Happy New Year and Welcome to the Frugal Fresh Start Challenge! Are you ready to make 2020 your year of financial success?!
We are so excited to help you make new frugal habits, lower your expenses, and get your finances in order. Just meet us here (or over on YouTube) every weekday from January 1st through February 7th for a fresh post and brand new video. Each day will include a valuable financial lesson with an actionable challenge that will set you up for successfully reaching your goals.
Right now you can download to workbook for free when you sign up for the challenge. The workbook will help you keep track of what you are learning and follow through with your commitments. You’ll receive it in your email when you sign up. Go print it out in good ol’ black and white (definitely the frugal way to go) and set yourself up for success!
The challenge is based on the book Frugal Fresh Start. You can grab your own copy to follow along with the challenge. You can get the PDF version of the book for just $4.50 with the code NEWYEAR.
Why do you want to be more frugal?
To get started, let’s think about YOUR reason to make a frugal fresh start. It’s probably not just for the fun of it, or to get attention from your friends. Maybe you want to pay off those credit cards once and for all. Maybe you want to save for a house. Maybe your retirement accounts are slimmer than you’d like. Maybe you just have a spending problem. Who couldn’t use a little more cash in their pockets?
Let’s turn your reason for wanting to spend less, into a goal.
I love this metaphor from Earl Nightingale.
“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going. It’s that simple. Failures, on the other hand, believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances … by things that happen to them … by exterior forces.
Think of a ship with the complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and crew know exactly where the ship is going and how long it will take–it has a definite goal. And 9,999 times out of 10,000, it will get there.
Now let’s take another ship, just like the first, only let’s not put a crew on it, or a captain at the helm. Let’s give it no aiming point, no goal, and no destination. We just start the engines and let it go. I think you’ll agree that if it gets out of the harbor at all, it will either sink or wind up on some deserted beach–a derelict. It can’t go anyplace because it has no destination and no guidance.”
It’s very hard to succeed unless you know what you’re trying to succeed at. If you’re not trying to reach a defined destination, your end point will be determined by a series of uncoordinated decisions made each time you find yourself under pressure. Your goal is your destination. It’s where you want to end up. It keeps you from simply wandering.
A goal does three things for you:
1. It gives you a direction and helps you focus your efforts to make sure you’re heading in that direction.
2. It acts as a finish line, a destination that you look to for motivation when things get hard.
3. It allows you to measure and celebrate your progress.
Make your goal a SMART goal
Have you seen the acrostic for SMART goals? There are several variations, but they all have the same general idea.
For setting a financial goal like the one we’re about to set, Specific, Measurable, and Time bound are the most important elements. In almost all cases, that means your goal will involve a number. That will make your goal both specific and measurable. If your goal is not quantifiable, you won’t be able to tell if you’re making progress, and at the end of six months, you won’t know if you succeeded!
In contrast, goals that say “more” or “less” (i.e. “I’m going to eat or less” or “I’m going to eat at home more”) are not specific enough and are hard to adequately measure.
In today’s video, Mike walks through some examples of setting a goal using this framwork.
Setting your own financial goal
For our Frugal Fresh Start Challenge, we will all set a goal for 6 months down the road. If you’re starting on January 1st, then your end date will be June 30th.
What sort of a goal? That depends on you! Think of YOUR reason for wanting a frugal fresh start and you may find that you have a goal already, or at least the beginnings of one. To get your mind moving, here is a non-comprehensive list of examples that could be a goal or part of a goal, in no particular order:
- Save a certain amount of money for a certain purpose (new car, vacation, down payment, retirement).
- Quit spending on certain items altogether.
- Constrain spending in certain categories in a measurable way.
- Pay off a certain credit card balance.
- Pay off a car, a student loan or some other debt.
- Add a certain amount to an emergency fund.
- Make three extra mortgage payments.
For more ideas, see the comments on this post, many of which were from when we originally hosted this challenge back in 2015. (We’ve totally updated the post, but left the comments because they’re so inspiring!)
