Menu Plan - wrapping up December

I need to put plans to "paper" & map out a menu for the next week or so. It helps me avoid the lazy convenience meals. :-) This will be a very simple menu week, as I get back into the groove.

• Saturday (New Year's Eve!) - M's making a semi-elaborate Persian dinner, with beef kebabs, rice with potato "crust", cucumber yogurt dip, etc. I'm planning on making Warm Chocolate Souffle Cakes with Raspberry Sauce.
• Sunday - Tilapia tacos
• Monday - Leftover Persian dinner + barbecued corn
• Tuesday - Spaghetti (from the freezer)
• Wednesday - Leftover casserole from the freezer. . . contents unknown :-)
• Thursday - Beef Tacos & black beans
• Friday - Tortellini with barbecued chicken & goat cheese crostini
• Saturday - Barbecued mahi mahi with mango salsa + barbecued corn
• Sunday - Chicken Caesar salads

Are you back to menu plan? What's on you list for the week?

I'm back!

I took a couple of weeks off, & had a fabulous vacation. :-) Las Vegas with M on an adult only pre-Christmas trip, Christmas with the entire family, a trip to the beach, and skiing! We're planning on laying low over the next few days, & we all go back to our respective work & school on Tuesday.

I've been doing well on my goals & plan to have a complete 2011 write up, 2012 goals posted, as well as a budget summary. I'm behind! :-)

I need to get back into the groove with budgeting & menu planning. It's back to reality around here.

I made a super yummy dinner tonight (Chicken, Red Grape, & Pesto Pizza) after we got back from a family ski trip. Easy, & tasty. The kids stuck to a more traditional homemade pepperoni pizza.

More to come - hope the holidays have been relaxing and filled with wonderful family memories for you & yours.

The one with the plumber

We got a call yesterday from the city that we have a water leak outside of our home. I spent half of yesterday at home waiting for the plumber, and finally got an estimate. It will likely be around $2,000 to do the digging and fix the leak. Merry Christmas to me. I guess that's what the emergency fund is for, right?

In other financial news, we went six days without a Costco run, which is a new record for us. ;-) We really need to keep our spending under control for the rest of the month, so we can replenish our emergency fund.

And, given that December is half over, I thought I would provide a quick goal update. I think I'm doing well on 5/10 goals, so I need to focus on the remaining goals for the rest of the month.

1. Lose 5 lbs - get weight back to 144 pounds. - I'm around 150. So, down from the first week of December, but definitely not where I'd hoped to be.
2. Complete 500 minutes of cardio  - I'm at 350 minutes, so 70% of my goal. On track. I need to be ahead of my target for the first few weeks, because I know the last couple of weeks in the month will be challenging with holidays, traveling, & vacation.
3. Complete 8 strength workouts - I've completed 5 workouts, so at 62% of my goal. I hope to get slightly ahead, for the same reason as above. The last two weeks of the month are going to be crazy town.
4. Plan spring break trip - We are unable to find reasonably priced airfare to Hawaii for four. We're not willing to take flights that aren't direct (we're in Seattle, not Texas - we should be able to easily find direct flights!) within our price point. More to come on the plan for this.
5. Plan mid-winter break trip - I think I have a solid plan for this, but need to review with the other players (my sister & husband). :-) Haven't made any progress on this in the last week or so.
6. Bake Christmas cookies with the kids & take them to look at holiday lights. - We've done both, but the cookies were a disaster. Ended up getting a different gift for the teachers we were planning on giving the cookies to. Yeah for reducing the workload in December! :-) 
7. Track all spending - On track for this.
8. Monthly expenditures total less than $15,000, with the exception of using the bonus money to pay off the $35K 401K loan. - Slightly above the pace for this, but I did pay the $2000 on our refinance, which will hopefully be our highest non-mortgage spend of the month.
9. Keep grocery bill to $600 - Way over - currently at $430. In semi-positive news, we'll be out of town for 1/2 of next week & not going through groceries. I'm hopeful that we can still end the month close to our target.
10. Get together with two friends - Got together with friends on Sunday, and have plans to meet a second friend for coffee tomorrow. On track.

