New Year Goals

I've been reading a couple of personal finance blogs and got inspired to start my own for a number of reasons: 1) I want to start saving for a rainy day/house/apt, etc 2) No matter how much money I earn, there never seems to be enough in my bank account!!

In the past I never worried about my finances as long as at the end of the day all my bills were paid. I never kept track as to where my money was going but it always seemed to be going somewhere!

2011 Personal Finance Goals
1) Contribute at least $5700 to my 401k (not including company match)
2) Contribute $4500 to savings for the end of the year
3) Know where my money's going! (keep track of expenses, budget, etc)
4) Learn something new about finance every month
5) Stick to my shopping budgets or fund shopping through extra income

My January Goals
1) Consolidate my Vanguard 401k account into my JP Morgan account since it seems to be better managed in terms of communication, choice of investment options, etc. Also, the site seems more user friendly. I can never find ANYTHING on the Vanguard site.
2) Start a blog - check!
3) Cancel unread magazine subscriptions

For the first week of Janauary 2011 (Jan 1 - Jan 8) I spent a lot!!
Poker - $10
Costco - Passport photos and misc. household items - $39.52
Groceries from Kroeger - $26.13
Eating out - $52.46
Rent - $860
Plane Ticket - $1000
Car Insurance - $328.93
Gas - $46.46
For a total of $2363.50!!

Not too worried since a lot of my monthly expenses occur early on in the month and this also includes $1000 for a plane ticket. I also have 0 credit card payments to make this month since I paid off everything I owed in December prior to Jan 1 so that I could start the new year fresh!