January updates on my yearly goals

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   Now that January is officially over, I wanted to give you a first update on my yearly goals. I plan to do it every month to prove you that I'm fully intended to achieve them this year!!
So my 12 in 2012  were:

1. Blog at least 15 times every month. Done!  I blogged 38 times in January.

2.  Have a "money meeting" at least once a month with my husband. This one is kind of passed. We didn't really have the official Big meeting but we had a few short ones just to see our current state. Our Excel on the cmputer has been acting out lately, so we can't access our monthly budget, so I was trying to write down all our expenses in my notebook. I think,we did good this month but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

3.Save enough to pay for Christmas with cash. We are definitely on the right track. We put our monthly $20 into ING, I did 2 surveys and made $6, and we also got $26.38 in cash back from some online shopping last year. So so far we have $52.38 in our Christmas fund or about 9% of our goal (see the updated progress bar). We should get more cash back in February too (from our TV purchase from Walmart right before Black Friday. It was my Hubby's graduation gift, and we got a price of Black Friday for the same TV but a better sound system two days before Thanksgiving!!!)

4. Save as much as we can for a minivan. Getting there. Between all of the kiddos being sick, I didn't babysit much in January (and that is our main income to save for a minivan) but we used a part of my Hubby's bonus to put aside. So we put $300 from his bonus and $150 from me babysitting. Still need to update our progress bar.

5.De-clutter 366 things this year. I gave away, recycled, threw away 38 different things. Not bad! And with Carla's challenge in February, I should add at least 29 more to this list.

6. Keep track of our Food Waste. Done! But nothing really to be proud of, considering how much food we threw away in January. Hopefully, February will be better.

7.Start putting away some money for retirement again. FAIL!  Didn't even look into it :(

8. Have 1 date night every month with my husband. FAIL :( We had it planned but then Baby got sick, and after that something would just always come up. But we already told my parents that when they come, we leave them with  grandkids for half of a day and spent some time together!!!

9. Lose 12 pounds in 2012. I lost 2 so far. And I'm pretty happy with the result!!! If I keep going like this, I'll double my yearly goal :) But in all honesty, 2 pounds is not much but I'm OK with that. I haven't done anything in the first 2 weeks when Baby was sick but I've been exercising pretty regularly in the last two weeks. I do some very moderate cardio, and  barely started using our exercise bike. I deeply hate running, especially in winter but I think, I will start doing some running/walking in spring. I also try to make better choices in food and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. I like what I do right now because it's something I can stick with!

10. Read 12 books this year. I've read 1. I don't really have time to read right now (or maybe, I just spend all my extra time reading your guys' blogs? :)), so I usually read in a bathroom. Yeah, yeah, I know... So in January I've read "LEARNING TO SWIM" by Sara J. Henry. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The opening chapter was great but the whole plot was somewhat predictable. The romance between the main characters had an unexpected turn. But I enjoyed emotional side of the book. I think, it's a great first book and definitely was worth my time. I just expected a little more of a  twist from a mystery novel. But hey, I grew up on Agatha Christie, and not that many authors ( if any) can  be compared to her!!

11. Write in my journal at least once a week. EPIC FAIL!! Don't even want to go there...I didn't  touch my journal...I'm ashamed!

12.Create mini-goals every month through out the year. Good so far!

  So here's where I am right now. There is definitely plenty to work on but I'm doing fine overall. Now I probably need to go and write it in my journal...