Dh announced today that he would like to start a fund for a new or newer ATV. I can tell we have come a long way. A year ago his thought would have been to take out a loan for one. Now we are going to save for that purchase. I need to find out the price range before I set a goal for this year.

I do not want to drop the other goal amounts down. We have agreed to save conservatively for the ATV until the EF is at $5000. I think we need a better financial safety net.

I used the calculator on CNN's article about the stimulus payments to find out what we would be getting. The majority of that money will go into the "life happens" fund to cover medical bills, car repairs, and the like. With those amounts maxed out, we will have more money freed up for other things. I hate to disappoint the government, but we will not be spending it on frivilous stuff.

First dh talked me out of my panic from yesterday regarding the house situation. It will be two years before we even think about building and a lot of changes can take place in that time.

In the meantime I set new goals for the full emergency fund and the house fund. I have already exceeded my initial goal for the house and am close on the EF. I decided to double both of those. The vehicle fund will stay the same since I am just making a set payment to that each month.

It is much more fun to watch totals go up instead of down. I start back to work part-time in two weeks. The bulk of that money will go into those two accounts. We are still looking for little bits of money to add to our savings. While the big amounts really boost the totals, those little amounts help too!

Thank you all for your input regarding my online banking post. We decided to go with ING. It seems to be the easiest to use and very good for a beginner. We could have applied the money toward the debt. Having a new home is a big goal of ours though. Even if we only have a little money in our house fund, it is a start and helps keep that goal in our minds. It will be great to see that money earning more interest as well.

I really appreciate everyone's comments and the individual blogs. Being here makes me less passive with my finances than I was in the past.

I never did get around to posting my monthly goals last night so here they are.

1. Get debt to less than $6K. I have some extra money set aside so this one should be easy.

2. Keep grocery spending to $31. I know that sounds harsh for a monthly spending goal. However if you could peek into my freezer, you would understand.

3. No eating out on errand days. I have gotten lax in this area the past few months and have caught myself hitting the fast food places. This month I will pack a snack and a bottle of water to tide me over and keep away temptation.

4. Finish Christmas shopping with money leftover. I know I can do the first part, but I am not so certain about the second. I will give it a try though.