210 things to do in 2010

I started working on my 210 list of things to do after Christmas. Coming up with this list was a bigger challenge than I'd intended. I didn't come up with my entire list, and made my last point be to add to it as I think of things.

Here is my list! Each month, I'll let you know what's completed.

My 210 Things To Do in 2010
1. Make a "sticky basket" for my oldest when he gets his braces off
2. Send copy of baseball pictures to grandparents
3. Buy my mom a bird feeder for Mother's Day
4. Make a fast start to boys college fund and make monthly deposits
5. Send an extra $500 to the mortgage principal
6. Make a Will
7. Take an on-line defensive driving course
8. Make curtains for the kitchen
9. Finish journaling in my youngest son's baby album
10. Order blue seashell Christmas Cards from KL
11. Download stuff on my basement computer and upgrade
12. Bake yummy treats for family 24x
13. Keep up with daily spending on spreadsheet
14. Limit DR forum reading time to 15 minutes/day
15. Put out breakfast dishes/food before going to bed
16. Make school lunches, snacks, water bottles night before
17. Limit FB time to 15 minutes/day
18. Volunteer w/boys at church's Christmas shop
19. Go to see family in February
20. Make a fuss over Valentine's Day
21. Take boys for Well Visits using a new doctor
22. Schedule my well visit- DONE FEB.
23. Send copy of basketball pictures to grandparents - DONE 2/1
24. Top of emergency fund
25. Check credit report and credit scores
26. close boys Texas accounts
27. open account here for boys
28. organize and purge Favorite Recipes - DONE 2/9
29. Organize cabinet above dishwasher
30. Organize laundry room
31. Organize coat closet
32. Move photos on computer to a memory stick
33. Research prices for energy efficient kitchen appliances
34. Can we get Sirius to work inside the house?
35. Renew passport
36. Start my bucket list
37. Update Christmas card list and addresses
38. Determine who to send 2010 cards to
39. Clean out Tupperware drawer - DONE 2/5
40. Buy a year's worth of BDay cards & pre-address - DONE, BOUGHT CARDS Jan.
41. Replace master bath towels
42. Organize and update control journal
43. Take boys to Callaway Gardens while it's free admission
44. Clean out dresser in guest bedroom
45. Find a central location for "gift closet"
46. Cut back gardenia bushes before spring
47. Organize photos that I want to hang on walls - and artwork
48. Buy frames for pictures above and hang up on wall
49. use my spa gift card before 2-14-10 - DONE
50. create a playlist for Napa music - DIDN'T GET DONE
51. Get a shelf for the basement storage room
52. Complete 2009 family album
53. Make batches of salsa in summer
54. make batches of jalapeno jelly in summer
55. Spend time with family in June
56. Send gifts for Father's Day
57. Update boys school albums after May
58. Take Christmas Card photo in June while on vacation
59. Dip toes in the sand a drink 1/2 a beer
60. Make a big deal over St. Patrick's Day
61. Have budget ironed out by March 2010
62. Make sure DH goes for a physical
63. purge files in desk
64. Clean out linen closet in hall
65. Clean out linen closet in bathroom
66. Buy pot rack for kitchen
67. Make shower curtain for hall bath
68. Journal in Masters Album
69. Send note cards to MIL at Mother's Day
70. Complete "love drawer"
71. Complete 2008 family album
72. Purchase school days album for DS2
73. Create playlist for summer vacation
74. Clean out my closet 2x/year
75. Clean out DS1 2x/year
76. Clean out DS2 2x/year
77. Have DH clean out his closet 2x/year
78. Write weekly letter to grandmother
79. Send monthly note and pictures to parents
80. When company is having have all meals planned and food purchased
81. Monthly letters to niece in college
82. Make 12 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook
83. Limit fast food trips to 1x/week
84. Clean out TV cabinet in den
85. Give DH a monthly update on income/outgo
86. Be regular church goers
87. Stay current on church pledge
88. Get FIL 2011 family calendar for Christmas
89. Collect 25 goodies for Christmas countdown stockings
90. Buy Christmas gifts with cash
91. Make collage for Christmas card insert
92. make apple or jalapeno apple jelly in the fall
93. Send football pictures to grandparents
94. learn to hand-hook and make a pillow
95. Take family on hike to Amicalola Falls
96. Go to golf club one day for after school snack & homework - first pretty, warm Spring day
97. Paddle down the Chattahoochee with family this summer
98. Rent a beach house
99. Call best friends in Texas every other week
100. Track coupon savings
101. Have 100 no-spend days
102. Have 100 no-drive days
103. Lose 15 pounds this year
104. Pick up house completely every Friday afternoon
105. Keep bird feeders full
106. Keep myself accountable on blog
107. Light candles on Friday afternoons (after picking up)
108. Family Fun Night 4x/year
109. Ear mark $5000 for family vacation
110. Run 365 miles this year
111. Be able to do 12 pull ups by end of year
112. Take a yoga class
113. Take a spin class
114. Take a step class
115. read 50 books
116. Read the book Mere Christianity
117. Sign up to take surveys for money
118. Have 24 Water-Only days (to drink)
119. Have a no on-line shopping month
120. Start list of things I'm thankful for
121. Put sidebar trackers on blog - DONE 2/10
122. Have a no-TV day
123. Have a no-electricity day
124. Buy Rosetta Stone - begin learning Italian
125. Count change in jar and put towards a savings goal - Counted 2/5
126. Organize phone number/address binder
127. Go into city for good cheese/breads 2-3x/year
128. eat from freezer/pantry challenges
129. Contribute to on-line savings account (maybe slush fund?)
130. Table this things to do list until I have more...add to as something comes to mind!!!!

