We're working towards our goals slowly, but surely.

The end of the year is coming soon and I’m again amazed at how quickly this year is going. We’ve been busy this month and one of our personal highlights was painting our friends’ new house.  We’re really happy for them and can’t wait to see what they have in store for the new place.

I think a financial highlight this month was socking away 78% of my temporary job’s paycheck. We’re trying to build a bigger buffer for our emergency fund into our joint savings account. Grabbing whatever is quick and easy has been a weakness of mine. I did spend more eating out, but once I planned a bit more, the lunch expenses were lowered.

The other week I signed up for Wachovia’s Way2 Save  program to try and stow away some money at a higher rate than ING Direct.  My husband also wrote Panda Budget,a quick little budgeting tool for GPT readers. It’s beta and it’s completely free.

Our Financial Goals for 2009

We have two goals left until the end of the year and I’m hoping we’ll be able to meet them.

How We Did in October on Our Financial Goals

Spending: We went out a few times this month with friends and discovered two new places with some nice happy hour specials. I enjoyed Brio’s specials and I really think you should try it. We ordered their Brio Burger with chips and pepperoni and sausage flat bread.

I’m looking at something special for my husband for our anniversary next month, so I’m cutting down spending on lunches a bit more to set aside some extra cash.

Savings: I was really happy that we were able to save a big chunk of the temporary job’s paycheck. It was shorter assignment than I expected, but more money is still good.

Your Take

How are you doing with your 2009 goals? Have you had some unexpected changes? What successes have you had so far?

Top Posts This Month

I wanted to share of the most popular posts this month on the blog.

• Quicken 2010 Home and Business Review
• What Comic Book Characters Taught Me About Personal Finance
• How Much Life Insurance Should You Have?
• Eating Out with New Job
• Help a Reader: Raising Credit Score

Thank you all for your support. This blog has grown thanks you telling others about it. Please keep in contact with me through email and Twitter, as I try to make the site better everyday.

Photo Credit: Armando Maynez

• April 2009: Progress Update   Our Financial Goals for 2009 Debt: We would like to pay off my car loan by March 31, 2009. Goal Met. I’d like to reduce our expenses in April by 10%.  Not Met This Month. Spending: We’re going to limit eating out for dinner to twice a month. Met This Month. Frugal: My husband would like to bring his lunch......
• Brownbag Your Lunch and Save Money I just started my new job and I have software training all this week. My new manager mentioned that bringing lunch in to save time and some money. Seeing as some of our goals include building the emergency fund up a few more months and have a house down payment ready this......

• Green Sherpa Helps Manage Finances Have you ever gotten tired of the endless and features that some personal finance software programs throw at you? Do you loathe paying for features that you never use and wouldn’t even bother to use if you knew how? If your answer to these questions is ‘yes’, then you might......
• Buying Canadian Income Funds For Passive Income (and Financial Freedom) Yesterday, I bought some more Canadian Income Funds, also called Royalty Trusts or Canroys. As I mentioned before, I recently refinanced a property and I managed to pull some money out (totally tax-free!). Rather than spend the money on an SUV or a big-screen TV, I opted to divide the......