Don’t get so caught up in the right number for your goal right now, especially if being actively involved in your finances is new for you. The actual number may need adjusting after you begin, but having some number is important. The most important part is to set a goal that will motivate you and give you a reason to be more frugal. A good goal will help you realize that the sacrifices you are making and the new habits you are cultivating will be worth it.
Today’s Challenge
Set a financial goal for 6 months from now that gives you a reason to be more frugal.
Write your goal down in your workbook. If you don’t have the workbook yet, you can get it emailed to you when you join the challenge. We would love for you to share your goal in the comments so we can all encourage one another!
Love this site and the goals! Thank you all. I will post more as we go, but I’m older than most of y’all and twice retired. I’m used to having a large income and spending it all on having a good time so now I want to work much less and have much less to take care of and explore living simply and spending time with my animals and playing pickleball!
That sounds like a wonderful goal!!
I want to pay off what is left of my student loan. Fortunately it is down to $300!
Pay off my smallest cc. $691.
Make a budget, and live off last month’s income. I just moved back to S. Florida,
and food, gas, etc. is more expensive than where I used to live. I am tracking
my expenses to try to put together a realistic spending plan.
Have $2000 in a starter emergency fund.
Cash flow some home improvements to my new house. I don’t have a $ amount
For that goal yet!
I don’t have one big goal because we are keeping a couple of fires going at the moment.
Rebuild mini Emergency fund.
Goal date: Feb 2020, $1,000. (have $740 left on this one)
Finish paying cash for PhD expenses (no loans so far and only one more semester to fund!)
Goal date: May 2020, $1,260.
Save to take a trip to TX for PhD graduation.
Goal date: Jun 30. Cash goal $7,500.
Save to take classes to prep for MS program in the fall.
Goal date: June 30. Cash goal $6,000.
Awesome Shannon! You are so organized with all the amounts and dates! You’ll do great!
My goal for six months is to pay off a loan and to start saving $200 a month to start saving for a house. I also plan to pay off two credit cards. Another goal is to work on improving my husband’s and my credit.
That will feel so good to be done with that loan and those credit cards! Thanks for sharing Shannon!
I will be saving for one months worth of bills and will also pay off one of my student loans, while being a SAHM. My total is 7,000.00. When I accomplish this goal I have one student loan left and then our mortgage. Then we will be a debt free house. It has taken along time to get where we are, but so worth the struggle. Good Luck Everyone🍀.
Pay off car and a student loan total amount for both together 5,500
That sounds great Lucas! That will be so nice to have your car paid off and be down a student loan!
And to get us started for the 2020 Frugal Fresh Start Challenge: Our goal is to pay an extra $25,000 toward our mortgage principal (beyond the normal payments) in the next six months. We’re not quite sure how we’re going to do it yet, so this is definitely a stretch goal, but it will get us back on track with the goal we set last year of paying off the mortgage entirely in five years.
I need to pay off my credit cards. The idea of paying cash for almost everything is very appealing to me. Paying so much interest every month is so frustrating I sometimes avoid even looking at the bill. Maybe I should to remind me of the “why” for my goal. (sorry, I’m a late starter, I only just found your site)
Hello Everyone! Our goal is to pay off our credit card debts, begin building our Emergency Fund and save money for a good down payment for our first home. We have been renting for many years now and I strongly believe it is time to have our own.
Awesome goals! Becoming debt-free so you can work toward owning a home is exciting!
Our goal is to pay off our only credit card (about $5k) and put $5k in savings. Love your blog and your determination to pay down debt. You are such an inspiration. Looking forward to the series!
That will feel so good to get that credit card paid off and have a chunk in savings! I’m glad you want to follow along. We’re currently on Day 8, so you can jump right in and catch up, starting with Day 2.
Our goal is to cut back on unnecessary spending so that I can stay at home with our twin boys. If we are able to make some sacrifices then we should be able to live off one income until they are ready to go to school.
Wonderful plan Zina!!
Pay off all consumer credit card debt and SUV loan, leaving us only car loan and student loan (plus Mortgage.) AND KEEP THEM PAYED OFF
Sounds like a great plan LeAnna!
Love your blog so much, Stephanie! You are so awesome! I wish I lived by you because it would be nice to get together with you (I live in MN). We have a lot in common.
