An Apology and Next Years Goal

I would like to apologize for being missing is action for the last month. My Mother broke a rib Thanksgiving morning and has been living with me and my family. It has been a bit challenging and has taken a bit of time to get used to but we are managing! I also was in the hospital right before Christmas. I had some chest pain and was admitted for observation and testing. My stress test was positive so I had to have an angiogram. Turns out I have a small blockage but nothing to be too worried about for now. Just need to watch my diet and start to exercise more. Also need to stop stressing about everything! Easier said than done but I am trying. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Our family sure did! Too much food and lots of fun! With the new year approaching, I have been going over our budget and surprise, surprise, our budget is being challenged! Several expenses are increasing. Our mortgage escrow has increased $50.00 per month and our health insurance has gone up $70 per month. Tom received a 1.5% raise in his SSD check but that is only $17.00 per month. I will not get my raise until April and that is usually about $16.00 per week. So our expenses have increased $120.00 per month and our income is only increasing $17.00 per month so we are in the whole over $100.00 per month. We do not have an extra $100.00 per month to spare! We are strapped as it is now and I have no idea how we are going to come up with that extra cash. So that brings me to my goal for 2014- Increase our income by $200 per month and reduce our expenses by $50.00 per month in order to survive financially and get our financial life moving in the right direction. I will be trying to get my Herb and Botanicals business off the ground, but I need to generate extra money starting in January. I will be researching how to come up with cash fast and will be sharing my successes and failures. I hope you will follow along on our journey to increase our income and reduce our expenses. We are pretty frugal but we need to tighten our belts even more than we have in the past. It is going to be an interesting year! How are you and your family dealing with increasing costs? Blessings to you all in the New Year, Lisa