October Goal Review

October was a very mixed month, with a fabulous vacation & then a business trip with some seriously long travel. As a result, we didn't accomplish as much as I'd like.

1) Financial - 

• Meet with a financial planner - Nope. This got pushed off. 
• Finalize our 2018 budget - We're in pretty good shape. Now the question remains about my timing for leaving my job, which has us a bit up in the air. I need to finalize this in November. 
• Finalize our 2018 travel plans - I have the first half of the year sorted, but need to finalize the second half. 
• Make progress on list of house projects (i.e. prioritize a couple that are not dependent on other projects, and work on budget & timeline for those) - Nope. This got pushed off. 
• Find one alternative cost cutting option - Well, we are selling our car & bought an electric car. We should be just a smidge under the monthly price, all things considered. We paid $5K up front for a lease, and expect to get almost exactly that back on the sale of the other car. The cost of gas negates the $120 monthly lease fee. We can charge for free at work. I'm optimistic that this could be a cost savings for us, as we will try & get our gas bill down to the bare minimum. 
• Sell another $100 of items on either eBay or my local Facebook swap site. If nothing sells, donate & get rid of the clutter. - I sold $85 worth of stuff, so at least some progress!
• Stay on budget for our Hawaii trip - yes!

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Cook one meal with each kid, so they can start helping with the cooking. - This definitely didn't happen in October. 
• Have a family game night. - Yes, we had an Uno party. :-) 
• Start our planning for Christmas - Yes, I kicked off the process. 
• More decluttering & organizing in our new house (would like to get the boys closet shelving installed, so they can put away/organize all of their games & toys) - This hasn't happened yet. 

3) Fitness/health - Lose 2 pounds in October

• Stay on track on our vacation & my business trip - I worked out a ton on my vacation, and twice on my work trip. The jet lag made anything else challenging. 
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day - eh, not while on my business trip. 
• Complete 1000 minutes of cardio - yes! I completed 1075 minutes. 
• Complete 6 strength workouts. - Yes! I completed 9 strength workouts. 
• Complete 6 stretching workouts - And, 9 stretching workouts!
• Register for a Turkey Trot - I found one, but haven't registered. Will take care of this in November. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress - Eh, I did get promoted, but any time I travel for work, I realize how very hard it is for me. 
• Work from home 2x this month. - I managed only once, but I was on vacation for a couple of the days. 
• Brainstorm how I would spend my time if I wasn't working. Really think creatively about what this would mean, what the challenges would be, etc. - I made no progress on this one. 
• No driving to/from work - use only carpool options - I was over 75%, but we had a few days where I had childcare responsibilities, so had to drive. 

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Try a new recipe using my new crockpot - Yes! I made a yummy potato soup. 
• Do something social at least once per month. - Yes! I went on a hike with a friend. 
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month. - They no longer need volunteers for the one school event that worked with my schedule, so I need to find another alternative. 

The colors nicely reflected what happened in October - a mixed month. Our vacation was absolutely fabulous, so no regrets there at all!

What about you? How did you do with your October goals? Any big wins to celebrate?