I made a little list of small things to accomplish this last year, many of them etsy related, and I'm satisfied there. This coming year, the biggest thing I want to take care of is entirely eliminate our amount of debt, and keep money in my savings account. Currently, the biggest obstacle facing us and this goal is not our spending, (though there's always room for improvement there) but the fact that I lost my steady job and went back to school this year, leaving my husband to maintain everything singlehandedly.
I want to be comfortable and settled, so I'm going to lay down the footwork for that now, before anything has a chance to get out of control. Living paycheck to paycheck is really scary, and really old.
The plan I'm eyeballing right now is Dave Ramsey's "Snowball" plan, where instead of paying off the card or whatever with highest intrest rate, you pay off the one with the lowest balance, and use that payment towards your next lowest and so on. The idea is that you need to see progress to stay motivated, and that it'll snowball as you work yourself up.
I also use Mint.com to track all my personal purchases (it was more useful before I made, like $40 a month, lol) , and it gives an overview of everything. You can set budgets on different things, and it'll text or email you when you're approaching the limits you set. It's remarkably handy, so I'd totally go check it out.
Finally, an excerpt from The Millionaire Next Door, which ran a ton of research about the way the wealthy live in this country. (and I think emphasizes a low-consumption lifestyle)
When Tippy-D and I got married, we did the snowball thing too. First the ring, then the car. Once the debts were gone, instead of having more money to spend, we dumped that same amount every month into a savings account. No touching. We were living without it before, we could make it without it now. Sure as the sun sets, you're going to have to buy a car *eventually*. Might as well get a head start on the payments.
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