2012 Goals In Review

We're leaving the beach today, & I'm going to miss it so much. The weather has been rainy & drizzly, but we've had all kinds of inexpensive family fun. LOTS of games (Jenga, Spot It, Battleship, Air Hockey, dodge ball) & quiet snuggles.

We're thinking about going skiing tomorrow to ring in the new year, so we'll head back & put things back together before the daily grind starts again.

There is only one day left in 2012, so I think we can jump the gun a bit & do a final goal review! You can find my original 2012 goal post here.

1. Achieve and maintain my goal weight of 130 lbs. I have 20 lbs to go, as I'm starting at 150. - Hmmm, well, no. I did hit 142 over the summer, but have steadily gained during the period of work craziness & 60+ hour work weeks. And the holidays. I'm at 147. So, happy that I am down from last year, but certainly don't consider this a victory. :-(
2. Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio. My goal was 4500 for 2011, and I crushed this goal in 2012 (ended with 8700 minutes). I want to go big with this goal. :-) - Oh, yes, baby. I crushed this goal. Midway through the year, it was clear that I was on track for far more than 10,000 minutes, so I bumped this up to 12,000 minutes. I still am hoping to do an hour or so, but can say that I'm over 12,000 as of now. (12,088, to be exact. :-)) Sweet, sweet, yes! It's amazing what you can achieve - this was so much more than I ever though I was capable of.
3. Run a 1/2 marathon. I was fully trained for my first 1/2 marathon before I broke my foot in May. I'm starting from scratch, but want to get back to it. - Crushed this. I did a 5K, a 12K, a 15K, two half marathons, & a 200 mile relay. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
4. Spend less than $500 on clothing for myself and less than $500 for shoes/clothes for the kids. I shop for entertainment, and it's totally unnecessary. - No, fail. I spent $1655 on myself (mostly running shoes + gear & $1387 on the kids. I have a plan for 2013 to work on this.
5. Complete 100 strength training workouts. - I completed 84 workouts for the year, so pretty decent, but not the number I was looking for.
6. Give up artificial sugar. (Mostly, the Splenda in my coffee & tea.) This will be TOUGH for me. :-) - Done! I now drink my coffee with just milk & my tea plain. I have had a few Vitamin Water Zeros after long runs, etc, but consider this goal a "win".  
7. Reach 50% of our goal for the boys college tuition GET accounts, for both kids. This will take about $12,000. - We are ending the year at 43% completion, so not a victory. But, the year threw a lot of curve balls, & we made the right tradeoffs & prioritizations.
8. Track all spending, stick to our budget, and complete monthly spending reports. - I tracked all of our spending, & completed monthly reports. We did not stick to our budget every month.
9. Pay off $50,000 on our vacation house mortgage and $100,000 on our primary residence mortgage. - No, this target was unattainable. Our goal for 2013 is going to be $100,000 on principal across both mortgages.
10. Have one date night per month with M. - Yes, although December was a date lunch! :-)
11. Get together with two friends/month, and plan a minimum of one girls only vacation this year. - Yes! I love this goal. :-)
12. Meet with an attorney & get our life insurance, wills, guardianship, trusts, etc squared away. This is a MUST do this year. - No, & I'm very frustrated with myself. We do not have a guardian that we're entirely comfortable with (we love my parents, & they would be amazing, but their age concerns me.) Not knowing who we want as the guardian has caused a roadblock, & but it's high time we at least get something together to protect our family.

So, altogether that's 5 complete wins, 4 partial wins, & 3 fails. I'm a little sad I didn't finish my strength goal, as I was very close. I'm going to continue to work hard & improve my goals, motivation, & tracking in 2013.

In accordance with my plan in December to really dissect our 2013 budget & areas for cutback, I'm posting about one category per day. So far, I've covered mortgage interest (and a potential refi), our grocery budget., dining out, kids activities, gas, utilities at our vacation house, & utilities at our primary residence, clothing, travel, child care & personal spending, health & house, gifts & car maintenance,  miscellaneous kid spending + liquor, college funds & insurance.

Here are my final two goals! Today's topics for discussion are . . . cleaning & boys birthdays.

• Cleaning - we spent $388/month on cleaning in 2012 (we have a cleaner come to our house every week, & also occasionally use a cleaning service at the beach house). Obviously, this is a function of both laziness & our lifestyles. M travels extensively, I work full time, & we have two small kids. This is probably our most enjoyable luxury item, & the one I will have the hardest time getting M onboard with. He's a little (okay, a lot) OCD about cleanliness, & cleaning was causing a lot of arguments earlier in our marriage. I have some ideas about how we can cut this back a bit without too much pain, but I'm going to take a wait & see approach to the rest. Goal for 2013 is $200/month.

• Boys birthdays - obviously not a regular monthly expenses, but averages out to $40/month in 2012. We want to set this at $25 in 2013. Rather than doing giant friend parties, we're going to be doing something smaller at my parents house. I already have picked up a few gifts during the Christmas sales as well.

How did you do with your 2012 goals? How do you handle kids birthdays? Does anyone have wildly different ideas about household cleanliness than their spouse? How do you navigate that without fights? :) How are you spending your New Year's Eve?

This is me (in the blue shirt), completing my first half marathon, on Mother's Day. The boys joined me across the finish line. :-)