I was waiting to set my six month goal until I heard back from the bank about our house appraisal. Here goes:
1) We are refinancing to a 10-year mortgage (it’s actually a home equity loan that will serve as our mortgage) to get rid of the $197.23 we pay each month in PMI (MIP, technically since it is an FHA loan). It’s the same interest rate as what we have on our 30 year mortgage (3.25%), but by refinancing with our credit union (a NO COST refinance, they even paid for the appraisal) we will have 20% equity in our house. Had we kept going as is, we would have wasted about $7000 more on PMI over the next three years. Our mortgage payment will go up considerably ($850 a month) but the extra will be going towards principal and we won’t be throwing away $7000 towards nothing.
2) Now that we have an idea what our new payment will be, my husband and I sat down and picked out two student loans that we will pay off by July 1st. One is just over $3000 and one is just over $7100. Both have an interest rate of 6.55%.
It’s going to be tight, but we can do it!!
That’s awesome Janet! Horray for getting rid of PMI! That will be a huge savings and that is so cool that you could do a no-cost refinance! Great news and great goals!
Too bad MN is such a long way from CA! 🙂
Goal: To save on my graduate stipend as much as possible, so that I don’t have to depend on my parents to fund my studies. If things go south and I have to drop out, I can atleast use whatever savings I’ve saved up to tide me over until I find another job. The previous months cost me because of incidental charges (moving in, settling down etc), but I’m gunning at saving 50% of each stipend check from 2015 ,without starving myself, boring myself or socially isolating myself greatly.
Living frugally so you can save your stipend money for a rainy day is a great idea!
Hi Stephenie love your blog. Our goal is to pay off our 2500 in cc debt, then our 7600 in car debt. And beef our emergency fund up to 5000. It will take lots of overtime and some luck our tax returns but I think we can do it.
You can do it Des! Best of luck on the tax return!
My plan is to pay off my school loan ($1700), Lasix loan ($2500), and have a solid emergency fund ($6000). Thats a total of $10,200 over the next six months. Now that its in writing, it seems like a pretty lofty goal. I might have to adjust the emergency fund. Thats why im here for the next month to figure out this kind of stuff.
I think your goals are great Samantha, even if they seem lofty all written out! 🙂
Hi Stephanie! Loved the quote in this post above…such an eye opener! Beautifully written post, as usual. I don’t think it would be fair to just give you my 6-month goal, because it’s not going to be a challenge, especially IF we get money back when we file our taxes. I set 12-month goals, so I will give you those, which WILL be a challenge…I kept it simple and just chose 4 items: Keep our Emergency Fund where it is right now (not touch it, but also not add to it), Increase my husband’s work retirement to 9% which will maxx it out for the year by Novemberish (meaning our last few checks of year will be for more which is never a bad thing!), Save 4K for a trip to CA at beginning of summer to visit hubby’s family, and lastly, Pay off my husband’s Jeep…we currently owe around 18.5K. –I already increased the retirement this week, so it will be interesting to see what the new amount of hubby’s checks will be. So basically I am working on the last 2 items…I don’t know if it’s even possible to accomplish the 4th goal, but I decided to aim high and work on it. Normally I would make a bunch of calculations and try to figure out if a goal is possible before putting it down, but this time I just went for it. My husband’s salary changes (up or down) usually once per year, and when it changes, it’s a HUGE jump in either direction. So didn’t make sense to do a bunch of calculations based on non-concrete numbers. Also, I know I waste so much money throughout the year on little things, and plan NOT to do that this year. So I’m sure we’ll end up with more money than we ever thought possible, thus the big goals. 🙂
That’s nice that the retirement comes right out of his check so you don’t have to think twice about it! I think it’s fine to set a goal without lots of calculations. When you’re motivated you can do amazing things. What’s that saying “Shoot for the moon and even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” I’m sure you’ll save a lot this year by cutting out little things. It’s amazing how they add up!
My goal in six months is to stop spending foolishly, learn to budget and stick with it. I would also like to start putting money aside for kids education funds which is gonna be fun with four kids and by myself.