How are you doing with your December goals?

Today is a good day

M used part of his bonus to pay the bulk of his 401K loan off today! Sadly, the 401K loan balance is not at zero (it's currently at $797), because the payments for the rest of December have already been scheduled & backed out of his paycheck. I was hoping to be able to see the balance at zero just for my own peace of mind, but I suppose $797, with an understanding that the balance will be paid off by the end of the month will have to do. He paid off the remainder of the $49,500 loan.

SO excited! Paying off this 401K loan was one of our top goals for 2012. What a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Menu Plan - rest of December

I'm doing something a bit different with this menu plan, and filling it out for the rest of December. The next few weeks are wild & crazy with trips and events, so I thought it would be easiest to look at the next few weeks when planning out my menu. Hopefully this will mean that I'll be organized with my grocery shopping, and won't have to run to the store four times/week. :-) As you can see, this is definitely a "light cooking" menu, heavy on the freezer foods.

I'll decide on a vegetable for next week based on freshness/availability when we're at the beach. Choices are usually more limited, so we'll go with what's fresh that day.

• Monday (12/12) - Leftover baked shells with pesto & meat sauce + roasted Brussels sprouts.
• Tuesday (12/13) - Asparagus & chicken carbonara
• Wednesday (12/14) - Roasted butternut squash pasta (likely substituting chicken or chicken sausage for the bacon)
• Thursday (12/15) - Leftover carbonara
• Friday (12/16) - Clean out fridge day. Eat whatever is available, freeze any remaining leftovers.
• Saturday (12/17) - Out of town at my nephew's birthday party. I'm in charge of a fruit tray, vegetable tray, & wine. :-)
• Sunday (12/18) - On a mini trip with M! Eating out at fancy restaurants in Las Vegas.
• Monday (12/19) On a mini trip with M! Still eating out. 
• Tuesday (12/20) - Traveling home from our trip, & picking up our kids from my parents, so something easy & from the freezer.
• Wednesday (12/21) - Chicken Caesar salads + whatever vegetable is available.
• Thursday (12/22) - Green chicken enchiladas (from the freezer)
• Friday (12/23) - Chicken taquitos from the freezer, or eating up anything still remaining in the fridge.
• Saturday (12/24) - Christmas Eve with my parents. I'm bringing a sandwich tray + wine.
• Sunday (12/25) - Christmas dinner with family. No clue what I'm bringing for this.
• Monday (12/26) - At our beach house. Barbecued hamburgers & hot dogs + a vegetable.
• Tuesday (12/27) - Barbecued chicken + goat cheese crostini + a vegetable.
• Wednesday (12/28) - Leftover burgers + Trader Joe's mushroom turnovers.
• Thursday (12/29) - Garlic chicken with orzo (using remaining barbecued chicken from Tuesday)
• Friday (12/30) - Barbecued salmon + a vegetable
• Saturday (12/31) - Homemade pizzas + some sort of a fun appetizer to ring in the new year.

What's on your menu for the next few weeks? How do you get through the holidays without eating out a lot? Any tips or tricks?

Weekly Spending Wrap Up (12/5-12/11/11)

Honestly, I was a little (okay, quite a bit) embarassed to write this one. Lots of places I could have made smarter spending choices. But, I'll be honest & just put it out there.
Here's what we spent for the week:

Monday (12/5):

• M & I met for lunch, but used a gift card. OOP = $0
• $9.78 - silk camisole at the Loft
• $18.53 - Rite Aid. Facial cleansing wipes (x2) for my gym bag + eye brow pencil
• $90 - cleaning for our vacation house. This was an error, & supposed to be $75, but I'll get a credit on our next cleaning.

