Most people dread January since it is the month all the large Christmas bills come due. There is nothing quite like the buzz kill of maxed out credit cards, blizzards and the lack of sunlight that is January for most families.

However, we are no orderinary family December was wonderful and so will January. No credit card hangovers for us this year! Here is the recap of December and our lovely plans for January.


December's Budget Recap:

• We had a perfect month! I'm sure it will never happen again in my life, but I can actually say that we kicked butt in Dec. 2008.
• Our Anniversary vacation funds were more then adequate for the trip. The extra was pooled with the Christmas money we received from family and re-budgeted that way.
• It was hard to not blow the budget on Christmas gifts for the kids, but work really hard to not do it. In the end I was glad I didn't spend the money since everyone else broke the bank on our kids.
• Paid our property tax bill with the money we sit aside every month for it.
  

• With the fall of gas prices I have a ton of extra gas cards left from previous months. We are actually budgeting $0 for gas this month! The money that would have been in this line item was transfer to the car replacement fund line item.
  
• Last month I sent in the paperwork to start the monthly withdrawal of funds for our kids' college savings accounts. That should kick in this month and was added to the budget. We had stopped this temporary to pay for our baby's medical bills.
  
• We also budgeted for a date night that includes funds for dinner out, a movie and a babysitter! I know, we are sooo extravigant!
  

• Save for new roof (100% of funds by late spring)
• Start putting money in Roth again (starting in late spring after roof)
• Continue to save for kids' college in 529s
• Continue to do company matching 401k
• Fully fund Roth and 529s by late summer
• Start agressively saving for a new car