I messed up. Bad.

I haven't posted in a while for two reasons:

I'm having trouble nailing down my after-tax saving goals for 2008 and a plan of action for them.
Here are my tentative goals, in no particular order:

$1,500 Health Care Fund
$3,600 Additional three months to Unemployment Fund
$5,000 2008 Roth IRA contribution
$2,000 Travel
$5,000 New computer (to be purchased in 2009)

I went back and forth about exactly how to save this money. Should I save for each goal in monthly amounts, or should I focus on individual goals until it is met, then move to the next? It's mainly the Roth that has me thinking about this. Is it better to pay $416 a month for the year, or save up the $5,000 within three months then dump it into the Roth as a lump sum? I'm not really sure how to handle that. I'm also considering moving the Roth from my bank to Vanguard, but that's something to consider later. There's a bigger issue that's throwing a wrench in my plans...

I spent too much money last month. Way. Too. Much.
To the tune of almost $800. And it's on my credit card. Now, I have the money to pay it off right now. That's exactly how much I wanted to put into my savings that will instead go to this credit card payment. To say that I am unhappy about this would be the understatement of the year. As much as I'd like to chastise myself for getting into this situation, that's not going to get me any closer to a solution. The good news is that this credit card has zero interest charges until May. Even so, I find having that much debt on there dangerous and only invites more frivolous spending.

I'm going to pay the entire balance. It's going to cramp my savings, but so be it. I can look for ways to make up that $800 through overtime, my tax return, project gigs, whatever.

Oh! Another thing I have to do!
Create a new budget for 2008. I wanted to wait until I get my first two paychecks for year before I wrote this up, however I know that I'd like to be more aggressive with my after-tax savings. I easily saved $1,300 a month in 2007. I'd like to up the ante in 2008 to $1,500 with a stretch goal of $1,600. To do that, I'm going to look at my budget to see what I can work on.

Everything still feels up in the air and unsettled
Not all my goals (except for the Roth contribution) are written in stone. I believe there will be some changes to come. Plus some other non-saving goals. I just wanted to stop avoiding this unpleasant financial hiccup. :)