Tuesday (12/6):

• No spend day

Wednesday (12/7):

• No spend day

Thursday (12/8):

• $45.65 - shoes for my oldest, who managed to destroy his existing pair. The kids go through their shoes so quickly!
• $128.74 - Costco for groceries. I've already reviewed the list & determined ways to cut back for next time. No more buying pre-shredded cheese. Our groceries our too high, & I can shred it myself & save the money. I'll continue to review our receipts to look for other ways to cut back.

Friday (12/9):

• $48.73 - new jeans for me at American Eagle
• $54.73 - a couple of new tops at Ann Taylor
• $13.91 - 2 Christmas gifts at Gap. We were done with our shopping, but M wanted to pick up hats for our friend's daughters. :-)
• $178.69 - Gap, clothes for me. 4 sweaters + a couple of tops + a pair of jeans.
• $54.74 - dress for me at White House/Black Market.
• $3.79 - Amazon for books for my Kindle for my next trip.

Saturday (12/10):

• $1.15 - protein smoothie at the gym, OOP = $0. On a gift card.
• $94.50 - haircuts for all four members of the family
• $3.79 - cookies at Safeway for our holiday party last night
• $109.45 - ski shop, for new ski boots for my oldest. I'll be consigning the pair that's too small, so I'll hopefully get $20 or so back.
• $565 - swimming lessons for 3 months for two kids.

Sunday (12/11):

• $4.04 - McDonald's. Bribe for my youngest child. We stood in line for 40 minutes (outside, in 35 degree weather) to see Santa yesterday. When we were 2 people from the front of the line, Santa took a one hour lunch break. I was not about to wait another hour, so I bribed my child with a Happy Meal. Best money I spent all week.
• $1.15 - Protein smoothie at the gym. OOP = $0. On a gift card.
• $12.50 - childcare at the gym. OOP = $0. On a gift card.
• $85 - pizza for our holiday party. This was intentionally more than we needed, as we sent home pizza for a meal for our friends.

Total spent for the week = $1419.07

Good:
-Two no spend days
-Only went grocery shopping once! :-) Quite an improvement for us.

Bad:
-I was overcharged for a cleaning service at our vacation house. I'm irritated, because I do our own laundry to save $15 (it's nearly impossible to get the house cleaned & ready to go while the kids are running around & we pack/load the car/ensure all lights are off, etc) so every other time we go, I have the bathrooms deep cleaned, etc. I'll get the money back in January, but it pushed my budget over.
-$565 for swimming lessons for two kids. It's for 3 months, and the instruction is amazing, but it's crazy expensive. I'm looking into cheaper options for my older son, who's ready for a more advanced program anyway.
-I opted to do take out for our holiday party this weekend. I could have prepared the food, but M was out skiing with our oldest child, & I was looking for convenience, rather than frugality.

Ugly:
-While I did need a few clothing items that were on my list (a new pair of jeans + a new sweater) & I can maybe count the new dress I bought (apparently I own only summer dresses, & we have an unexpected weekend trip where I'll need a dress), some of the other items were totally frivolous & just because I liked them. This time of year is *very* difficult for me with clothing shopping. The deals are great, I'm already at the mall for various gifts, & I try hard not to spend too much on clothing the rest of the year. I really didn't want to post this, but I figured it was best to confess. :-)

How did you do with your spending last week? Are you ever tempted to buy things for yourself at the holidays? :-)

Passing on the blog love

First up, thank you so much to Steady Plodding for the Liebster Award! :-) I so enjoy blogging & reading about how everyone handles their finances. Everyone has their own approach, but the tips, tricks, & encouragement make it such an enjoyable hobby. Love it!

"Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. What a gift to be awarded with such kindness!   As for the details...The Liebster is a way to show a little Blog Love to bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.

The rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun!

And in no particular order, here are my 5 Liebster Awards, with some information culled from their bios:
1) If I were a Wealthy Girl -
…This year I am going to provide more personal info in this section. I am a 30 year old young professional living in the midwest working for a Fortune 500 company in a supply chain managment position.  I have been with my company for 4 years and now I am looking at other options.  This year I started two businesses 1) a financial coaching company in March and 2) a sweet treat company in July. Both companies are debt free and very much in the start-up phase. When I am not working, I like to train for half-marathons, take dance classes, read, spend time with friends and family and go to the dollar theater. I am not married, but I do have BF. Our views on money clash all the time, mainly because he has big money dreams and not plans.

