This & That

None of these little things warrant a post of their own, but, I've done the following to save money this week/over the past few days:

• I'm spending a ton of time on our refinance(s). I detest paperwork, but keep reminding myself of the big wins at the end. Paperwork. ICK.
• I listed a bunch of new books on Amazon last night. I've never used their selling service, so fingers crossed.
• I thought of Sonya Ann last night, & realized I had enough MyPoints to cash in & ordered a $10 Starbucks gift card. Not exactly on par with her savings, but better than a swift kick to the face. :-)
• I have several holiday events to attend this week, & rather than shopping for my standard appetizer & dessert selections, I found things I can make using my current pantry/fridge stash.
• I passed up an opportunity to go to Las Vegas to see Beyonce (for free!) with M for New Year's Eve. For two reasons. 1) Free in Las Vegas speak means you're still gambling, which is always risky, and the airfare for M is free, but not for me. So, not really free. 2) We are planning a family game/snuggle party night on New Years with the kids, & I'm not going to miss that. :-) The boys love New Years Eve
• M charged a $10,000 business expense (reimbursable) on our Starwood Amex, so we can use the points. That will help tremendously when we are saving Starwood points for our next Hawaii visit. 
• This wasn't an active "choice" on my part, but a race I registered for got cancelled, so I'm getting refunded $120. (It was a team half marathon.)

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.

Today's topic for discussion is . . . utilities at our vacation house. I know, this one is a real thriller. ;-)


And, because this topic is too boring without a photo, here are the boys on the beach, using their metal detector. It was December, hence the bundling. :-)

We spent an average of $212/month in 2012 & want to drop this to $200/month for 2013. We already cut cable entirely (such a waste given how infrequently we're there) & due to the market size, there's no competition & prices are prohibitively high. We'll watch shows for free using our Amazon Prime membership.

Other than that change, the rest of the monthly charges are standard - we're already paying the minimum water bill (charged quarterly), our power bills are relatively low & we make sure everything is turned off when we leave. We have no trash or phone service, which leaves Internet service. Although this is optional, M & I frequently work from the beach house, which allows us flexibility on dates & to extend our trips when possible. Again, this is in a small town, so moving to another provider isn't an option. It's expensive, but we  pay for it.

The last cost that I loosely bucket under utilities is our watch service. We pay one time/year for a local business to provide a handyman/watchman service. Someone drives buy our house every day, and enters the house weekly to look for problems. Additionally, when there is a big wind storm or power outage (3-4x year in our location), they check the status of the house & report any issues, make small repairs, etc. Given our distance from the town (4 hours), this is an invaluable resource for us, which we've used many times.

That's pretty much it on the utilities. How are you looking to save on your utilities in 2013? And, what have you done to save money this week?

Getting old is rough

I swear, every morning I wake up & discover something new (& unpleasant!) about getting old. The bags under my eyes, the hair that's falling out (?!!!), the gray that's coming in on the few remaining strands, & of course, the difficulty in losing weight.

I had a great fitness week last week. I didn't have a great eating day on Friday (at the water park with the kiddos, had plenty of wine + pizza + part of a cupcake), but other than that, I ate well within my calorie goals & ran 22 miles last week. All in all, I would normally expect to be down a pound or so for my efforts. Yeah, not so much. I'm up just over a pound. However, I also know that on weeks when I'm really increasing my running, my weight tends to go up and stay up, for several weeks. I'm assuming this is because my fat is slowly turning into muscle (I can only hope my backside gets the memo) & I'm retaining more water. Fingers crossed, because it's no fun to put in all of the effort & see zero results.

Onward & downward, as they say!

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.

Today's topic for discussion is . . . Gas!

I love categories like this, because we spent less than expected (average per month in 2012 was $319 & our budget was $500). I have to embrace these categories, because they are few & far between. :-) We'd like to drop this to $275/month in 2013, which seems reasonable. We bought a much more fuel efficient car a few months back, & have seen substantial savings already. M also drives back & forth to the airport quite a bit for work, but gets reimbursed for his mileage. We tend to keep weekend driving to a minimum, so our big gas expenditures in 2013 will be from skiing (a trip to the mountain is about an hour each way & we drive our less fuel efficient car, as we're not as worried about scratching it, etc) & driving to the beach (four hours each way).

