Monday, December 5, 2011

december goals



What a busy time of year!  My goals for the month are going to be simple.  Especially since I'm still tackling my November to-do's!  Mainly the $$.  I hope to finish up our November expenses today and will see how we did.  I know we had an awfully spendy month -- some budgeted and some not.  I'm hoping that once I see it all on paper it won't be as bad as I think it is.

Anyway -- for DECEMBER goals!

FINANCES

Track spending.
After the month of December I will have tracked our expenses for a solid 12 months!  I'm so excited about this y'all!   In the past several years, I'm always gung-ho in January and will track expenses until March/April.  It happens that way every year!  So, this will be the first time ever that we know exactly where our money went for an entire year.  So, until the end of December, I won't finalize our 2012 budget.  I really want to be realistic about what we can do and what we will allow ourselves to do.  Through tracking I'm learning so many things...like $600/month for groceries and household items isn't enough.  For our family it needs to be somewhere around $1000/month.  Also, we don't need $100/month budgeted for Entertainment.  We normally don't spend that much.

Christmas Gifts.
Don't go over my budgeted amount.  We budgeted a significant amount of $ towards Christmas and there is no reason for us to go over.  To do so would be over indulging. 

PERSONAL

Be mindful of Food, Drink and Exercise.
I started to write down very specific goals for this, but it's December and I'm being honest with myself.  I'm not where I'd hoped to be with weight loss and this isn't the time of year for me to have a specific goal.  With the busyness and temptations that come along with Christmas, it's unrealistic of me to think I'll start losing weight this month.  So, my goal is to make good choices and continue meeting my friends to exercise in the mornings as much as possible.  I will make week-to-week goals for this, but my main goal is to not gain weight.  I think I'm at 143# now and I'd like to end the year at the same # or lower.

My Blog.
My blogging has been a bit sporadic and I'd like to challenge myself to blog 4 days a week.

Vacations.
Make lodging reservations for Italy.
Complete at least 10 lessons of Rosetta Stone.
Make reservations for one-on-one trip Washington D.C.
Make reservations for one-on-one trip ski trip.
Come up with 3 vacation ideas for Mr. Steady's companies Award Trip

FAMILY

Christmas Guests.
My mother-in-law is coming to spend 5 or 6 days with us and I'd like to have our meals planned and prepped as much before she arrives.   I'm hoping my sister and nephew come too and I'd like to do the same!   

Christmas Traditions:
Make cookies for Santa before 7pm on Christmas Eve!
Make Gingerbread houses with the kids!
Drive around and see Christmas lights!
Finish my Advent Stockings (5 days late...I know!)


So - that's it in a nutshell.  I've have more things to add on my weekly to-do list, but this is really what I WANT, WANT, WANT to accomplish for the month.  Especially the travel stuff!

Have your goals for the month?  Did you scale back a bit on yours, realizing it's a busy month?





3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hope you accept the Liebster award I've nominated you for.

I LOVE YOUR GOALS!

you are an inspiration.

Sft x

Anonymous said...

Love your goals! Good luck :)

Hawaii Planner said...

Love the goals! A nice mix, and sounds like the right balance for the month.

I tried to be realistic with mine, and cut my list to 10. We'll see. ;-)