 2) Blonde on a Budget
Blonde on a Budget is a twenty-something's journey from being a maxed out, overindulging idiot to becoming a balanced and financially sound woman.

3) Getting Ahead
We are a family of 6 in Ohio. We are striving to live a healthy lifestyle. We want to make our small neighborhood plot as self sufficient as possible

4) $12 A Day
A mom-to-be who has an amazing (& hardcore!) Plan: Spend an average of $12 a day on food, household supplies, and gifts. The Goal: Freedom

5) My Journey to Eliminate Debt

I started this blog in 2007 with a goal of paying off my mortgage in five years. After a long absence, I am back to finish the journey to eliminate debt.

Go check out all of these inspiring bloggers!

December goal check - week one

Can you believe the first week of December is already gone? Holy smokes! This month is flying by. These are my goals for the month, as well as a little update on my progress.

1. Lose 5 lbs - get weight back to 144 pounds. - Well, for whatever reason, my weight topped out at 152 over the weekend. I'm now slowly pulling it back from that, & I'm at 151.4. Obviously, a ton of work to do here.
2. Complete 500 minutes of cardio  - I'm at 191 minutes, so 38% of my goal. On track. I need to be ahead of my target for the first few weeks, because I know the last couple of weeks in the month will be challenging with holidays, traveling, & vacation.
3. Complete 8 strength workouts - I've completed 3 workouts, so at 37% of my goal. I hope to get slightly ahead, for the same reason as above. The last two weeks of the month are going to be crazy town.
4. Plan spring break trip - We are unable to find reasonably priced airfare to Hawaii for four. We're not willing to take flights that aren't direct (we're in Seattle, not Texas - we should be able to easily find direct flights!) within our price point. More to come on the plan for this.
5. Plan mid-winter break trip - I think I have a solid plan for this, but need to review with the other players (my sister & husband). :-)
6. Bake Christmas cookies with the kids & take them to look at holiday lights. - We've done both, but the cookies were a disaster. Can't decide if we're going to try again, or skip it.
7. Track all spending - On track for this.
8. Monthly expenditures total less than $15,000, with the exception of using the bonus money to pay off the $35K 401K loan. - Slightly above the pace for this, but I did pay the $2000 on our refinance, which will hopefully be our highest non-mortgage spend of the month.
9. Keep grocery bill to $600 - Roughly on track for this. At $160 for the month.
10. Get together with two friends - Hmmm, I need to reschedule a lunch with a friend, & I'm supposed to be getting together with another friend this weekend. On track, overall.  

How are you doing with your December goals?

The one with the overdraft

I knew this would happen one day, & it finally did. Yesterday, we signed the refinance papers on our vacation house, and had to wire the closing funds to our lender. That went off without a hitch. However, Michael had to do the wiring as I had a meeting, & I had the funds in my savings account. I transferred the amount to our shared account & he wired from there. Of course, neither of us noticed that the wire fee has to come out of the account you're wiring from. Despite the instructions we gave to the teller. It was super fun this morning to wake up to the overdraft notice & a penalty. Good times.

Ah, well, lesson learned, I suppose. In other news, I'm so excited that we closed on the refinance! We locked in a great rate (3.75% on a 15 year mortgage) & the goal is actually to pay off the loan in five years. Fingers crossed. M also started the process of paying off his 401K loan, so that should be marked as "finished" in a week or so. Can't wait!

Goals for today:

• Hit the gym. I'm finally able to run a bit, and can't wait to get back into it! I also need to work on my bat wings (aka arms) :-)
• Continue to work on our grocery management system. (My fancy/silly name for starting to predict how much we use of each item, so that we buy on a regular schedule before we run out. End goal = grocery store 1x/week.)
• Clean the fridge! For real, this time. ;-)
• Plan our weekend. We're getting together with friends, the kids have various activities, and we might go skiing.
• Eat well! Less than 1500 calories, and healthy choices.
• Take a bubble bath!

