So I figured out how to pay for the door without putting us in the red this month.

BUT for January 2010, I have a couple of issues:

As part of my 2010 goal, I want to max out my Roth IRA. Then DH and I will BOTH be saving 15% of our income towards retirement.

But if I pay for the door & our other expenses AND start putting $416/mo away for retirement for me - then we end up $447 in the red.

My youngest's birthday is in January so I allocated $100 for that (pictures, cake, and a present). I'm considering holding back one of her Christmas gifts for her birthday so then I just have to pay for pictures and her cake with the $100.

My allowance money will have accumulated to $150, and DH's to $121.17

I really don't like the idea of having to forego another month of saving for my retirement. So something is going to have to give.

I'll probably forgo some of my allowance money for the time being and push back my retirement savings to February when we have our tax return.

So we'll see... I have a month to plan for this and see how I'll adjust. I'm estimating our tax return (State and Federal) will be around $10K next year so I plan on paying off one of my CCs.