Thursday, January 8, 2015

How are you doing with your January goals?

Now that the work craziness has started up again, my motivation gets a bit lost. I'm exhausted when I get home, so it's hard to prioritize all of my personal "stuff".

Here are the big wins so far:

  1. I've stuck to the meal plan, & we've thrown away nothing! 
  2. I've kept the spending very much in check, minus an unexpected birthday gift (kids party). While I was at Target, I picked up 2 packages of holiday cards for $.25, and a cleaning product we needed. 
Here's how I'm doing with the rest of my goals. 



Financial

  • Set up meeting with financial planner - I've had a call with the planner, but need to find a date that will work with my schedule, as well as M's. 
  • Max out 2015 401K with bonus money - this is all set up to happen later in the month.
  • Figure out boys college accounts (potentially the Utah 529 plan) - On pause, until we talk to the financial advisor. 
  • Stick to our budget - So far, so good!
  • Fund our yearly budget categories with remaining bonus money - Again, will happen later in the month.
  • Start gathering stuff for our accountant - I've made a list of documents, but haven't started. We don't have any W2s, or other tax statements yet, but I should gather up our donation receipts, etc.
Family
  • Plan two fun family outings - We've done one (movie day). I'm also going to plan something fun for the day we have off in a few weeks. Maybe a family bowling day.
  • Figure out February week off. Looking at skiing. - We have something tentatively planned for a day in February. 
  • Get my youngest to try two new foods. - YES! He's had bolognese sauce and Italian sausage. He didn't like either one, but also didn't throw up when trying them, which is real progress.

Fitness/health
  • Lose 2 pounds - I've lost 1.6 lbs!
  • Track my food/exercise - Yes!
  • Run 20 miles - I'm at 10 so far!
  • Complete 700 minutes of cardio - I'm at 225 minutes so far for the month.
  • Complete 8 strength workouts & 8 stretching workouts - I've already done 8 strength workouts, but zero stretching. :-( I'm doing a pushup challenge with my sister, so I've been doing that every day. 


Work/career
  • Better consolidate my evening meetings - eh. Moderate success.
  • Find 2 days/week that I can work out during the day - I did this once this week, and have two mornings/week booked out.

Giving back
  • Look into volunteering at the school once in January - Nope. Haven't done it.
  • Set up charitable contribution increase - Nope.
House
  • Sort through our three hall closets (aka, where junk goes to die). Declutter, organize, etc. - Yes! And, we took 8 bins of stuff to the Goodwill.
Personal/creative
  • Plan/book date night with M - Date night is this weekend!
  • Do something social with a friend. Maybe a hike. - We've talked about it, but haven't done anything yet.
  • Read 5 books. - I've read 2 so far.
  • Try a new recipe (with a focus on something that my youngest will actually eat) - I haven't made any new recipes this week - lots of eating from the fridge & leftovers!

All in all, I feel pretty good about my progress so far this month. How about you? How are you doing with your January goals? Anything you need to correct, start doing differently, or just plain start doing? :-) 

6 comments:

  1. I have tried to rein in our food spending and electricity use this month - seems to be working. I also lost a couple of pounds (put on in December) so that is good news - except my baking cupboard is full of goodies to use as I won a large gift basket of baking goods right before Christmas and it is calling my name lol:) We devised our 2015 budget and it is achievable. I even managed to get our cable bill reduced by over $350 this year so that was a great win moneywise - hopefully the rest of the year goes as planned. I did splurge on a lottery yesterday and then dreamed I won $20,000 and a boat last night :) Hopefully that means something.

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    1. Oooh, that sounds like a pretty amazing dream. Fingers crossed for you! :-)

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  2. losing motivation... geesh it looks like you're doing great!

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    1. During the work week, I barely remember my address, so it's hard to stay focused on other things. On weekends, I have to pull out all of the stops to mark things off the list. ;-)

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  3. I think you have everything pretty well in hand. I hope that 2015 is smooth sailing for you!

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    1. Thanks! And to you as well! Hope 2015 is a great year.

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