So, the weekly goal lists have gotten me thinking.....what are your LONG-Term frugal/simple goals? Realistic goals (we all have big dreams, but which ones do you really think you can achieve in a reasonable period of time....say, in the next 5 years?

Okay, here's my longer-term goals:

~pay off all credit card debt (in the next 4 years) and not use credit cards again.

~pay off as much as possible on our vehicles (should have the van paid off in 3 years and dh's car in 4 1/2 years) and then try to keep them in good shape and running for as long as possible so we won't keep having to do two car payments!

~install attic fan to help with our summer air conditioning bills (hope to do this by next spring)

~slowly replace appliances (refrigerator and dishwasher) with Energy Star appliances.

~increase our savings.

~increase our garden size (although we are somewhat limited since we live on 1/2 acre in a subdivision).


I'm sure I'll think of more and will add to them!

In my "dream world," I'd love to buy 5 acres somewhere more rural and have goats, cows, chickens, etc. and a huge, huge garden....but I haven't figured out a way to make that a reality yet!

Mine are:

*increase the productivity of our land - thereby reducing our dependence on the money-goods exchange for needs like food. This goal in itself is huge, encompassing getting more animals, planting a larger garden, canning, preserving, freezing, etc. Even having the house as simple and easy to maintain as possible feeds into this goal. Sugaring from our own maple trees. Getting draft horses to help with harvesting lumber for fuel. Bucking and splitting our own logs (starting on that as we speak!) and eventually using only wood from our own land (looking at buying a 12-acre woodlot adjoining our property to do this).

*Edited* Oops - you said *realistic.* ;) I tend to think big. But that's our overarching goal and within the next five years I hope to move a bit toward that by biting off the following chunks: increasing my garden size each year (also gardening smarter not harder through experience), sugaring next season and if we like it, expanding it as much as we want to; talking to people about horses and learning more about draft horses and their care to see if we want to do that; sustainably managing our forest re: timber cutting and using the wood for heat; researching and obtaining some more livestock, probably goats and pigs for the next few seasons; expanding the amount of canning and preserving I do each year.

That's the biggie. But the others are:
*look to replace anything we buy that's produced elsewhere, with something produced as locally as possible, at least within Vermont, or consider giving up that item.

*develop bartering relationships with others in the community for the goods or services we don't produce on our own land.

*don't shop ANY big box stores, ever - get everything locally from the Willey's store (our family-owned, independent general store) or the co-op. We still grocery shop at the supermarket twice monthly right now.

*add extra mortgage payments as my income allows

*pay off our car (we own half of it)

*increase our savings and save for college! ack!

I'm sure there's more, too - those are just really plenty, though.

*Declutter my home so that it is a place I love to be in, as opposed to constantly seeing what needs to be done/cleaned/gotten rid of. Basically we need to simplify our home.

*Pay off credit cards. We've been *almost* there so many times, so I know we can do it.

*Pay off the cars. DH's should be paid off this year, though I still think he should trade it in for something more fuel efficient. My van has 3 years left, but we'll probably pay it off early.

*More short term, I'd like to cut extraneous (sp?) spending by 10% and keep it that way for fast debt repayment and future savings.

My long term frugal/simple living goals are:

pay off the credit cards ( and not run them up again)

Buy a house (hopefully the one I am renting right now with a few things fixed in it)

Get my finances organized so that I can work part instead of full time

Sarah

get this house ready to sell, move home, live in apt. while we find the perfect house.

Have less "stuff" than we have now

try to barter babysitting or crafts for things as much as possible

be much more organized than I am now.. financially we're fine.. it's the clutter that's taken over my life that brings me here. I need to simplify.

We're trying to get into this really great little house that we can pay off in 5 years. That is the main goal - frugal or otherwise - right now.

We aim to be free of consumer debt (line of credit and all credit cards) by this Christmas. Should be easily attainable at the rate we're going.

Then we're going to build our $1000 emergency fund. That should be done by early next year, because right now any extra money we find, we're putting onto our line of credit that we used for home upgrades when we moved here.

Then we're going to start making bigger or more frequent payments on our van, hopefully so it's paid of at least a year early.

We also need to start on a regular long-term savings account (once we have our emergency one covered.)

After that, our long term goal is to increase our house payments so our mortgage is also paid off sooner.

Honestly, I think all of these are within reach. Maybe I'm not aiming high enough? We are pretty good at being resourceful and controlling our spending.

Kerri

For the next two years: very simple living so DH can finish his degree.

Have two of three debts paid off in that time.

Continue building savings account.

Large garden and work on DH's family's ranch in trade for fresh eggs, meat, etc.

Become a better seamstress (as if that's even something I could consider myself as at the moment :hahaha: )

Five years:
Live somewhere that we love (either Pacific NW, Alaska or far north (Maine, VT or NH).

Out of debt w/exception of possibly a house payment.

Finish masters

Have chickens, goats, pigs and garden. Maybe a horse or two.

And otherwise my goals are very similar to Lauren's, down to box stores and local support of small biz's


Lauren, can I move in with you? ;) Can you spare an acre or two?