How much do you spend on gas each month? And, combating the whole getting old thing? Any tips or tricks? :-)

Weekly spending roundup

I used to do this a lot more often, & found it helpful.

Here's what we spent last week:

• Monday -
• $2.92 at Rite Aid for cold medicine for the kids.
• Tuesday -
• $49.24 - gift (music pass for my Dad).
• Wednesday -
• $49.23 - Toys R Us (donation gifts for Giving Tree)
• $63.88 - Fat Brain Toys - Christmas gift
• $295 - Alaska Air - Christmas gift (board membership for M, who travels constantly for work)
• Thursday -
• $16.69 - lunch out with a friend
• $19.75 - Amazon (used the bonus Facebook offer). Bought a few running things I needed (glamorous stuff - body glide & energy gels).
• $3.34 - Safeway, groceries.
• $20 - charitable donation for Christmas
• $14.77 - Rite Aid (donation gifts for Giving Tree)
• Friday -
• $15.06 - Quizno's. Lunch out on our way to Great Wolf Lodge.
• $50 - total travel spend for the weekend (the rest was covered via the deposit back in September).
• Saturday -
• $127.12 - Groceries at Costco. We were out of chicken & coffee - two big ticket items.
• $14.99 - household, at Costco. Trash bags.
• Sunday -
• $2 at Starbucks. It's my halfway point on my runs, so I bought a water & used the bathroom. 

Total spend for the week = $743.99, with $452.99 of that going towards holiday gifts, leaving $291 from our standard monthly expenses.

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.

Today's topic for discussion is . . . Boys sports/activities


Boys sports/activities. We spent less than expected in this category (average per month was $150). We plan to keep this category as is. With two kids, dropping below $150/month makes it very hard for the kids to each participate in an activity. So far, the boys have: played baseball, soccer, swimming (lessons), & we're looking into karate. They each typically plan one sport per season.

How do you handle lessons for kids (if you have them)? Does it get cheaper as they get older? Please say yes! :-) Do you track your weekly spending?

Happy Sunday

I hope you are having an enjoyable & productive weekend. My sister & I took our four boys to an indoor water park on Friday, & came home yesterday. It's always an adventure - and, exhausting!

My goals for today include:

• Running 6-7 miles
• Doing pilates or yoga this evening after the boys go to bed
• Taking the kids to a fun holiday activity
• Grilling 2 giant Costco packages of chicken for the freezer (well, that will be M)
• Laundry
• Taking the kids to the library
• Returning a gift (if I'm up to braving the mall)
• Calling to organize my Christmas Eve meal (I'm ordering something)
• Determining what to serve next weekend at our holiday get together
• Mapping out my calendar (workouts, kids schedule) and to do lists for Monday-Sunday

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.

Today's topic for discussion is . . . Dining Out!

Dining out is an interesting category for us. We focus on eating at home the majority of the time, as well as make it a priority to do one date night per month. Both of those are our grounding goals for this category. However, when looking at our 2012 expenses, we realized that we spent $325/month on dining out in 2012, which is both MUCH higher than I thought, & quite frankly, not inline with our priorities.

Our goal for 2013 is $175/month. This still allows for one splurge date night (a priority for us), and a few casual lunches (Subway, etc) when traveling.

Questions for you: how much do you spend eating out? Creative ways to defray the cost? We like to have wine when we go out, which substantially ups the cost. 

What's on your to do list for today?

One week into December

I can't believe it's already the 8th, so let's do a quick goal check on my December goals.

1. Complete 1,000 minutes of cardio, 10 strength, & 5 stretch workouts. - The month is 25% over, & I'm 25% of the way to my goal (255 minutes so far). On track!
2. Finish my 12K! - This is slated for next weekend.
3. Decorate the house for the holidays, & mail all Christmas cards. - Done!
4. Lose 5 lbs (bringing me to 142). - I've lost 1.2 lbs, so I'm about 25% of the way to goal. ROUGHLY on track, but the rest of the month has lots of festivities. Need to make a huge push on this next week with my eating.
5. Finalize 2013 goals & budget. - Yes! You can read about my 2013 goals here, and our 2013 budget here.
6. Have one date night with M. - With our December calendar, I can't imagine that we'll get a chance for a date night, so we've scheduled to lunches!
7. Get together with two friends. - Yes! I've gotten together with 3 friends so far, & lots of other activities still to come.
8. Update/amend our 2011 taxes based on the $16K repayment issue. - Waiting on our revised W-2.
9. Stick to our December budget. - So far so good!
10. Clean out my closet & both boys closets. - Yeah, haven't started yet.
11. Put together our will & guardianship (at least a draft). - Yeah, haven't started yet.
12. Go to at least 5 holiday events with the kids! Lots of choices in our area - a parade that happens every night, a botanical garden decorated with lights, & a kids museum with a special gingerbread house exhibit. - We've been to two so far - the parade & the gingerbread house exhibit. Also, lots of looking at Christmas lights, & maybe some cookie baking this week.

