New Year, New Post

So I failed miserably last year at keeping up this blog. I decided to make it private for now, since I am not sure if I'll keep posting this year on a regular basis. Anyways, today I am posting about a specific goal that I have for this year. This past Christmas was hectic and expensive. Due to some things that happened last year, we really didn't have any money saved up for gifts, and a lot of our Christmas was put on credit cards ;( =\. Sad and mad at myself as this the opposite direction of what I was hoping for. But there is nothing to be done but to move on and keep plugging away.

This year I have decided I am going to make a plan. My goal is to have saved at least $500 for Christmas this coming year. This does not have to be $500 in cash..it can include gift certificates, gift cards, etc. I am starting out well so far:

$15 in cash
$10 Walmart gift card
$20 Discover gift card (should be credited and received in the next month)
=$45 so far, as of January 7th, 2012

That leaves me with $455 to go. I plan to save $10 in cash a month, put $10 on the Walmart gift card each month, earn a $20 every 4 months on average from Discover (by paying for things with my card and then immediately paying them off). That will take care of another $300 off my total, leaving me with $155 to come up with. I am saving my points on MyPoints.com. I am halfway to a $50 gift card to Walmart and if all goes well I should be able to redeem that in time for Christmas. I should be able to make up the remaining $105 through rebates, extra saving, etc.

I think this plan is do-able and hope to update this blog once a month with my progress.