2006 was the first year I paid serious attention to our personal finances, you might say it was my new years resolution for 2006 and I stuck at it for the year. I'm hoping to improve on what has been done in 2006 in 2007.

But 2007 has its own challenges as my dw recently was laid off when the company she worked for closed, and with two kids we are trying to find a suitable replacement but looking for part time/flexible hours within a short drive of our home will probably require a lot of luck, for the moment my dw is attending some night classes and getting up skilled so time will tell what happens next for her.

The weather is just horrid, and my dw and ds are at the doctor today ds has a throat infection, and both dw a chest infection - more antibiotics I guess, but hopefully it will see us right for christmas.

Looking forward to christmas at this stage, I do hate the whole getting presents sorted we seem to have so many people to buy for, and try as I might there doesn't seem to be any way to reduce the list. But at least this year we wrapped up last sunday, and have no more presents to buy this year. We did save this year for christmas so it didn't have the wipe-out effect on our finances as it does every other year - although next year I think we'll have to save more for it.

The only other big expense thats coming up - and i'm afraid our emergency fund is going to get hit for it - is that we are getting some trees and hedging put down - we moved into our house in Jan 2005 and we are now at the tree and hedge stage. But it will be Jan 07 before that work gets complete.