I was reading Woman's Day magazine today and there was an interesting article called "Slash Your Energy Bill". Now, I personally believe we already do everything possible to slash our bill, so I read the article hoping to glean another bit of information.

The article suggested taking a "Home Energy Audit". It took just 5 minutes - once I gathered all the necessary information.

Just visit EnergyStar.gov, click on "Home Energy Audits" and use the

I lost steam in working towards my financial goals - and received a lot of support. So thank you everyone for jump starting me!

Our savings account has stalled at just $1,000 and some change. Now it's time to shift our savings into high gear and convert that baby emergency fund into a fully funded emergency fund.

In playing around with figures tonight, I realized I can reach my goal of $15,000 by the end of 2009 if I put away $2,000 every month. Yes, I could have $15,000 in the bank after seven months!

I should say that $2,000 a month is a lot of money for me. It's still going to be a little tight. And seven months isn't that long - just a little more than 200 days. I can do anything for just 200 days. Right?

So, I'm giving myself seven months to build this emergency fund to $15,000. Just seven months. It's not forever. Just seven months. Then I can move to baby step #4. Just seven months.

Current savings: $1,000
06/30/09 goal: $3,000
07/31/09 goal: $5,000
08/31/09 goal: $7,000
09/30/09 goal: $9,000
10/31/09 goal: $11,000
11/30/09 goal: $13,000
12/31/09 goal: $15,000

You would think that after spending almost four years paying off all our credit cards and loans, that we would just sail right into building our 3 to 6 month emergency fund. But that's not the case. It seems we have hit the brakes and are losing steam.

Don't misunderstand - we are still debt free and we will NEVER pick up another credit card again.

But we should be using that "debt snowball" to build our emergency fund, and we're not. We went crazy spending cash recently. Spent $2500 on replacement windows. Spent another $2200 on a built-in entertainment center. Gave $700 to our son to help him out. All this in a matter of months!

We have to get back into the Dave Ramsey mindset and build that emergency fund NOW.

If I can just remember WHY I started these Baby Steps in the first place, perhaps I can get my steam back.

Here are some things I am looking forward to when we reach baby step #7 -

... Buying a car with air conditioning (or maybe even a convertible)
... Crocheting for charity using exotic specialty yarns
... Getting a personal trainer and train for a marathon
... Buying a house on the lake
... Taking my kids and grandkids on a cruise
... Hiring people to do the things I don't like to do - mowing the lawns, shoveling the driveways, painting the house, cleaning the gutters, etc.
... Traveling around the U.S.
... Seeing a hockey game from one of the box suites

Yes, there are a lot of things I would love to do in the future. I need to buckle down and get back to saving. NOW.