Gooooooooooooooals!

OK, I think I'm feeling better now. I'm still miffed about the overdraft fee but it was a lesson well learned. Onward!
Recently, I dicovered that American Express was offering cardholders a free credit report with credit score- no strings attached. I hopped on that and discovered my credit score is (drumroll please)... 717! Three points under the national median and better than I thought it would be. Granted, I always pay on time and fight tooth and nail everyday to make sure none of our medical bills end up in collections. But our debt-to-credit ratio is UGLY. Based on this, I decided to set a goal of where I want my score to be. So here it goes, along with the rest of my short term goals:

Dig Out of the Clutter and Hold a Garage Sale ~ June 13
So far, we haven't gotten that far yet. We started and... well, there was a huge family reunion/anniversary party last weekend and we just kind of swept that under the rug. Bleh.

Get Under $20,000 in Debt by 25 ~ July 27
I'm hoping this is still a feasible goal. All of April's "snowflakes" have gone to making ends meet unfortunately but we still have 3 months so better luck in May. (and June and July ^_^)

Pay Off the American Express Card Before They Shut it Off ~ September 30
Honestly, I'm hoping that this will mesh with the under 20K goal but I'm still giving it a buffer. That will be 6 months since they lowered the credit limit for the second time and I'm going by the assumption that they look at the situation about every 6 months. If they choose to shut it down then, so be it. At least I won't have a balance on a closed account. And once all of this is said and done and we're debt free, I'm going to cancel this card and tell them exactly WHY. Good frickin' job American Express, sticking it to your good customers in their biggest time of need...

Pay Off the Current Medical Debt ~ December 4
Ah. This one is tricky since this debt grows practically everytime I walk to the mailbox. So I'm going to put this as... pay off the birth of Bee and her stay in the nursery by the time she is 18 months. Anything past that and I just think it would drive me bananas.

Get the SUV in Tip-Top Shape in Case We Need to Sell it ~ May 16
It's not just that we might have to sell it. Billy just took a job 60 miles away and will need the most gas-friendly vehicle for the commute. This means Bee's carseat is moving and I'm taking over the SUV. It makes more sense really just in general since the stroller is taking up my ENTIRE trunk and grocery runs tend to overflow into the backseat and it's a mess. Toward this goal, Kevin (now just parttime Roomie cuz he also got a job 60 miles away and will be staying at various friends' places during the work week) and I cleaned out the clothes explosion from the back of Mr. SUV. See, we lived in a teeny tiny one bedroom mini house for about a year (fondly called the Funky Lil Shack) when we took our sabbatical. (Yes, sabbatical. Back when we were invincible and not financial slackers.) We packed up our clothes and put them in storage and lived off a very minimalistic wardrobe as we had a teenier tinier closet and one little dresser. And we weren't in need of work clothes at the time. Anyhoo, these clothes have followed us around ever since and when we got gung-ho about cleaning out the garage one day, we thought it would be a good idea to stick them in the back of the SUV until we could go through them... BIG MISTAKE. That was... October or November I think. Yeah. Bad idea. BUT, today I narrowed it down to three boxes of keep plus quilts Nana made and a few beach towels, 12 garbage bags to go to the thrift shop, one box to sell at the garage sale and a few throw aways (dead socks and whatnot). OH YES. We still have to get it to the shop and a few other things but it's a really really good start.

Get $500 in an Emergency Account ~ December 31
I know this is a really far away goal for such a little amount but if you look at how much we have going on, it seems like a fortune. Right now, we're at a big fat goose egg in savings. ZERO ZIP NADA.

Get Credit Score up to the Median ~ ???
I really don't know how this works... But every little bit we pay off helps tremendously.

So there ya go. My goals. WOOT! It feels good to get them out actually. Deep breath and.... GO!