I’ve been thinking about what I have accomplished with the motivation that the Florida Commerce Credit Union has supplied to my financial fitness. Below are some of the items that I have accomplished or addressed in the past year on my path to getting my act together:

I got a job! I am not sure AT ALL how I like full time work – I think I MUCH prefer contract work with a more flexible schedule, but this has allowed me to move forward in other areas of my life that had me held down.

I cannot re-finance until 2010 because if circumstances I desperately tried to control – but ultimately could not – but I still have that goal firmly in front of me, and I will continue to pursue it – rather than freak out.

I sold the Cooper (but it came with the stupid buy of the truck)

I learned how to sell on eBay – and I sold some scrapbooks that had been sitting on a shelf

I quit drinking soda, eating out is a _special treat_

I learned to manage my prescriptions to advantage (and to use coupons effectively and consistently)

I’ve also learned the difference between “want” and “need” and that lots of coupons are for “wants” not “needs”!

I am working on going paperless – I am scanning things a little bit each night – I’m nowhere close to done, but I am trying to tame that paper tiger that kept me from dealing with my finances.

I have managed to get the children “hooked in” to the family’s financial goals (it helped to have a goal in the first place!) and we struggle together to define things like “how short is ‘short-term savings’”?

I am working toward understanding my financial stress and avoidance on many levels. Some days I make BIG steps forward, and other days it is all I can do to open my mail. But I think back to that question I was asked at the beginning of the challenge: “How often do you think about money?” The answer now is the same: EVERY DAY! But now, instead of thinking about it in terror, I think about it with more confidence that I am headed in the right direction.