Now -- I've got some work to do! Will post tomorrow how I did with meeting some goals in January!

cutting expenses in 2010

okay -- last weekend I was working on our 2010 budget and had a significant shortfall. I cut expenses in several places and here are some of the main places we're saving money this year.

Clothing - cut back by $100 per person, to save $400
Entertainment - cut back by $600/year
Restaurants - Cut this in half to save $900/year. Plan to spend $100/month and have 3 months where we have No-Restaurant Challenges
Haircair - Instead of going every 4 weeks, I'll go every 5 weeks, saving $310
Golf - Save $200 by cutting out 6 rounds of golf
Boys allowance - Save $440 by giving lowering allowance to $25/month
Boys birthdays - Cut by $100
Gifts - lowered by $305
Christmas - cut by $1150

This saves us $4505 and there were a few other places that we trimmed also saving a couple of hundred here or there.

One thing I'm thinking of is cutting back on my cell phone. I don't use it much and I'm paying about $54/month. I can go to a prepaid account and save about $200/year. I'm thinking about this and trying to decide which way to go.

another no spend day

Woo Hoo! My 3rd no-spend day of the year! It's hard to blog on the weekend, so I'll update more on Monday!

food for thought

It's been a while since I've planned my menu for the week in advance. Here's what's cookin' at our house over the next few days!

Last night - Beef stew with potatoes, carrots, rice, fruit and crescent rolls
Tonight - Pork chops, rice, peas and garlic toast
Thursday - Spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs and garlic toast
Friday - Pulled pork tacos (for me and DH) and Sloppy Joes (for the kids)
Saturday - Cream of Poblano Chili Pepper Soup (for me and DH) and l/o Sloppy joes (kids)
Sunday - Ham, black eyed peas, potatoes, carrots, biscuits
Monday - Jambalaya w/beef
Tuesday - Beef tacos
Wednesday - Grilled chicken sandwiches and fruit
Thursday - Baked ziti and salad, bread
Friday - Beef and bean burritos

2010 financial goals

This weekend I've been trying to determine how to budget our 2010 income. It's quite disheartening to see that we've increased our life style quite substantially as our income has gone up. We've done a great job becoming debt free and also building our emergency fund. BUT...whew...we spend a lot of money.

My goal for this year is to begin saving 15% towards retirement. (While we were becoming debt free and building our EF we stopping retirement savings). I also was to make a fast-start to our children's college fund with a deposit of $12k and then save $100/month towards that. That brings my savings goal up to almost 22%. Oh, and I forgot that I want to top off our emergency fund. That brings the percentage to 27% of our gross income.

Well...I'm not sure how to get there. Or if we can. Budgeting, with just the 15% retirement savings and the $10,000 to go towards our EF, I have a shortfall in the budget of $5432.

Topping off the EF is a must. Also, DH's company matches his 401k at 6%, but he's only allowed to contribute 3%. So, the 3% going into his 401k is a keeper too. Today I'm crunching the numbers to see what we can do to cut back our lifestyle and to reach our savings goals.

what a productive day

Today was such a productive day! I finished getting our suitcases unpacked and everything put away. Laundry is caught up and put away. My bedroom is straightened and floor vacuumed. I CLEANED my oldest son's room and vacuumed. Made homemade cookies for an after school snack. Let the boys go back in the woods and didn't complain when the came in with mud COVERING their bodies, clothes and boots. (Who could complain when they were grinning from ear to ear -- they had a great time back there). What else? Got my youngest to basketball practice and was able to read part of my book (Picture Perfect). Dinner was a quick dinner - but made from home. And the greatest accomplishment of today - it was a NO SPEND DAY!!! Woo Hoo!!!