When you can rein in your spending and budget, it’s amazing how much money you’ll have to put where you really want it to go. You can do it Tina!
Love your blog. Saving for a family vacation. I can’t wait to read this series.
That’s a fun goal Karen! 🙂
My goal in 6 months is to pay off one credit card and be halfway done with paying the other, plus save $2500 toward a house. Sounds lofty, but I have it planned out.
Lofty is awesome! It will be wonderful to have those cards paid off!
My goal is to go grocery shopping for the whole month once a month for under $360 . That’s for six people. I made my menu plan, shopping list and gathered coupons. I’m putting to practice everything that I have learned. In this process that I am working up will,should lead to my next goal of having a stockpile of basic things and recipe plans. I want to have this completed in six months. Before that would be great too. Haha
Great plan Debra! Having a stockpile of basics is wonderful and we love once-a-month shopping!
Thanks to your blog Stephanie, we have discovered YNAB. For so many years I tried to budget by making my own fancy Excel spreadsheets and trying out some programs and always failed. We have been using YNAB since the beginning of December 2014 as “sticking to a good budget” was one of my 2015 New Years Resolutions. My hubby has always earned a good income, but without a budget, the money just disappears 🙁 we have been so wasteful and going backwards for years! I am excited to know that within 6 months we will be able to pay off all of our interest bearing credit cards and store cards (that’s over $50k of sickening, high interest bearing debt!!). We have already cut up 2 store cards (at 30% interest)… and I have never ever cut up a card before, boy does that feel amazing and free!!! Can’t wait to open our account page in 6 months time and see the linked credit cards at $0 and removed, and savings $$$ in the bank account. 6 months is not long.. I know we can do this!!!
Congrats on cutting up two credit cards!! You’re off to a great start Natalie!
Our goal is to have two months income set aside, our smallest three credit cards payed off, and be using YNAB without even thinking about it. With tax return and hubby’s bonus in March this should be attainable goals.
Those are great things to do with windfalls like tax returns and bonuses! 🙂
I’m going to save $3000 towards a car in the next 6 months. I don’t need a car right now but I know I will in the future and I haven’t really planned ahead for it.
Way to start thinking ahead!
My 6 month goal is to pay $1800 toward my credit card debt, and to save an additional $1200 toward living off of last month’s income.
Living on last month’s income is so freeing! That will be great to pay off a nice chunk of credit card debt too!
My goal is to generate additional income of $438/month to supplement my husbands income (I stay at home with my two children, 3 and 1 y/o). If I can do this (or at least average it), we should have all of our dental bills paid off ($3,000), my husbands student loans paid off ($4,000), and put away another $2,000 in to savings. Then on to my student loans (gulp). But one thing at a time! I would also be putting any tax refund money or extra lump sum payments that we are expecting towards our goals too (since clearly $438/month doesn’t even come close to meeting the amounts I listed!). Thanks for the encouragement to set a specific amount and goals for 6 months. It feels so much more focused than just “pay off more debt this year”.
Awesome Blythe! I’m curious how you chose $438 instead of a rounder number… you must have been crunching some numbers! 🙂
I know for certain that my student loans will be paid off in October, but I would love, love, LOVE to have them paid off in 6 months!
How cool would that be to get those student loans conquered even earlier than planned?!
I think goal setting is a great start to managing finances! My goal is to pay off the remainder of my student loans by the end of 2015.
That will be a happy day Nikki!
Get $3000 into our emergency fund, live on last month’s income, and continue putting at least $200 a month into our retirement funds – all while trying to save $5000 for a vacation in May…..WE CAN DO IT 🙂
You CAN do it Sue! Way to think big!
My 6 month goals are to pay off 3 credit card bills & to save some money every pay check towards moving.
Awesome Krystal! It will feel so good to have those credit cards paid!
Just found your blog last month. I agree that with all things financial you MUST have a concrete goal. I feel ambitious today. I want to set an example for my twenty something children. Here are my goals for the next 6 months.
