Category Archives: Goals

Successful Day!

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Today is a rare day around my house!  I accomplished everything on my “have to finish list” and still have a little bit of time left to actually add to the list or just sit.  My list for today included:

1.  Washing all kids clothes prior to end of school day- this was accomplished and all three kids got all their clothes put away!
2.   Proof reading and sending a set of Bible quiz questions out to Raleigh. This technical is not finished yet because I have to wait for Matt’s help to reduce the number of repeat questions but it will be done before bedtime.
3. Assembling and ordering a calendar for my Dad’s birthday. His birthday is January 1st. My mother’s birthday is December 29th and growing up I learned very quickly that you CAN”T combine those two gifts. I was able to use a coupon so spent a total of $7 on this calendar and it is the end of my Christmas shopping!
4. Cooked an awesome dinner including trying out two new recipes both of which turned out great. I cooked a turkey breast in one of my crock pots, these sweet potatoes and apples in a second and made cranberry sauce in a third. I am not a cranberry sauce person, I even bought the cranberries by mistake but this was AWESOME!  It is a definite addition to our Christmas dinner party.
5. Christmas cards-addressed and ready to mail!
6. Went over to my parents and picked up  a few more Christmas decorations. I was actually able to place most of these where I had anticipated. I am 99% finished with my Christmas decorating. This is the first year in a long time that I have enjoyed decorating. I also have used all the decorations that I could find in the attic as well as gather some from other places as well.
7. Wrote and published a blog piece!  Seven is the perfect number so I will stop here!

Join me in being thankful to finish a list!

 

 

November In Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month 13 for the month counting this.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  I did manage to break that 185 mark that I have been stuck at since August, however post Thanksgiving I am back to where I am stuck.

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  I did make a huge payment on Debt this month and am refocused on this goal.. Goal Met

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Another fail for this month… I have to get a handle on this!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  $500. I am planning to use any and all extra monies to go toward paying down debt. I purchased lots of extra stuff this month so I know it was spent, just not on Groceries.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $228 for gas and another $150 for a part for my car. GOAL MET!  This is due to the significant lowering of gas prices. I also did not include any of the gas for our trip which comes from a second budget. I will hopefully report on this next week.

I did not met any of my personal goals but 3/4 of financial goal. Next month, I anticipated the same and will plan to give a detailed description of our debt and the plan to pay off prior to July 2015.

If You Give…

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If you give a kid a new playhouse, the playhouse will need a new roof and a coat of paint. And if you put a new roof on the playhouse you need to also put a new roof on the out building that sits beside it.

FullSizeRender FullSizeRender (1)And while you are looking at paint and roofing supplies, you decided that a quick remodel of the bathroom is needed so you decide to tackle that next, see the pictures. So once you get the bathroom finish and move the toys from the playroom into the playhouse then you must rearrange the playroom.

FullSizeRender (2)And since when you are rearranging the playroom, you realize that the love seat now fits and it needs a rug under it, you decide now is the time to replace the living room floor since both these items are from the living ……….and then you realize this all must be finished before family pictures on Sunday.    This is the story of my life!

As you can probably imagine we have been working like crazy the last two weeks on these projects. The playhouse needs to be rotated and leveled, which my brother is going to help with. And we are so very close to finishing the living room floor that I will post pictures of both as soon as they are finished!

October in Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month I am posting this on Thursday and post number 15 is scheduled for Halloween (Friday). This is a GOAL MET!

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  This is the goal that I wanted to skip this month.  I have not lost any weight since August. I know that it is a struggle but grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  I have been getting to the Y at least once a week so hopefully soon it will help!

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  This is still the goal, but I have taken advantage of a free interest period of 6 months to purchase some needed up dates around the house, so in reality we have went backwards on this goal but with all the Christmas shopping done< I hope to document significant progress in the next several months!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Added $150 to this so for the first time in a long time GOAL MET!