Overall, things are going very well. I set a couple of other "bonus" goals - running 20 miles/week (a warm up for 2013, where that's a goal for the year) & posting about each budget category. So far, I'm on track with those as well. More to come!

How are you doing on your December goals?

The oft discussed grocery budget

In accordance with my plan in December to really dissect our 2013 budget & areas for cutback, I'm posting about one category per day.

Today's topic is a hot topic in the world of personal finance - groceries!

We're lowering our grocery budget. This will be tricky for us, an it's been a constant area of improvement and focus, but I feel like there's more to do here. We actually spent $680/month on groceries in 2012 (assuming December remains similar to other months), & we'd like to lower this to $540, or $125/week. I'm hoping by breaking it into weekly amounts, we'll track this more closely. Here are my initial ideas for hitting this goal:

• Finding alternatives for a few things we're currently buying, & make on my own. This will be 1-2 snacks, and hopefully. . . bread. I'm not a great baker, so we'll see how this goes.
• Become more vigilant about using our freezer food, freezing leftovers before they go bad, and taking a monthly inventory about what we have available.
• Reduce our purchase of cheese. This is one area where we tend to not eat it before it goes bad. I like variety, but it's not cost effective.

And, a little analysis of the "why" we're making changes to this budget category:

We want to make smart choices that benefit our health, & making more at home is one way to do that. By trimming our budget, I'm hopeful that it will force us to be less wasteful with what we do purchase.

If you have any easy (like, stupid simple) bread recipes, please share. We're currently using bread in the following ways in our house: bagels for breakfast (shared between the kids, served with other stuff), sandwich bread for lunches, sandwich rolls (for M's lunches). Also, if you have great favorite snack recipes, please share those as well. One of my favorite homemade snack options are granola bars from The Frugal Girl. I use craisins & chocolate chips in ours.

What is your grocery budget for 2013? Are you planning on increasing, decreasing, or keeping it the same?

The 2013 budget

All of the nitty gritty budget information is coming up, but first I just want to say that I . . . feel so good! I've been working on my Christmas giving (the donations that I want to make with the remainder of our holiday budget) & I've been loving it! I picked three names off of the giving tree at work, & tried to choose kids who were similar in age to my boys. The boys & I went shopping last night to purchase the items - a pillow pet & a beyblade. I loved their enthusiasm & excitement to help someone else. And, a friend posted on Facebook last night about a family in need, so I mailed a check. It was small, but it just made me feel so dang good inside. Sometimes I need these reminders of how lucky we are as a family, & how important it is to help others this time of year. The rest of the money will be sent to the local food bank!

As you might remember, I had all kinds of fabulous plans for the 2013 budget. Then, we had to come up with $16,000 in two weeks, and I was sent back to the drawing board.

Picture me here with a super grouchy look on my face.

After an appropriate period of feeling sad that my beautiful plan was blown to bits, I went back to work. The best part of setting the budget this year is that I dutifully tracked all of our expenses in 2012, & actually know how we spend money. This is a huge change from prior years, where I kept a rough list of what I wanted to spend in each category, but never actually tracked it. And, I'll let you in on a little secret - - there was a big difference between the two. :-)

2012 was a fabulous year, but it was also very expensive. We're buckling down in 2013, & have lots of areas for cutbacks. By bringing our monthly expenses inline with our ACTUAL monthly income (vs relying on bonuses & stock vests), we obviously are being more fiscally responsible, but when those bonuses/stock vests come, we can take those sizable chunks & use them to make big progress on our other priorities: mortgage pay downs, college funds, travel, & remodeling our house. It will definitely be a challenge, but worth it.

