have some ideas of how to apply it to my financial fitness. I've been looking at various templates on the microsoft office website for a budget but I realize I need to create one that truly fits my needs. Now that I know some of the ins and outs of excel I plan to do just that...

This is something I've been back and forth about.

I don't check my bank account every day unless I'm expecting money. Bad, I know. But I know of people who check their accounts once in the morning and once at night. And they check their various credit accounts once a week or so. So I'm wondering if I should step it up.

On my list of things to do is create a spreadsheet of my debt. I did get all 3 credit reports and scores just haven't put it in a format that is accesible and easy to read. One day at a time.

I like the way that sounds!

I finally got my ING account set up for direct deposit. I've set it up for $40 each paycheck. Right now I think that is acceptable considering it was $0 before. :-) My original goal was to add $74 a paycheck so I could get to my emergency fund goal in 5 months. But I think I will start here and revisit in a month.


I am going to work on my filing system tonight. I need to also make a list with all of my accounts and their numbers so I'm not fumbling looking for them.

See! I'm getting better!