Well, here I am, I am excited about doing this $20 Challenge experiment. We are dead broke right now and living from paycheck to paycheck. As a new stay-at-home mom, learning to adjust from 2 incomes to one, I am having a hard time finding money to save for our vacation, or to pay off debts. But as many of you can attest, a little bit here and a little bit there can add up to alot. So I am going to start saving.

These are the things I'm going to do:

* I am going to transfer $20 into our savings account (which is close to 0 right now).

* Every time I buy something using my debit card or check, I am going to round up the amounts, and the change will go into the savings account.

* Each paycheck I have a specific amount budgeted for utilities. If the bill comes in and is less than the budgeted amount, I will transfer the difference into savings.

* Some things I'm going to do to save money are:

- Hang clothes outside to dry during the warmer months, and maybe inside during the colder months instead of using the dryer so much.

- Cook more meals, and eat out a LOT less than we're doing. That is one of our biggest financial drains.

- Cut down on soda right now, and eventually, stop drinking pop entirely. I spend a lot on pop.

- Continue my good habits of shopping for clothes only on clearance or at consignment or thrift stores.

- Spend more quality time with my family, and less expensive entertainments. More fires in the firepit in the backyard, more grilling out instead of pizza, more board game nights instead of renting movies or going out shopping.

- Use crockpot more often.

- Once a month cooking, and then freezing, to make it more convenient on those nights I don't feel like cooking, which is a lot of the time. Not my favorite thing. Love to eat, hate to cook.

- Have a yard sale and sell a lot of our clutter. Get rid of all the clothes we no longer wear, all the knick knacks that I really am not attached to, and my tons of books, glassware, etc. I will also try to sell some things on E-Bay.

- Continue to promote my business, and take all profits to put in savings.

- My goal is to see how much I can save between now and June 15 when we leave for vacation.

- My goal after that is to save money up to $500 increments and pay off debts with it.

- My goal after debts are paid off is to divide my savings between an emergency fund, a vacation fund, a Christmas/Birthday fund, the kids' college accounts, and retirement fund.

Just writing this out is so exciting! I am glad to be a part of this really neat challenge.

MizLizzy