Rather than dumping the entire budget categorization into one post (there are 22), which I'm thinking will bore you silly, I thought it would be more fun (ha, budget fun :-)) to cover one topic per day in December, & cut to the chase today. If we follow the plan I'll be outlining for 2013 stick to our budget numbers, we'll be cutting just over $2000/month off of our standard expenses, not counting any potential changes to our refinances.

And, without further ado, here's the first budget category topic:

Home mortgage/interest rates:

We are hoping to make substantial cuts in our interest payments (via our mortgages) by refinancing. Rates are crazy low, & I think it will payoff, but we're working with a broker & running the numbers. Given our extensive investments in real estate, even a small rate change can make a huge difference over the life of the loan. Although this is not counted in the aforementioned $2K/month in cuts, we're hoping to be able to shave $700 or $800 off of our interest payments per month.

And, a little analysis of the "why" we're making changes to this budget category:
This one is easy. Who wants to spend extra money at the bank? Other categories will be infinitely more interesting & up for discussion. Our incentive - if we are able to secure lower rates across both properties, it's much more likely we can keep our vacation house.

Who wouldn't want to keep a house where this is right outside your door?

How is your 2013 budget planning coming? Are you ready? What areas are you planning on cutting or increasing?

2013 Goals

I love the process of turning over the calendar & setting new, fresh goals for the year ahead. See my previous post about what motivates me. I'm sure I drive my husband JUST a little bit batty. :-)

Right now, I'm at the starting point of 2013, & it's such a fantastic feeling. . . butterflies, anticipation, feeling like absolutely anything is possible.

This is me, getting ready to lead my team on a 200 mile adventure (Hood To Coast Relay) from Mt. Hood to Seaside, Oregon this summer. I'm at the starting line, nervous as heck, having no idea what lay ahead, but excited beyond words. Similar to how I feel about a new year! In many ways, running is a great metaphor for how I feel.

 

 

 

As the year wears on, there will be a lot of this, I'm sure:

 

Yeah, that's me looking so completely exhausted, coated in sweat, about half way through the most difficult run of my life. It was 90, way hillier than I expected, & I ran out of water.

And then, I'm still hopeful that the year will hold a little bit of this:

 

 

 

Victories, goals achieved, personal bests, pushing myself far beyond what I thought was possible. . .


And with that, here's what's on my goal list for 2013!

1. Lose 10 pounds, bringing my weight to 135. I'm trying to shoot for a healthy, but realistic number.
2. Track my food/exercise every day in My Fitness Pal.
3. Complete 13,000 minutes of cardio. This will be a huge stretch goal for me, but I'm ready for the challenge!
4. Complete 100 strength workouts.
5. Complete 100 stretching workouts.
6. Run consistently:
• Run 10 races. I have a few in mind, but basically want to challenge myself to really maintain my running endurance throughout the year.
• Run 20 miles (or more per week).
• Run 1000 miles in 2013.
• Achieve a personal best in a half marathon.
• Run a 5K, 10K, 15K, & potentially a 30K.
7. Reach 50% of our boys college fund savings. This will take around $10,000, depending on the tuition price fluctuation.
8. Pay $50,000 of principal on our mortgages.
9. Have one date night per month with M.
10. Get together with two friends per month.
11. Track our spending, stick to our budget, & continue the monthly reports.
12. Review our charitable contributions, & increase our yearly giving by 10%.
13. Organize one room in our house per month.



A little bit of structure

I just completed a personality profile course for work, so lately the way I accomplish things & my communication style is very much at the top of my mind. I'm a highly organized person, & take great satisfaction out of accomplishing things. I'm very goal driven, & like to see progress measured daily, monthly, as frequently as possible. Now, this is not always a good thing. I'm VERY impatient & get frustrated when things move at a slower pace. . . say, paying off a long-term debt, achieving a savings, goal, etc.

This "race" to get things done can also lead me to overlook the small stuff, like snuggling cute boys.

Learning to live a bit more in the moment is something I'm actively working on. In the meantime, I try to be as efficient as I possibly can, which allows me to both: accomplish (most) of what I want/need to get done, as it also frees up more time to enjoy time with my kiddos.

I'm also figuring out how to take satisfaction in things that cannot be measured, and alternatively, figuring out how to motivate myself on projects that are long range. I'm no expert at this, but tend to break my goals into very specific measurables. Speaking of which, I'll be posting my 2013 goals soon. I'm excited about the year ahead.