What's on your list for today?

Weekly Spending Wrap Up (11/28-12/4/11)

Hope you all had a great weekend. Here's a recap of our weekly spending. I wrapped up all of my Christmas shopping, finished our holiday cards, & bought stamps. Yay!

I'm also not sure how I want to calculate the gift cards I purchased. Basically, our gym offers a one time a year offer - buy $500 in gift cards, get $100 free. Our gym has several restaurants, child care for our occasional date nights or when my husband is traveling, and also a salon/spa where I get pedicures, etc. The deal was fantastic, so I got two $500 gift cards. However, I'd prefer to track these per use, vs all at once. I'm trying to plan ahead & predict how much we spend, in total, for the year & buy that many gift cards. How do you track gift cards?

• Monday (11/28)
• $319.40 - Alaska Airlines. I bought a spur of the moment ticket to Las Vegas. :-) I'll be joining M there in a couple of weeks (he already had plans to attend an event) & my parents wanted to watch the kids. Win/win!
• $51.29 - Costco for groceries
• $9.71 - Chevron. Car wash.
• Tuesday (11/29) - no spend day
• Wednesday (11/30) - went shopping with a girlfriend to finish up Christmas. So spendy!
• $16.41 - Costco, to get our Christmas cards printed
• $36.37 - Nordstrom cafe. Took a friend to dinner for her birthday
• $56.94 - Christmas gift (M's stocking)
• $82.13 - Christmas gift (M's stocking)
• $2.19 - Victoria's Secret. Used a $10 coupon & bought two lip glosses.
• $13.49 - Gymboree. Couple of shirts for the kids. Unnecessary, because I ended up finding two shirts in their closets (I need 2 more in each size to take to the beach house) & might return these.
• Thursday (12/1)
• $4.09 - Christmas gift (M's stocking). Finally done!
• $9.49 - Rite Aid for OTC medicine, recommended by my foot doctor.
• $40.44 - Christmas gifts for the kids (for another family member). Will be getting reimbursed.
• $3.47 - Bath & Body Works for bubble bath.
• Friday (12/2)
• $1.15 - Protein smoothie at the gym
• $500 - gift cards at the gym.
• Saturday (12/3)
• $1975 - Refinance of our vacation house. We're moving to a 15 year loan with a better rate. Signing the papers this afternoon!
• $132.82 - Costco for groceries.
• $10.5 - stamps for Christmas cards
• $33.25 - stamps for the house. We buy these once/year, and they tend to last for 12ish months.
• $11.57 - Fred Meyer for groceries
• Sunday (12/4)
• $15.92 - back to Fred Meyer for groceries. Can you tell I wasn't very organized this week?
• $51.98 - Fred Meyer for a gift (M's mother lives out of the country, and we send her an OTC eye drop that she can't buy where she lives)
• $76.75 - new shoes for my youngest child
• $135.32 - a new top, sweater, and a dress for me. The dress will definitely be going back. Top is still TBD.
• $500 - in gift cards at the gym.

Good:
-I'm attempting to get our grocery spending more organized, and save us time by shopping once/week. However, I'm finding the inventory management side of this to be very challenging. I'm typically okay with recipe ingredients, but M & I cover different meals. He does the kids breakfasts + a bowl of fruit for each of them as an evening snack. I make adult breakfasts + pack lunches + plan dinners. We are always making assumptions about who's using which ingredients, and then we run out. :-) Solving this is one of my top goals for the week ahead. I'm tired of shopping multiple times/week!
-I'm finally done with all of the Christmas shopping! And, I stuck to my budget. First year ever! Basically, I assigned $710 to specific gifts, but used a budget of $1000, knowing that I would forget things or go over in certain categories. And, I came in at $969.93, so just under! I've actually spent more than that, as I buy gifts for other people (per their request) to give to the kids, but I'll be getting reimbursed. Yeah!!

