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This month we've chosen to make two big changes to our finances:

1.  We're refinancing our mortgage.  We happened to have made the offer on our home literally the same week that the bottom fell out of the secondary mortgage market.  This means the rate on our first mortgage is decent, but our second is a little over 10%.  That was a huge shock for us, since we had originally been quoted something closer to 7%.  In the spur of the moment, we felt like we had no options and decided to take the mortgage and then refinance as soon as possible.  It turns out ASAP is just about now.  We're officially waiting until the Fed makes its announcement at the end of the month, but then we're go for launch with the hope of saving at least $100 per month.

2.  We've decided to begin using a credit card for our monthly discretionary spending.  We've never done this before and have always relied upon our ATM/debit cards for our groceries, household goods and clothes, etc.  But sadly, I have a really bad track record at balancing the checkbook.  I keep promising myself that THIS is the month I'm finally going to make time to stay on top of our finances and it never ends up happening.  At least this way we'll earn some credit card miles.  For the record, I don't in any way shape or form, recommend credit card spending.  I might not be so great at the daily details of our finances, but we will absolutely pay off our balance every month.  I hope that by seeing all of our spending at once, in the form of our monthly credit card bill, I'll be more motivated to work on reducing the waste.