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  $545. This definitely is not the $300 I had anticipated and hoped for this month however it does include $110 for the Costco membership that I thought had paid and is still under for the month. We are continuing to clean out the stockpile, I actually have an empty shelf. I am not sure where this will end up in November, a goal would be under $300 but I do have 120# of chicken that we will pick up on Saturday so I know that I will be spending some money to get this prepared for the freezer.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $453. This does include tags, title and insurance for the truck so that is what set up over the top. In November we will be making a trip to Michigan and anticipate some major changes in our cars but I don’t want to talk about that until it occurs. I have not doubt that I will not met this goal in November!

50% this month. I had really anticipated that October would be a lower spending month for use however it happened to be the opposite. I anticipate November being around the same because of our trip and the holiday. At least I can see progress!

Budget Update- October

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leaky faucet : conceptual illustration of a dripping tap coins Illustration

This is exactly what my budget feels like for this month. Yes, I will take full credit for most of it but I also really want to stop some of the leaks. I have completely failed at the Low/No Spend challenge for the month. The good news is that all my Christmas shopping is done.  That makes my life so much less hectic at this point so that will be counted as a positive. We have spent a chunk of extra money this month on updating both the tower and playhouse for the kids to enjoy. I am think that when all is said and done around $300 for updating and fixing both in addition to new mulch for the playground. We also have update the hall bathroom with a new coat of paint, new flooring and new shower curtain.  I am adding around another $200 for these updates and finally a new roof for our outbuilding with a price tag of $250. As you can see these have added up fast. Other unplanned spending included clothes for myself and the kids and of course new shoes.

In the ok but not great budget news, we have spent $545 of our $600 grocery budget which includes our Costco membership fee that I thought I had already paid but had not. This is not as good as I had hoped or expected but I have been doing some research and grocery prices are on the rise so staying in the budget is a win at least. We are starting to make a small dent in the stockpile and I am only replacing what we are out of so I am hoping to make a even bigger dent in the next two months to average our grocery spending down to $600 a month from $625 that it currently is.   In the second ok news we have spent $399,68 of our gas budget this month. This includes tags, inspection and  taxes for the truck.  This may increase if we are unable to hold out on putting gas in the van. Gas prices have dropped significantly and this should help use next month as well.

I did add $200 to our Emergency fund so this is a definite win!

Not a total loss but definitely not a low/no spend month!

Low Spend/No Spend Failure

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I knew it would happen. Every time I decided that I am going to try and keep our spending to a minimum  something always seems to come up. This month it was shoes.

All three of the little kids needed shoes this past week. So we ended up spending most of last Sunday, shopping for shoes. We were able to find 4 new pair of shoes, Kendall was the lucky recipient of two pair, for $95.  I don’t think that our shoe problems has been entirely solved but at least they have been pushed back for the moment. I anticipate that both Lily and Kendall will need new boots this year but for now they are fine wearing what shoes they have. I will also need to buy a pair of new shoes for work  but my plan is to wait till we are in Michigan and attempt to go to the Nike outlet for those.   The other unexpected cost this month are directly related to home repair and upkeep. As a home owner, things wear out and need to be repaired and updates as is the case with our house this month. So I am going to declare that I am a failure at this low spend month.

However I am thinking in the long range, I may actually meet most of our set financial goals for the month.  We currently have spent $320 of our $600 grocery budget. This  does include our Costco membership that I thought I had paid in September. I don’t see any other large purchase for this month so I expect to stay around $350 total for the month. In other good budget news, gas prices have significantly dropped in the last week. I saw prices today at less than $3 a gallon. This should allow us to stay under our $400 a month gas budget. Anything left for the month will be used for our Michigan trip, which will also be reduced if gas prices decide to stay at this level.

In some  other good budget news, we have been able to increase our income for the month by selling a couple of items, a $20 rebate from P&G, a refund of $70 for my weight loss challenge and Matt has picked up some additional work as well.