Bad:
-I'm super excited about my unplanned trip to Las Vegas - our opportunities to getaway without the kids are pretty rare, so I don't pass up a chance to do it. However, this wasn't in the budget for December, which is already an expensive month.
-The money for the refinance was allocated, but still painful to part with.

Ugly:
-Too much shopping for myself. This is something I've struggled with before. I'm already in the mall to do Christmas shopping, and the temptation is too much. Sales are great, I'm going to Las Vegas in a few weeks, & find it so easy to say "oh, this new top would look fabulous for the trip", etc, etc.

Total spend for the week = $4089.18! Holy smokes.
Questions for you: how do you efficiently plan what you'll need at the grocery store? How often do you shop? How do you predict what you'll run out of, and when? What went well for you this week? Challenges? 

Menu Plan (12/4-12/11)

Hope you are having a wonderful & relaxing Sunday! It's cold but sunny & beautiful in Seattle today.

Here's what's on the menu for the week:

• Sunday - adults are having green chicken enchiladas. I'm making these chicken tenders for the kids & freezing some for later.
• Monday - Baked shells with pesto and meat sauce
• Tuesday - M is working later. I'm going to have the chicken taquitos that I made & froze today.
• Wednesday - Leftover enchiladas
• Thursday - Leftover baked shells
• Friday - Roasted butternut squash and bacon pasta (first time trying this)
• Saturday - Asparagus & chicken carbonara (first time trying this)
• Sunday - Likely going out to pizza with our friends & exchanging Christmas gifts between the kids

If you are in need of an easy pizza recipe, this one is completely amazing. I skipped the onions, but kept everything else the same. It was better than delivery!

Sunday goals & a recap

Yesterday was a super productive day!

Here's a recap of my to do's

• Soccer at 9:00 am for both kids Done. :-) They each scored two goals.
• Finish wrapping all of my remaining gifts. Done! I do still need to find a gift for my grandmother to give to M (got that? ;-)) as she asked for help shopping. I'll have to wrap that once I decide what to get him.
• Write/address all holiday cards. Done! Still missing a couple of addresses, but I've contacted those folks to ask for updated information.
• Make sugar cookies with the kids. Done! Although, this was an accomplishment really only on "paper", as I tried the Martha Stewart sugar cookie recipe, and tried to use my push in cookie pan (you don't cut the dough with cookie cutters - instead you push it into a pan with shapes made in it). For whatever reason, that was a total failure. We made several batches, adjusted the cooking time, temperature, etc, but they didn't work out. I'll either need a different recipe to go with the pan, or switch to cutters. I was trying to make things easier, since I was baking with a four year old. :-) I'm thinking I'll try this recipe & follow this great blog write up. Too bad I didn't see this yesterday!
• Laundry. Done. But, of course there's more today. Laundry is the task that's never truly done. ;-)  
• Figure out dinner plan. . . We were originally thinking of taking the kids to a Parents Night Out, but it looks like we're staying in instead. Homemade pizzas? We made this amazing chicken pesto pizza recipe, & it was fantastic! I should be making my own crust, but we cheated & bought the Boboli pizza pack from Costco. The kids prefer cheese/pepperoni variations, so they had customized toppings & M & I had the chicken pesto. YUM! I skipped the green onions (I was out), but otherwise made it following the recipe. I diced up some chicken we had on hand, & it was easy & excellent.
• Work out! Done! I did a 40 minute elliptical workout yesterday.

Moving on to today!

1. Menu plan for the week
2. Work out
3. Laundry (again)
4. Pack lunches for tomorrow
5. Decide on/make dinner. I'm off track this week with the menu, & need a plan!
6. Return a couple of things to the mall.
7. Take oldest to swimming lessons.
8. Clean out fridge! It's a disaster.
9. Hit the store for a couple of ingredients for the week.
10. Weekly spending write up.
11. Make banana muffins for the freezer.

