Okay, this may not seem like fun to people who aren’t as Excel and analysis obsessed as I am, but here’s a bit of financial analysis I sent my husband last December. (Note that the 2010 averages only go through November.)

Over the 5 years from 2005-2009, we put ~ $800 in savings. To be fair, we put a little over $6k in savings in 2006, but then spent about $5k of that in 2008 to pay off credit cards.

Our income in 2010 was $1,800 more than it was in 2009

In 2009, we put $70 total in savings.
In 2010, we will put $5,280 in savings

In 2009, we paid $4,575 toward SLs
In 2010, we will pay $14,650 toward SLs

In 2009, we paid $19,100 toward credit cards (and still had CC debt – and after taking $5k from savings in 2008 to pay toward credit cards)
In 2010, we paid $9,200 toward credit cards (and have no CC debt)

In 2009, we averaged $750/month on groceries (3 people- 250/person)
In 2010, we averaged $467/month on groceries (2 people – 235/person)

In 2009, we averaged $310/month eating out (3 people – 103/person)
In 2010, we averaged $180/month eating out (2 people – 90/person)