What is your style for getting things done? If you share my "quirks", how do you stay/feel motivated for long range tasks?

Update to The Giant Step Back

In case you missed the post where we had to repay $16K, you can find the background here.

As mentioned in that post, my goal was to find a way to cut $1,000/month out of our regular expenses to offset the cost. Here's my update on how that's going:

• In excellent, breathe-a-sigh-of-relief news, I re-entered our 2011 income in Turbo Tax to get an estimate of how much we'll be getting back from the IRS as part of the adjustment, & the number was double what I thought - $5,200. It's possible that I danced around the house in sheer joy. :-)
• We made cuts to lots of our standard monthly expenses (clothing, cleaning, house, groceries, eating out, etc) to add another $200/month in savings.
• And, I think we're going to be able to refinance our primary mortgage, which will likely save $700/month. That would be HUGE. Additionally, we have a 15 year fixed on our vacation residence, & can likely save close to $600/refinance that loan. Of course, there are fees, no guarantees on rates, etc, but even if we could shave $700-800 (between the two) off our monthly payments, obviously that would make things so much easier. So, more on that refinance update soon.

I think we're going to be able to do this. And, honestly? It prompted us to take a fine tooth comb to all of our monthly expenses, which will serve us well for the foreseeable future. Blessing in disguise. ;-) Or, so I keep telling myself.

And, in fun & fabulous news, my sister & I are taking the four boys (her two + my two) to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend to celebrate my nephew's birthday. It was paid for back in October, so no additional money will be spent out of this month's budget. (well, this is not entirely accurate, as there will of course be money spent on food, the arcade, etc, but my sister hasn't paid me for her half, so that should more than offset the cost of what we spend in addition to the room charge.) I'm looking very forward to it - we always have a great time with the cousins!

 

 

Is anyone else looking at refinancing? Have you ever been to a Great Wolf Lodge, or somewhere similar (indoor water park/hotel)?

The "Ho, ho, ho!" version of Sunday Night Chit Chat

Hello, all, and Happy Sunday to you! Thanks to Carla for hosting the Sunday Night Chit Chat.

Despite the torrential downpours, we had a great weekend.

My littlest guy, rocking green (his favorite color!) sunglasses, sipping on a smoothie, & enjoying the sunshine a few weeks back.

Reading: Not much. Blogs. I seriously need to get to the library.

Watching: The boys play legos. We're heading to a holiday parade shortly.

Listening to: My crew is trying to sing "Some Nights", by Fun. They don't exactly know all of the words, which makes it especially comical.

Cooking/Baking: I didn't make much this weekend. My mom was in town, & we went out to lunch on Saturday. I made a chicken pesto pasta dish with parmesan & pine nuts last night, plus artichoke dip. Tonight I revived a chicken marsala casserole that I screwed up last week & then froze until I could appropriately fix it. My fix was a success. Love that, because otherwise I would have either thrown it out, or been forced to eat it.

Happy you accomplished this week: I'm 95% done with all of our holiday cards, & got the house decorated yesterday. Yes!

Looking forward to next week: M is traveling, but I really want to get back to my running schedule & hopefully take a pilates/barre class next week.

Thankful for today: My mom came to visit for the weekend, which was great. We had a fun afternoon. N & I went to a gingerbread house exhibit, & had fun together.

*Bonus Question* You receive a clothing gift from someone who is very close to you, but you absolutely HATE it. Yet you KNOW that they're going to expect you to wear the item & "can't wait to see you in it!!!" What do you do? - Yep, every year. I get one gift from my parents each year (pajamas). I love the tradition behind it (they've been getting me pajamas every year since I was born), but *ahem*, I don't wear pajamas to bed. Ever. They make me hot & crazy. Now, my mom has great taste & buys beautiful pajamas each & every year for me. And. . . I exchange them for something like a bra that I need. :-) She would never care.

Oh, & once my mother-in-law (who, is also fabulous, but not from the US) sent me something that closely resembled lingerie, but was apparently a shirt. She asked for me to wear it on a date with my husband. They were visiting. It was *way* outside of my comfort zone. But, I wore it as a camisole & paired it with a very conservative sweater once we were in the car.

