Starting off my year

Hi everyone! I thought I'd start my new year off right by posting some financial goals for the year. I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot harder to accomplish these than the goals I had last year, considering I make a lot less money and have many more expenses (I no longer have the luxury of living at home haha). Also, in the past few months I've struggled with sticking to a budget, and have been spending more than I earn (and don't even ask about December's spending-ugh). But keeping to the "New Year- New You" mentality that so many people apply, I am working to change that. I am going to try even harder than I've been to spend a lot less. This way I can save for things I really want-- traveling and a new car.

GOALS FOR 2009

1. Learn to live within my grad student budget: I still struggle with this, even after a whole semester. I usually always have to dip into my savings to pay my bills when the month is over. I want (and NEED) to change this!

2. Add an extra $1,000 to my Travel Fund: I have a ton of trips planned this year and also a big one next year, so I want to have this fund up and over $5,000 by Dec.

3. Bring my New Car Fund up to $3,000: I want a new car, and it's entirely possible that soon I will need one, since my car is so old. I want to have more money available for a down payment. Right now the fund is a tiny bit over $1,000, so I will have to work hard to achieve this one.

4. Refund my Emergency Fund: Since I dipped into this to pay bills during this last semester, it is embarrassingly low. I need to get this back up to at LEAST $2,000, but I intend to put in more if that's possible.