Near term:

Lower monthly expenses, especially groceries
Declutter entire house and bonus room
Sell excess scrapbooking and rubber stamping supplies
Pay off second mortgage by 1/07
Pay off truck by 6/07
Fully fund emergency savings by 12/07

Longer term:

Continue retirement savings, plus save more outisde of retirement investment vehicles so that DH can retire early.

Decide where we want to live. Decide on paying down mortgage early based on that.

College savings.

Buy local. Continue to avoid big boxes (we've been Walmart-free for 4 years!).

One more thing...

...buy 15-20 gallons of organic maple syrup (annually) from Lauren once she sets up production.

Immediate:

--get house closed (it's in escrow due to close 9/15!) pay off two cars, sell third (will need to pay difference b/w pay-off and what we sell it for) -- paying off the three car payments will save $1000/mo. and having one less car will save $130/mo. for insurance.

--rent smaller, single-story house very close to dh's work and kids' enrichment classes -- the rent will likely be the same as now since it's a more expensive area, but we'll save $400-$500/mo. on gas and $100-$300/mo. (depending on season) on our electricity in a smaller house I.E. my parents have a 2200 sq. ft. one story and it costs them $275/mo in the summer to keep it 72 degrees...we're spending $550+/mo to keep our 3500 sq. ft. two story rental 72 downstairs (and upstairs is much warmer).

--we'll continue to rent for 3 years or so, since our rent will be about $1000/mo less than a mortgage payment would be, even figuring losing the tax deduction

I can't really think much farther ahead than that, after all we've been through in the past couple years. If the house actually closes and we get that little bit of $$ (trying not to think about the fact that we're losing more than half what we would have had) we can try to get back on track.

pay off cc debt & cars, then buy new house with a BIG downpayment, simplify so we can work less and play more!!

Pay off credit cards--hopefully in two years

Buy house

Simple LOL

I have some goals :
1)to figure out how to keep my kids eating healthy when I have my husband's awful eating habits and my mom's desperate need to spoil my grandchildren habit to contend with... she is a wonderful woman but her idea of a "not bad" junk food day is a few cheetos with lunch, a bag of mnms as a snack and ice cream after dinner. sigh... really, the kids eat well around this but... its still too much junk, ya know?

2) another goal is to work out a WORKING meal planning thing.

3)a few bills that need to be paid off while we aren't paying rent (we have to help out with utilities if 5 more people in the house raises them significantly, as I am sure it will.

and
4) the BIG one.. save $10K to buy a house rather than moving into a rental now and buying in a few years. This is a fluid goal... we may just save up as much money as we can and buy a minivan and rent... then buy in a few years when we know this area better... it puts off my dream, but is probably a smarter way to do things since we don't know the area well.

Basic scenario is dh gets a job making 28K and if we stay for a year, IRS takes $8K for taxes, $5K to live and $5K for paying off old medical bills, car insurance etc the "big" stuff, and $10K in savings for downpayment and closing costs, etc.

I have looked into some local low income/DAP programs and we could make quite a bit and still qualify for them (whoo hoo for having 3 kids, lol). There is even one program that if you buy in certain areas you can get a 1% interest rate loan. And if we do that, we can get an amazing house for a $600-$800 payment. So I am really hoping we can find something like this. Or else the DAP programs pay $5-$20K as a second mortgage which isn't due until you sell the home or when your 30 year loan is paid off. Worst case scenario, we still have the 10K for downpayment on a conventional loan.

If Jeff gets a higher paying job, then we can either move sooner (which I am sure he will want to do, LOL, my mom and step dad are wonderful people, but we are a bit crazy, lol) or save more. Or I can get a minivan I want one baaaaaaaaaaad. tired of scraping my knuckles on 3 carseats in the back seat...

None of my realistic long term goals are out past a year right now. We just have WAY too much going on to be able to plan that far ahead.

#1. To declutter this house. It isn't bad, but trying to fit the stuff for another person in here in the next 4 months has really made me see where we can cut back and dig in. The kids clothes is one, and also we will have to pack up some of the kids stuff until we get a bigger house and switch out the doll house and kitchen stuff. They go through phases of playing with them anyhow, so I don't see how it would be a bad idea, but I love my kids to have options. So packing them up will be hard for me.

#2. While Don is in the academy (be it Oct 5th or Feb 20th) we will start taking that extra that he gets there and put it on our two large credit cards. I want Best Buy stuff ($1200) paid off before it gathers interest. (Feb 17th 2006) If we have to, we will do this with tax return money, but I would like to plan a little ahead.

#3. I am in the process of planning for winter right this second. Preserving food, and trying out recipes. I know this will come in handy before and after I have the baby, but I just can't see the completion at this point... everything is still so up in the air.

#4. Keep money in savings. Make it happen.

That is about it. In the next 6 months everything in our lives could change dramatically so I am not planning beyond that.

My major, long term goal is to grow more and more food. Spending even $100 a week is crazy. This summer, my first garden prved that this can be done with planning, work and sacrafice. Sacrafice as in sacrafice that stoopid grass/lawn! Don't use precious soil, water and space growing something you cannot eat!

I also plan to create a rainwater harvest system. We know that within five years, we will need to replace our roof. At that time, we will replace asphalt shingles with a (beautiful) green sheet metal roof and create a downspout/rainbarrel system. Wasting water is as silly as wasting soil.

Pay Attention. That's the key. Staying in the now will take you to your future...