Reviewing my budget for 2007, between retirement fund, saving stamps, the three savings accounts, and the investment account I will be saving $960 a month.

I was hoping to increase the % that I pay into the retirement fund in 2007 but that was before my dw was laid off, I'm in my current job three years now, and they have a non contributory defined benefit pension plan, as well as a defined contribution plan which they give a 2% match on, so I doing enough to get the 2% match but was hoping to increase the % but I'll wait until we have more certainty before I do that, I feel very lucky to have joined the defined benefit plan, but I was used to paying 5% in a previous job to get their 5% match, and would like to get back to at least 5% again even if I'm only getting a 2% match.

The saving stamps is something my dw enjoys - I would prefer to put the money we spend on saving stamps into a high interest savings account but dw enjoys the saving stamp process and takes comfort in the fact that the money won't be spent on something else, the grocery store offers a free stamp per book if the book is redeemed in the month of December so that works out at 2% interest, so to keep the equilibrium stable at home, we'll do saving stamps in 2007 again. We typically do $20 a week in stamps.

The three savings account are online savings accounts and as I get paid biweekly I put $20 every pay packet into Savings A this has built up nicely since June 06 when I started it, but as my sister in law is getting married in June 07, it should afford me a new suit, my dw a new dress, and we will probably give a cash present to them both, so what will be left in Savings A by the end of June will be interesting. Savings B has the remains of what severance money my dw got, and Savings C gets $25 every two weeks it is our old emergency fund, but has become my car fund.

We are also getting a $430 monthly cheque on an income protection policy we had on my dw, this is currently going in to clear the credit cards but as soon as they are at zero, that cheque will be lodged to the Savings C account which I have earmarked to change my car in a year or two. We already changed my dw car in 2006 from what severance money she got when she was laid off, but we currently have 2 cars and no loans on them which is good.

The investment account is currently getting $250/month, and as our emergency fund is low, I will use this money in another few months to build up the emergency fund, and pay for our summer holiday to France, and we have some home improvement jobs to complete as well in 2007.

I won't hear my performance percentage increase until March 07, the last two years I have been pleased with the increase, lets hope I will be again this year!!!

Overall the plan is in place for 2007, but I know you can't plan for life and the curve balls it can throw at you from time to time so I expect an interesting journey, but hope I can stick to my budget/plan and achieve some of my goals that I’ve set for the year.