Happy 2015!

I didn't think it had been a month since I wrote. Nevertheless, Happy New Year! 2014 was a powerful year for me. In 2014, I - started the year unemployed, but got a new job earning more. - helped parents fix up the floor and the gaping holes in the wall in their house. - paid off credit cards and began saving for a car - lived in my car for 4 months - decreased paper in my life by digitizing all of my past tax records and some of my job-related work - faithfully kept an everything journal (which I am now digitizing) - gave to causes that were important to me - paid extra on student loans - got caught up filing all of my taxes I only kept one of my New Year's Resolutions from last year. I don't feel discouraged, though. In fact, I'm ready for 2015. Here are my resolutions for 2015. 1. drink a bottle of water a day 2. pray/meditate 15 minutes a day 3. read a book each month 4. publish an article 5. use less paper in my life 6. contact friends and acquaintances the first week of each month 7. save for retirement When it comes to using less paper in my life, I really want to be more organized this year. That will help a lot with not getting into financial trouble again. I went to ChikFilA with family tonight and my mother (who is also disorganized) handed me 4 coupons that expire today. I was supposed to buy dinner for the nieces and nephew. While standing in line, my sister pointed out to me that the coupons were for BREAKFAST. I asked if I could use them anyway, and the cashier let me. If she hadn't, that would have been $12 down the drain. (One coupon was forgotten at home, so that one actually did go down the drain). That's an example of a small leak, but small leaks are just signs that there are bigger leaks somewhere. I know this is true in my life. So, becoming more organized is very important to my financial health. I have started using Evernote to help me be more organized and particularly to get rid of paper. This journey of living in my car to save money and get financially stable will end in about 3 months, when the weather gets too warm to stay in my car. It has been exciting and I've learned how strong I am. The condo property is still in foreclosure/short sale status with a buyer. I'm really interested in seeing how this all works out.