Menu Plan for the next few weeks

M is traveling a ton over the next few weeks, & December is a bit of a busy travel/event month, so I thought I would plan a bit further ahead. Hopefully that will help reduce our grocery bills, save time, & eliminate any unexpected meals out. I'm also trying to clean out the freezer, so we start out 2013 with all fresh food, no mystery frozen dishes in the freezer. ;-)

I'm also planning a freezer cooking/restocking day towards the end of the month, to make January a little bit easier.

• Sunday, 12/2 - Spaghetti & meatballs (from the freezer)
• Monday, 12/3 - Leftovers (likely chicken pesto pasta from Saturday night's dinner)
• Tuesday, 12/4 - Chicken tacos
• Wednesday, 12/5 - Chicken marsala casserole (have the base of this frozen, but would like to make some additional mushroom sauce)
• Thursday, 12/6 - M out of town. I'll likely have a chicken taquito.
• Friday, 12/7 - I'm taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge, so we'll likely be eating pizza. :-)
• Saturday, 12/8 - Fiesta chicken casserole
• Sunday, 12/9 - Leftovers
• Monday, 12/10 - Butternut squash, chicken, pesto pasta (freezer)
• Tuesday, 12/11 - M out of town, so I think it will be sandwich night at the house.
• Wednesday, 12/12 - M out of town, so tacos for me + the kids (meat from the freezer)
• Thursday, 12/13 - M still out of town (long week :-()
• Friday, 12/14 - Butternut squash soup + goat cheese crostini + salad
• Saturday, 12/15 - attending nephew's birthday party.
• Sunday, 12/16 - I'm running a race this day, so something fast & easy. Maybe chicken quesadillas.
• Monday, 12/17 - Chicken pastina casserole
• Tuesday, 12/18 - M out of town, the kids & I will have leftovers.
• Wednesday, 12/19 - M out of town, we'll have chicken taquitos
• Thursday, 12/20 - M out of town, I'm making Baked Potato Soup
• Friday, 12/21 - Salmon for me + M, fish sticks for the kids
• Saturday, 12/22 - Homemade pizza (cheese for kids, goat cheese + pesto for the adults)
• Sunday, 12/23 - Freezer clean out. Inventory & eat anything still remaining :-)
• Monday, 12/24 - Christmas Eve. I believe we're having Maggiano's.
• Tuesday, 12/25 - Christmas dinner!
• Wednesday, 12/26 - We will be at the beach. Likely grilled chicken + pasta.
• Thursday, 12/27 - At the beach. Grilled burger + hot dogs for the kids.
• Friday, 12/28 - At the beach. Leftovers, and freezer clean out there.
• Saturday, 12/29 - Freezer stock/cooking day!
• Sunday, 12/30 - Shrimp Pad Thai
• Monday, 12/31 - New Year's Eve! I'm hoping to convince M to grill steaks & serve with sauteed mushrooms, mashed potatoes, & pomegranate martinis. :-) And, a flourless chocolate cake, of course!

Here's what I think I'll be prepping for the freezer:

1. Creamy parmesan orzo
2. Taco meat
3. Spaghetti sauce
4. Herbed chicken parmesan
5. Asian Edamame Fried Rice
6. Roasted potatoes, chicken sausage, & peppers

What are your cooking plans for December? Anyone else on a freezer cleanout, & minimal grocery plan? Freezer cooking as you look ahead to January?

And on to December

Last month of the year, & I still have quite a bit to accomplish on my 2012 yearly goals. Nothing like procrastination to get things moving. ;-)

Here are my goals for December:

1. Complete 1,000 minutes of cardio, 10 strength, & 5 stretch workouts.
2. Finish my 12K!
3. Decorate the house for the holidays, & mail all Christmas cards.
4. Lose 5 lbs (bringing me to 142).
5. Finalize 2013 goals & budget.
6. Have one date night with M.
7. Get together with two friends.
8. Update/amend our 2011 taxes based on the $16K repayment issue.
9. Stick to our December budget.
10. Clean out my closet & both boys closets.
11. Put together our will & guardianship (at least a draft).
12. Go to at least 5 holiday events with the kids! Lots of choices in our area - a parade that happens every night, a botanical garden decorated with lights, & a kids museum with a special gingerbread house exhibit.

How about you? Have you finalized your December goals? What are you planning for the last month of the year?