1. Reduce our Home Equity loan by a third. We will make weekly instead of monthly payments. Spread out the pain.
2. Increase the balance in our emergency fund by $3000.
3. Buy no new clothes. Set a limit of $25.00/ month for thrifting purchases. (Must do somethng to satisfy my shopping urges. If successful, I will go cold turkey the final 6 months of 2015.)
4. Reduce eating out to once per week.
5. Save $2000 in our vacation fund.
This will require a HUGE effort on my part, but IS obtainable.
Good luck to all of us!
Hooray for being ambitious! I love your solution to satisfy shopping urges! 🙂 You can do it!
My goal is to pay off credit card debt and line of credit debt (everything but the mortgage, for now — just paying the minimums on the mortgage). I haven’t yet quantified that. I’ll start with the credit cards. That’s a HUGE challenge and maybe just right for six months. So far we have only steadily increased our debt(!), so paying OFF credit card debt would be AWESOME and the size of the challenge and the AWESOMENESS of the goal are both very motivating!!!
I love that you are motivated by awesomeness! That’s a great quality.
In the next 6 months, we would like to sell the pickup, payoff a $2000 cc, and run new electrical in our house. Ideally, sell the pickup by the end of the month so the rest of the stuff can happen!
Best of luck selling the pick-up quickly! That will be a great way to jump-start your goals!
Our goal is to have save enough money to have 2 dangerous trees removed from our property, plant a new tree, and save $4000 towards a new to us vehicle. The only debt we have left is our mortgage, and we hope to never take out a loan again. We have a bad habit of eating out on weekends, so starting with one week a month we are eating in for the entire week.
That’s awesome that your only debt is your mortgage! Definitely get rid of those trees before they end up costing you in a different way! 🙂
My goal in six months is to have my student loan debt totally paid off ($8222.99 worth of debt)!
That will deserve some celebration!!
Hi Stephanie!
I’ve been reading Six Figures for months but, surprisingly, have yet to comment despite similar circumstances! We are a family of four living in a family member’s basement while working to pay off $110,000 of student loan debt (my husband is a PhD student, I work full-time outside the home). Our 6-month goal is to knock out a student loan of $8,200.
Good luck everyone!
Also: You have been such a support the past six months! It’s wonderful to know there are others choosing similar, nontraditional paths! Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words my fellow basement-dweller! 🙂 Knocking out a student loan will feel so good!
We just started YNAB on Jan 1 and our goal is to be fuller buffered and living off of last month’s income by May. Our next goal will be to have our emergency fund at $15000….
Intriguing!
Living on last month’s income is wonderful! I’m excited for you!
Our goal is to move out on our own, hubby & I are currently @ moms.
That’s an exciting one Maria!!!
We set a quarterly goal to try and only buy consumable products (food, diapers, etc). I’m hoping that this helps us really start to think about our purchases and impulse buys… and becomes more of a habit.
I like it. Let us know how that goes. That would sure help me but I’m afraid that I couldn’t do it or, perhaps more honestly, I don’t want to give it up.
I hadn’t thought of differentiating purchases in that way, but that’s a great idea! It will prevent you from spending money on “stuff.”
I would like to get our monthly grocery spending down to $300. Last year we averaged $525/month for 4. Our middle son is now on his own, so it’s myself, hubby and 18 year old son. This would include cleaning products, paper and personal items as well.
That sounds like a great goal Cheryl!
Our goal is to pay off our consumer debt other than student loans and also to save for a decent down payment on a new to us car.
Paying off consumer debt will be great Aubri!
Our cars are both 15 years old this year. One should be replaced, and one NEEDS to be replaced. Our goal with becoming more conscious, consistent, and deliberate with our spending is to save up enough to purchase (in cash, in full) one new-to-us vehicle, and have a decent amount set aside for a 2nd new-to-us vehicle.
Good for you! Our cars are even older (both ’97s), so we really need to think about this too. I’m really hoping they’ll outlast our debt, but that’s probably wishful thinking. 🙂
Our goal is to pay off all debts (except credit cards), and down credit cards to less thank$3,000.00.
Great goals Karen!
Our goal is to pay off our final consumer debt loan. It is our vehicle, and we still owe $13,500. Thanks for the motivation. Let’s do this!
That will be awesome Monica!