Tuesday, May 1, 2012

April update on my yearly goals

Pin It    It's this time of the year again. It's going to be my 4th update on yearly goals. I think it's the longest I've ever stuck to any plans,resolutions etc. that I made around the New Year. Thank you for all your support, my dear friends!

1. Blog at least 15 times every month. Done! I blogged 22 times in April. It's a definite decrease comparing with the first quarter of the year but the weather is nice, and I just spend more time outside with the kids right now :)

2. Have a "money meeting" at least once a month with my husband. Totally nailed it!! In April Hubby decided to create his own budget, and it actually got him pretty excited about keeping it. We skipped one week but bounced back, and now we actually have weekly financial meetings. It really helps him us to see where our money goes. And it's a huge progress! We are having another meeting tonight to plan our budget for May.

3. Save enough to pay for Christmas with cash. Right on track! I did a few secret shopping assignments in April but only got paid for 2 so far. I will put all of this money towards Christmas gifts. I also did 3 surveys with Pinecone Research (got $9). And as usual, we put another monthly $20 into this account. So far we have $197.83 saved. I plan to put a little more into this account next month too because I will get some cash back from our credit card (that we pay off every month).

4. Save as much as we can for a minivan. Can you see how excited I am?? Thanks to our tax returns we are doing so great with this one. We actually have $7762.41 We really hope to get this account to $8500 in May

5. De-clutter 366 things this year. Nah. I really didn't do anything in April...I'm ashamed! But I plan to de-clutter quite a bit in May (read ORGANIZE the garage!) and I have a huge bag ready for our Church clothes swap in a couple of weeks.

6. Keep track of our food waste. Done! We only wasted $1.95 worth of food in April. I love this number!

7. Start putting again some money for retirement. Failed yet again:( We (read, husband) still didn't figure out our situation with a few different accounts. We closed one so far, and moving very little money that's in there to Roth IRA this week but that's it so far.

8. Have 1 date night every month with my husband. Done, done, done!! This month we opted out for a simple "Movie Night" in a comfort of our own home:


 We made fat-free popcorn, drank water (!!!) from our movie theater refill cups and watched "Letters to Juliet". We picked up this movie  in Walmart day after Black Friday for like $2 but never had a chance to watch it. And it was really good, so sweet,  romantic and clean! You don't see many movies now where it's not all sex or violence. I highly recommend this movie for those of you who had never seen it before. I was pleasantly surprised! And we really needed a light date like this :)


9. Lose 12 lbs in 2012. Nah. I have these floating 2 pounds that I lose/gain all the time but nothing else. On the other hand, I did start exercising more regularly in April, and I love the feeling of my body getting stronger and more toned. I didn't lose much but I surely lost a few inches. My jeans are gonna start falling off of me very soon...And my arms and shoulders surely look much better. I'm not ready for a swim season yet but I'm working on it :) I did lose our bet with my Hubby in April :( I missed two exercises and forgot to take 2 vitamins :( He only forgot about his vitamins once, and stayed true to his exercise regimen. He also lost 4 pounds. So he gets $20 this time...But it's not over yet!We are doing it again in May!!

10. Read 12 books this year. Kind of passed. I honestly have only read 1 book in April and it was a reread.

11. Write in my journal at least once a week. Nope I only wrote two times but it's still a lot more than I did a year ago.

12.  Create mini-goals every month through out the year. Yep! My mini-goals in April were mostly fitness ones, and I definitely progressed. May goals are coming up tomorrow!

How are your goals so far? Are you still on track, or is it more monthly goals (or no goals?) for you  now?

13 comments:

  1. Don't sweat the small stuff, as you are doing so wonderful, Lena. I can't seem to put a stop to those 2 floating pounds either ! Congrats on your "win" over at Nanny's Place ... lovely gift for you.

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    1. Oh,dear Cindy, the only thing I sweat about is my weight:) Literally, pun intended :) The rest, I'm just glad I'm mostly progressing, and that's a good thing.

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  2. I can't remember my goals from New Year's. I'm thinking that's a bad sign. But I'm accomplishing a lot more now that spring is here.

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    1. That's awesome! I hope to be able to accomplish more in May too. I really enjoy spring time right now!

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  3. WOW, way to go!!! I need to do a little check up around here as well. I know we are on track with our spending and savings as I have most of that on auto draft but personal goals, not so much!!

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    1. I think that's why I update here every month. Usually I would forget about my yearly goals by March. But this blog helps me to stay on track :)

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  4. You're doing great Lena, you'll have enough money for the minivan so soon :)

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  5. Getting the Hubs on the same page with the money is a real BIG one! Congrats and you are Killing it!! ;-)

    Don't worry about the decluttering....you've got 8 more months to knock that one out.

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    1. Yeah, decluttering is hard for me :) I guess I like stuff too much :)But I'm working on it!

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  6. I've altered some of my goals by paying off my line of credit now instead of taking another year to do so. But I'm glad it's GONZO!

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    1. That is awesome, Jane!! Congratulations!

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  7. You did awesome Lena. You have so much to be proud about.

    I on the other hand, have to play catch up. I didn't nail any of my 2012 goals in April so I have to make up for that this month.

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