And something to add here that is on my 210 Things to Do in 2010...

What I'm greatful for today:
having a great yard and piece of land for exploring
making it thru my 2nd no spend day of the year

vacation spending

We took a reunion trip with some of our best friends to California's wine country. We rented a beautiful house in Calistoga (Bellisimo Vineyards) and spent 3 nights there. We spent 2 full days touring the wine country and eating quite well. We rented a limo bus one day and spent 6 1/2 hours on that -- so that was a bit pricey. We ate at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Market and Taylor's Refresher. All terrific restaurants. We visited 8 wineries/vineyards. All were remarkable! After we left wine country, my husband and I spent the rest of the day and night in San Francisco. Great time there too! And a great Italian restaurant for dinner...E'Tutto Qua. I anticipated the entire trip costing us about $3500. All in all, we spent about $3200.

Here's a breakdown of how we spent our money:
Flight - $0...we used miles to fly first-class from the east coast to the west coast
House - $610
rental car & gas - $219
Limo Bus - $284
Food - $728
San Francisco hotel - $164
parking in SF - $50
wine - $1050
Misc - $100

It was a great trip and just the right amount of being gone from home. Two full days with friends was a nice balance to the 2 days we had just the 2 of us. Can't wait to go back.

Cheers!

happy new year!

Happy New Year to you! Today is mine and DH's New Year's Day. After a whirlwind holiday season followed by a wonderful long weekend with friends, today is the start of our year with our regular routines. My amazing MIL was here with our children and left the house nice and orderly, so I don't have too much to do today other than unpack and our laundry from the trip. We're ready to get back on the wagon of eating well, losing some weight and saving some extra money. Looking forward to 2010!

I'm still working on 2010 goals and 210 things to do list. Will finish them this week and post.

I made it to Publix today for my coupon/stockpiling day. I did really well. I got several snacks to stockpile along with some vegetables and chicken. I spent $28.23 and saved $33.77. Love it when I save more than I spend!

normalcy...take me away!

How I look forward to some normalcy. I know not to expect it until we get back from vacation next week, so I'm trying not to freak out about it too much and just go with the flow. We're getting ready to leave for a wonderful trip with some of our best friends. 4 days in wine country! Needless to say...I won't have any no-spend or no-drive days this week.

I play the Grocery Game and shop at Publix, Kroger and RiteAid with my coupons. Today was my Publix coupon day (tomorrow I hit Kroger). I did pretty good today! Saved about 48%. My bill was $59.18 and I saved $55.55 in coupons/promotions.

Today I also got back on the tennis courts after SIX WEEKS!!! It was a cold, cold day, but it was sunny and it was fun! Didn't win, but had a great time and played well.

Today's spending:
Publix $59.18

my FIRST no spend day!!!

Woo Hoo!!!! FINALLY...I had my first no-spend day of the year. I'm so excited. I think the key will definitely be to pair my no drive and no spend days together. Seems that everyday I'm in the car, I'm running errands and spending money. Today, the only place I had to drive was to my tennis lesson and I could've certainly taken the golf cart for that instead of the car

Not sure when my next no-spend day will be. Probably late next week. Tomorrow and Thursday I have to prep to leave for vacation and will be on vacation until Tuesday. Lots of spending will be going on...

tracking

The kids were out of school today because of the ice and snow. And I had a haircut -- so no no-spend day today.

Here goes...

$11 - lunch for me and the boys
$125 - haircut, color, tip

The kids had fun being out of school and I made some progress getting the Christmas decorations taken down and put away. Should be finished by the time they go back to school on Monday!

I got an iTunes gift card for Christmas and have had a great time spending it today. I wish I could say I was thinking ahead and saved some for later. It was for $25 and I have $7 left, but there are still songs left that i want to download. I think I'll have to ask for another card for my birthday. They're so much fun to use!

no spending days

My goal is to have a certain amount of NO SPENDING days during 2010. I haven't decided on a number yet, but I was originally thinking around 100. I'm realizing that NO SPENDING days are going to have to be carefully planned. Each day this week there has been something that I've needed to spend money for...groceries, groceries, haircut, sports photos, etc. I'm anxious to set this goal, because I think by making this commitment to NO SPENDING days, I'll see some of the "bleeding" decrease in our bank account.

I didn't make it as a No Spend Day today, but here is my tracking...

$24.59 - Rite Aid for OTC medicines ($7 should be coming back in rebates)
$40 - Kroger/CardSmart for birthday cards for 2010.

new favorite blog

I found a new blog (not NEW, but new to me) called Saving4Later and I just love it. I love the author's personal accountability and her no-spend days. Also she has so many to-do lists and goals. I'm incorporating her ideas into my everyday life. Staring today.