What's on your list for today or the week ahead?

Happy Saturday

Hello, all! I'm up bright & early this morning, because I needed to register my kids for their swimming lessons. Of course, after I got up at six am, they postponed the registration. That makes me super pleased. ;-) The company we use is very small, & I try to appreciate the fact that they have technical challenges getting everyone registered. To accommodate for the high demand, they open registration at 6:00 am on Saturdays (meaning they know fewer people will actually do it, so their server capacity can handle it.) It's bad enough that they force me to get up early enough on a weekend, but after I'm up - they can't bring their web site up & have to reschedule. I am a supporter of small business, but please get it together!

Oh well, now I'm off to an early start & can enjoy my coffee this morning.

Here's what's on my list for today!

• Soccer at 9:00 am for both kids
• Finish wrapping all of my remaining gifts
• Write/address all holiday cards
• Make sugar cookies with the kids
• Laundry
• Figure out dinner plan. . . We were originally thinking of taking the kids to a Parents Night Out, but it looks like we're staying in instead. Homemade pizzas?
• Work out!

What are you hoping to accomplish today?

Net Worth Update - December 2011

My last net worth update can be found here.

I pull all of our numbers on the first of each month & calculate our net worth. (Note that I don't count our kids college accounts, as they are 529s, and for college tuition only. Maybe I should, but I consider the accounts part of their net worth, as we will not be using them? Also, M has one very high risk investment account that I don't track. It fluctuates WILDLY, and it makes me anxious to look at the numbers, so I don't even pay attention to it. :-))

Here's where we are as of December 1st:

Liabilities:
$34,549 - M's 401K loan. (Down $1,187)
$1,043,612 - Property loans. (Down $1,953)

Assets:
$860,000 - value of primary residence (No change)
$334,000 - value of vacation residence (No change)
$435,655 - retirement accounts (Up $4,822)
$157,325 - stock options via employer (on a vesting schedule & subject to forfeiture should either of us switch employers) (Down, $3,670, as one of my grants vested & we used the money to pay for the kids college funds).
$30,821 - liquid cash (Up $3,714)

Total net worth = $739, 641. Up $7,008 from November 1st, as you can see, through a combination of slightly increased value of our 401Ks, liquid cash, decrease in liabilities offsetting a small dip in our stock options.

Do you track your net worth? Have you found it to be a helpful tool in long(er) term planning & goals? I mostly find it motivating, but we lost *a ton* of money this year in our 401Ks, so it's hard to see the number when they're trending down. It's a dose of reality that sometimes I don't want to swallow. :-)

Tentative 2012 Goals

I'm working on our 2012 goals (both family, financial, & personal) & have quite a few lofty aspirations. I may need to whittle the list down a bit. :-) I also need to review our updated income/bonus projections & determine if any of these need to be adjusted based on reality.

Family goals:

• Take a family trip. We're planning on Hawaii over spring break.
• Teach our youngest son to ski, and continue to help our oldest son improve his skills.
• Set up will/trust/guardianship for the kids. This is getting carried over from 2011, because I don't see this happening in the next few weeks.

Personal goals:

• Get promoted at work or find a new job
• Start volunteer writing
• Achieve/maintain my weight at 130
• Run a 1/2 marathon
• Complete 8500 minutes of cardio
• Learn to bake bread

Financial goals:

• Fund boys college accounts to 50% (currently at 40% each)
• Pay down vacation mortgage to $200,000. This will mean paying off roughly $107,500 of the principal this year. Still crunching the numbers to see if we can do this.
• Pay off M's 401K loan. (We may get this done this month in 2011, but it takes a long time to get the paperwork to clear. Funds, however, are ready to go for this.)
• Pay down HELOC to under $100K This will mean paying off roughly $80,000 of principal in 2012. Still crunching numbers to see if we can do this.
• Consider/research/investigate rental property

Are you working on your goals for 2012? What are you hoping to accomplish in the year ahead?