Well, we managed to get through Dec., the month I projected to be the tightest in our near future, with less financial distress than anticipated. The new side work hobby and I both had come in helped a lot. Jan. will still be a little tight, but without Xmas (and hopefully not another $1000 car repair), certainly much easier. And then come Feb we should finally be able to start making some real headway of this credit card/car loan debt. Can't wait to knock the first of those cards to the ground! Assuming we don't jump off a national fiscal cliff for more than a week or so. I predict a deal within 2 weeks from today. Who's with me?
I got a lot of great tips for cutting Christmas expenses in my blog comments. Unfortunately, the posts they referred to were old (from my old blog) and by the time I received them, we had already purchased everything but for the stockings. We did manage to keep within the budget we allotted ourselves though. And we also managed to temper costs a little by purposely asking family members who wanted gift suggestions for items that would have normally come out of the miscellaneous budget. So hubby got a not very exciting, but quite practical and needed belt, while I got sports bra and dust proof pillow cases (among other more fun things as well), and we were both pretty happy with it.
So strange to remember that as recently as 4 years ago, we were still willing to break out the credit cards for Christmas purchases this time of year, citing plans to pay it off "some time later". The idea of going further into to debt for something so non-essential is incredibly disturbing to me now. I am not entirely sure when this point of view changed for me but I am glad to realize it has. Now I just need to work more on better prioritizing the spending of money I do have as well.
As for our tapped out emergency fund...I don't want to get too ahead of myself given that the end of the month is still a few days away. I feel like this just invites disaster to come. But I *think*, that maybe, just possibly, if luck continues to shine upon us, we will be able to put about $650 back into it next week. And I feel fairly confident (but in a not at all cocky way fairies of fate!) that we will be able to put the remaining $350 back in by the end of Jan. as well. And once that's out of the way we are back to baby step 2 again! (Please forgive my paranoid ravings. There's just been too many bad turns of late.)
I'm interested to see what our grocery bill will be this week as well given it will be our first shopping trip at our superstore instead of the grocery delivery service. And given that I have put on at least 3 lbs in Xmas cookies alone over the past two weeks, perhaps we should go light on supplies this coming week anyways. Though not until after the annual family fondue dinner next week! Gosh I love the food this time of year. 
Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!
Post Christmas Update
December 27th, 2012 at 02:31 am
December 27th, 2012 at 03:42 am 1356579729
December 27th, 2012 at 04:27 am 1356582458
December 27th, 2012 at 02:53 pm 1356620026
December 27th, 2012 at 03:55 pm 1356623709
December 30th, 2012 at 06:53 pm 1356893612
Food: DH will need to step up and help with half; as long as he can read, he can prep and cook to some level. Use the *search* bar on any of the on-line sites like cooks.com or ivillage.com to use anything broaching the enemy 'expiry' date.
Paper goods, plastics, stationary, canned: Dollar type stores have dramatically increased in stock value because smart people know 3rd world cheap will do the job. There are on-line sites with lists of best buys at these outlets.
As the new year will soon begin, write out 3-6 goals and the steps/action needed like a road map for 2013. You will have something measurable to work towards. I know you will succeed!