We are headed to the airport to put my oldest son on a plane to Colorado. In early December his girlfriend drove out there for a job. It took her three days. Her car completely died half way there. She ended up trading it in for a new one. Then she had to load all of her stuff from her car to her new car and drove the rest of the way in to Vail.

We also have family out there who own a Million Dollar company that my kids are the beneficiaries to.

This will be fun for Jonathan. I know he misses her, actually we all do. While they are out there, they are going to a concert and our favorite restaurant, Casa Bonita.

He will be home on February 10th, unless he finds a job and stays until his girlfriend drives home. You just never know with young adults.

I am going on Friday to pay all of my taxes. The rest of the Summer taxes and the Winter taxes, which are actually due on the 14th of February. So a total of around $870 will pay off that debt on Friday. That gives me 7 months to save for the Summer 2008 taxes.

Then I am paying off the attorney and Lowes the beginning of March.

On my way to being debt free.

That is my goal. I have close to $23,000 in debt that I want paid off by December 2009. I am giving myself 24 months in which to do this. I need to put around $960 towards debt each month for the next 24 months. I started this in January 2008, so I will give all an update come January 2010.

Because that just doesn't seem to be feasible, I am putting my tax return, $20 Challenge money and my summer job money towards this goal.

I have been transferring some cc debts to a 0% interest cc to help with paying down my debt.

I am also saving money every month in my Freedom Account (which helps pay some of the above i.e., property taxes, kids schooling, etc.) and in my ING account (retirement account) while paying off my debt.

Hopefully, my Jeep will hold out till it is paid off so I can save in a vehicle fund for a newer one. I have a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 90,000 miles on it, so I should be good to go. It does need an oil change or two and will need new tires in the next 6 months.

I can actually see the end of the tunnel. Two years is not that far away.

In keeping with my no bad financial decisions in 2008, I am asking for advice.

I have some really nice fine jewelry. A couple diamond rings, gold necklaces and such.

I was wanting to sell/pawn them in order to use the money towards my goals (pay off debt)

I found something like this online

http://www.thingswebuy.com/?adsource=google&ad=pawnshop02&gclid=CKzLqIfW3JACFQGzGgodBhvtWQ

and was wondering if anyone has ever done something like this. They are with the BBB.

Any suggestions as to go about how to unload items that I will never use and are worth some bucks, is appreciated.

So I totalled up all of my categories.

My electric and natural gas usage/bills went down from a year ago. That is good news considering that prices have went up.

Groceries for the 2007 year totalled $5,316.41. I am working on bringing that down. I don't think that is bad considering it is for two adults, two always-eating teenagers and two cats. That does include all household items, including water softener salt, laundry supplies, etc.

Eating Out totalled $1,864.94 for the year.

My gas usage in my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee was $2,301.52 for 2007

I spent $1,408.00 on Christmas 2007

I got a raise of $66.00 per month, which I have added to my ING direct deposit, starting January 2008.

Homeschooling costs were around $1200 for the school year. We do a lot of museums and field trips which causes our eating out bill to be higher. My kids also take private classes in Algebra, Science, Literature and Music, plus buying books, equipment and musical instrument maintenance added to the cost. I also put one son (now 22) through 3 years of college.

Big purchases for 2007 were new livingroom furniture, a small chest freezer ($75.00) and a 1/4 cow (which is to help in my grocery budget)

The 1/4 cow cost me $285 (including processing) and gave me 49 packages of beef (steaks (Porterhouse, T-bone, Sirloin, Chuck-eye, Rib and cubed), roasts, ground beef and stew meat). We only eat beef about 3 times a week, so this should last about 4 months. I am now looking into purchasing organic poultry to add to our meat stock.

Started my $20.00 challenge with a settlement check of $750.00 and looking forward to more rebates and ways to add to this challenge.

Goals:

*To save more in my ING account

*Rebuild my "Freedom Account" to add additional categories from $200/month to $400/month starting March 2008

*Not make any stupid financial mistakes in 2008

*Pay off 5 to 6 debts this year, so that I can be totally debt free (except mortgage) in two years. Starting debt for 2008 is $22,696.29.

*No new debt

*Finish foyer, outside siding on cottage and new deck.

Happy New Year 2008