January Goals
Financial:
1) Shopping ban - Pass - this is still up for debate - Did I cheat?2) Savings goals - Check - put $2366.93 into various savings accounts this month
3) Debt goals - Pass - I paid $786.26 onto debt this month but the majority of it was to my MasterCard which is more paying down new purchases than paying off debt. I have to leave that credit card alone!
4) Increase my Net Worth - Check - up $2,903.08 (goal = $10,000/12 = $833 per month)
5) Track spending and post budgets - Check - only off by $1.84 but I think I had some pocket change from the beginning of the month that I didn't account for having.
Lifestyle:
1) Lose weight - Pass - down 2.5 lbs this month, no where close to the 2 lbs a week that they say you should lose, but at least I lost some and didn't gain.2) Do something physical at least 4x a week - Fail - Its hard to be motivated to go for a walk when its so cold and miserable outside. I went to the gym an average of 2x per week but I didn't do anything else.
3) Eat better - Pass - there were a few cheat days but I would say we definitely ate better than we have in the past 4 months. I haven't had a diet coke all year (I'm a recovering diet coke addict, don't laugh, its true) and only had 1 bag of chips, a small one. Had burgers twice and Red Lobster once. Definitely room for improvement here.
4) Read more books - Check - read 2 books this month: "The Lady of the Rivers" by Philippa Gregory and "Money Rules" by Gail Vaz-Oxlade.
5) Make more things - Check - made 2 necklaces, 1 pair of earrings, and 1 bracelet.
6) Sell/donate more - Pass - I posted a lot of stuff on kijiji and craigslist but so far haven't sold anything. I had some bites but nothing has actually sold. I have a bunch of stuff sitting on the kitchen table waiting for us to take to Goodwill.
Blogging:
1) Post my weekly spending and bi-weekly budgets. - Check2) Post at least one other post a week other than #1 - Check3) Comment on other blogs and become more of the community - Check4) Use twitter more (@morgainemoney) - Fail, I keep only checking my personal one5) Post updates on my progress with the Shopping Ban and these goals. - Check
6) I will update my blog and sidebars with these goals (other than the Closing Costs since this is mostly T). And if I'm on pace or not. - Check
February Goals
All of the above plus spend less money eating out!
If you need to keep track of more than one Twitter account, you might want to check out TweetDeck. You can view (and Tweet from) multiple Twitter accounts at once, plus there are both web AND app versions of it. It's totally made my Twitter life easier to deal with/
ReplyDeleteThanks B, I'll check it out :)
ReplyDelete2lbs a week is actually on the high end of what you should be able to safely lose over time. If I'm not mistaken, 0.5-1.0lb a week, if lost in a healthy manner, is a more sustainable rate of weight loss. People who lose weight at a very quick rate tend to put it back on quickly as well. Don't feel bad about the 2.5lbs, as long as you continue losing you're doing fine.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cassie,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know its still progress so I'm happy (or at least trying to stay positive) but its hard when you feel like you're working hard at the gym and giving up lots of yummy food to only lose 2 and a half pounds. But I also know there's room for improvement and I'm not ready to give up yet :)
These are some great goals and I find that sharing them with others makes me more accountable for goals, as well!
ReplyDeleteI went on a shopping ban in 2011, and the best advice I can give, is to stay away from malls and unsubscribe to all emailing lists. It makes it waaay easier to stick to your ban. Another thing is to figure out what you want to achieve from you ban aside from the obvious - not shopping. Do you want to remix your clothes more? Do you want to build a more professional wardrobe? Do you want to pare down your clothes? Or maybe you want to buy with more purpose? It helps to figure out what you want to achieve when you're off the ban (and so you don't go on a binge like me). Hope this helps!
Hi Fab Frugirl,
ReplyDeleteThanks, I also find sharing makes us more accountable. I especially found telling my family makes me stick to it because they're especially critical and won't take it easy on me if I cheat.
For me, the shopping ban is about shopping consciously, I found in the past I would shop when I was bored, lonely, or sad. I found excuses to buy just about anything. I was very complusive which lead to a lot of impulse purchases that I ended up regretting. So even though I can afford to buy a lot of what I want, I want them to be things I really really want :)
Thanks for dropping by :)