Holiday Recovery. . .

How many of you feel like you need a week or more to recover from all the Holiday hoopla?   I love Christmas and Thanksgiving but, it can really wear a person out.  I love decorating but it is a major chore to take everything down.  It makes me sad too. When we had an artificial tree I would leave it up till mid January.  I guess that is why we started getting real trees again.  My hubby hated when I would leave the tree up that long.  I saw on Facebook the other day a picture of a tree decorated and wrapped in cellophane and I thought that would be an awesome way to store an artificial tree if you had the room.  
We had a fabulous Christmas visiting with family.   Very thankful and blessed everyone is in good health.  My mom gave me the funniest calendar. (See the cover below).  I think this will be my mantra for the kids and myself  for 2016. Why be normal and boring, be unique and stir things up a bit.   I have always encouraged them not to follow the crowd.  I think I may have to stress this even more this year.   One quote from the calendar rings so true, "God doesn't want an orchestra of identical instruments all playing the same tune."   I tell my boys all the time that God made them unique and they should strive to keep and cultivate that uniqueness. 
I gave up on resolutions a long time  ago.  In my old age I decided to be the best me I can be and be better than I was the day before.  What is your goal for 2016?  I would love to hear from you.  
I say good bye to 2015 and any mistakes I made and hello to 2016, a fresh start. 

Financial Resolutions. . .

Everyone makes resolutions at the start of a new year, most of them are dealing with health and attitude.   Do you make resolutions, are any of your resolutions financial?    You probably do not think of financial goals as resolutions but, if you do not set goals and make a plan you will never achieve what you want.  This especially goes for your finances.   Dave sets up "Baby Steps" to help you achieve your financial goals when using his plan.
Dave's first Baby Step is saving $1,000 in cash fast.  You may think this is easy, if you do then great go to it.  This money should be set aside for emergencies and kept in cash.   Just so you know; Christmas, birthdays, new clothes, eating out, gas, and groceries are not emergencies.
Now let's talk about how you can reach that goal quickly.  We cut back on eating out, I did not realize how much money we spent eating out before I started budgeting.  That was our black hole for our money and boy could it suck it down.   If you are not doing a budget each pay period I really do recommend you start one.  I started by keeping all of my receipts for everything we did for one pay period and then I wrote everything out long hand to see exactly where our money was going.  That gave me a good idea on how we could save money and how to set up our budget.  
My hubby hates carrying around change in his pockets so as soon as he came home he would dump that change on his dresser.  I started having him put it in a tumbler so that I could keep up with it.  About once a month I take that money to a coin machine and get cash, that is one way to add to your $1,000.  That will not get you there by itself, you will need to do some other things.   I am a clothes and pocketbook horse,  I will admit it.  I sold a few pocketbooks that I did not carry as much anymore online to help get us to our $1,000 fast.   Dave also recommends having yard sales and getting extra jobs to help you finish that first step.  
I did not think having that extra cash would be a comfort, but it really is.  When life throws you crazy things, it is so nice to know you have that cushion to keep you sane.   You always hear people talk about saving money for a rainy day.  This is your rainy day fund, and it will rain, so be prepared.