This year I am starting off with a total debt of $227,145. My non-mortgage debt is right around $11,960. It looks like I DID manage to shave one month off my mortgage via extra principle payments last year. That's certainly a start. This year I want to aim for six months...AFTER I have paid back the $11,000.

I have identified several issues:

1. Bad Cash Flow. - I have a business that can MAKE me a lot of money..or COST me a lot of money . I have been lucky, I have never LOST money when everything was said and done. BUT, when the money comes in I have a bad habit of not saving it for those months when things will be lean. I also have NOT separated my business and personal finances. My plan is to change that this year. I will pay myself a "salary" via a hill's and valleys account I will set up. I have a general idea of how I want to do that, but for the specifics I need to wait till some cash comes in from the business!

2. Impulse Spending: - I am a BIT weird...I like shopping at the Goodwill and swap-meets. I LOVE a deal, my biggest problem is going into the Goodwill and seeing something that is half price that week and just buying it, because it is a 50% discount. This needs to stop. It really does add up. To the tune sometimes of over $100.00 a month of off budget spending. NOT good at all. My goal this year is to make only PLANNED trips IF I have something SPECIFIC I need to buy. Otherwise, there is plenty of stuff to be done at home.

3. I forget to do stuff. I forget to pay the water bill so I have to drive it there on the day it is due. I forget to fill up so I am late to work because I had to stop by the gas station. Last three trips I made to Walmart I "meant" to buy toilet paper and an air-conditioning filter...now I have one roll of toilet paper and still no A/C filter. I need to get a better system together for remembering to do all the stuff I need to do.

4. Not Enough Income - Biggest problem is there is not enough income to smoothly run my household. My basic expenses = my income with nothing leftover for the extras like clothing, gifts, trip to the movie theater, etc. So that means IF I need to buy a pair of shoes, it has to go on credit or I have to make sure I get the money from my significant other (SO).

5. Relationship Issues with SO - Works part time (by choice) bringing in at most $300 / week despite the fact that he could IMMEDIATELY get hired back at his $40,000 + a year teaching job with NO hesitation by his former employer. Leaves me taking care of ALL the household expenses for him, and our daughter, basically by myself depending on how much I bitch. And if I don't throw out a full on hissy fit I don't see one cent of his income to help with the bills for the house. Case in point. He just got paid for 2 weeks of work $600 and he pays $300 immediately to his mom (for the second mortgage of $50k he took out on her house and blew like water...). Spends the other $300 at the race track, asks me to PICK HIM UP...from the track...and take him to the grocery store so we can get groceries for the house...and then proceeds to tell me to go ahead and pay because he spent all his cash already. The answer to everything is ITS OK...I'll have the money next week....

I think identifying the issues is half the battle...the other half is identifying and implementing a solution!!