 

October Budget Challenge

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I have decided to join Carla in her October Budget Challenge. One of the reason that I so enjoying reading Carla’s blog is that she is real, she does not try to pad number or just say hey I am going to do this and then forget to tell us what is up even it is ugly.  So now on to me… I have already talked about how we are trying to save money so now I am going to put some numbers to the challenge.

My big goal for the month will be to have $600 in our Michigan trip fund by the end of the month.   I am hoping to do this mainly by saving money from small areas such as gas, groceries and utilities. In addition, I have placed several items up for sale and will be receiving the cash for these as well. I am also hoping to get a small bump in income from Matt this month.

So my goal for the week is very similar to Carla’s…… stay on budget. Currently as of today, I have spent $265 of our $600 grocery budget, so my goal is to definitely not spend anything else on groceries for the week.

I will be updating on Thursday/Friday of each week as this is usually payday.

 

September in Review

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Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month  Post number 14 for the month.  So close yet so far!

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 175 by December 2014.  This has been a really frustrating month for me. I am stuck at a number that I don’t like. I have been trying to get to the Y to exercise but once or twice a week is all I have been able to fit in.

Financial Goals:

1.  Pay off all debit by July 2015, except for mortgage.  Goal met for this month.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000.  Still no progress.

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Goal Met  Total spent $599. This has taken deliberate effort on my part. We have not shopped in three weeks now and I am planning to keep shopping to a minimum in October and November as well.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs.  Total Spent $$37. Goal MET.  I am not going to be moving this money instead we are saving for our trip and all extra money is being placed in that fund.

I am excited because after selling our small playhouse we have $45  surplus for the month!  I hope to build up even more in the months to come.

This does not look like a great month on paper but I am happy with where we are with most things and  plan to stay the course.

 

Low Spending Week #3 September 27th.

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We are officially in our third week of attempting to find extra money in our budget for a trip. Find out the initial details here. Last week we did awesome and to be honest it was much easier as it was not a pay week and we really had no  spending other than a quick trip to the CVS.  This week was a little more difficulty.

First the good news, I did stop in at Aldi to pick up salsa and lettuce. The total cost of the trip was $3.44. That keeps me under our $600 grocery budget by $2.66. I will most likely stop at Aldi either today or tomorrow to spend this on a dozen eggs and a 2L Diet Coke.  Both of the cars needed gas this week but  with the cost of gas Slowly going down we still have $54 left for the month of September. I am anticipating that this too will be used prior to Wednesday for the van but  even so we have managed to stay on track for the month in both these areas!!  I was also able to purchase Amanda’s birthday present and stayed under budget.

Now the not so great news, we are going to be purchasing cheerleading uniforms for both the girls this week. This is not an unexpected expense but it is one that I will have to incorporate and for the short time it will move some money that I had hoped to place in the trip fund.

October starts on Wednesday, I am definitely going to plan on it being a low spend/no spend month. I may even join a couple of challenges on other blogs to help keep me motivated. I had originally plan to spend $100 or less on groceries for October, however because of a mistake at Costco, I will need to increase this to $200 or less. I will have to pay our yearly membership fee of $110 out of this amount. So $90 or less will be the challenge.  I am going to be honest and say upfront this amount may need to be increased to $300 for the month or $190 after membership. We are continuing to try and clean out our pantries and freezers. I am actually starting to see a change in these. We have empty spaces in both the bathroom closet and the kitchen pantry. I am down to 2 bottles of Diet Coke and Matt just told me that he has less than a months supply of K cups. I will watch for sales on both these items in October but that will also mean some additional shopping as well.  We are planning a trip to Costco next Saturday and this will be probably the most difficult part of the challenge at least for me. Costco is a place that you always see a good deal and we have always grabbed a couple of extra items that are on sale just because we can. I have already started a list and hopefully this will make it easier to stick to the must be out of it to purchase rule but we shall see.